Employee-favourable
2026
If your employer never properly deals with your appeal against dismissal, that can make the dismissal unfair, even where the underlying reason for it was genuine.
Being called to a sickness absence meeting is unsettling, especially if you are still unwell. No decision has been made yet. Here is what your employer has to do before deciding anything, and what to ask for at the meeting itself.
Unfair dismissal isn't about who was right. It's about whether your employer's decision and process met a specific legal test for reasonableness.
Employer-favourable
1977
Tribunals give employers genuine room to judge whether a manager is up to the job. That latitude only holds if concerns were raised with you over time and alternatives were properly considered.
Employer-favourable
1973
A fair capability dismissal turns on whether you were clearly warned your job was at risk before the decision was made, not on whether the performance concerns were genuine.
Employer-favourable
1978
Dismissal on capability grounds requires a genuine and reasonably held belief that the employee cannot perform to the required standard, based on proper investigation, not simply an incident or a disagreement about performance.
Employee-favourable
2024
An employer cannot strip your rights by calling a meeting informal. You are entitled to know what a meeting is about before you attend it.
Employer-favourable
2021
A final written warning behind your dismissal is rarely reopened by a tribunal. The question is usually whether the dismissal itself was reasonable, not whether the warning was fair.
Employee-favourable
2017
The employer must have genuinely engaged with the medical evidence and considered the full circumstances. Only then can a decision to dismiss be fair. Prolonged absence does not by itself justify dismissal for ill-health capability.
Employer-favourable
1983
In an unfair dismissal claim, the test is not what the tribunal would have decided but whether your employer’s decision was one a reasonable employer could have made. Process failures are often where employers fall outside the range.
Employee-favourable
1990
Before a disciplinary hearing, you were entitled to know what you were accused of, to see the evidence being used against you, and to have a genuine opportunity to respond. If those things did not happen, the process was not fair.
Employee-favourable
1987
If you were made redundant without warning or consultation, you were denied something you were legally entitled to. A genuine redundancy situation does not make an unfair process acceptable.
