As an employer, you’ll never want to have to write a dismissal letter. Dismissing someone is a thankless part of the remit for anyone managing staff, but it’s important to get it right. Failing to follow a fair process or stumbling on your documentation could easily mean your business faces a potentially damaging litigation. Luckily,...
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As an employer, you’ll never want to have to write a dismissal letter. Dismissing someone is a thankless part of the remit for anyone managing staff, but it’s important to get it right.
Failing to follow a fair process or stumbling on your documentation could easily mean your business faces a potentially damaging litigation.
Luckily, Employer Advice provides a free, pre-constructed template for business owners to utilise which helps ease the stress of dismissing employees.
This article covers everything you need to know about writing and handling a dismissal letter. You can skip straight to the download here.
Of course, if you need more immediate support, why not contact our expert team at Employer Advice.
If one of your employees is found to have committed gross misconduct, following an investigation and fair process, then as an employer, you are within your rights to dismiss them. A dismissal might also arise if an employee has been given various warnings, which have gone unheeded
Dismissing an employee is simply ending that employee’s contract of employment with your organisation.
That said, even if you have conducted a thorough investigation and you’ve got ample evidence backing your decision to dismiss your employee, it can still be a stressful experience.
Once a decision has been reached to dismiss an employee then it is good practice to notify them in writing using a dismissal letter. When an employee has 2 years’ service then they are entitled to request and be given a written statement giving particulars of the reasons for dismissal.
If an employee dismissed whilst pregnant or during maternity/adoption leave they must also be given written reasons, regardless of their length of service. Outside of these circumstances then it’s good practice to use a dismissal letter.
To reduce the stress of a dismissal, we’ve put together a sample employee dismissal letter and included an example scenario.
Firstly, let’s examine what behaviour would constitute a dismissal.
Dismissal is a disciplinary action whereby an employer chooses to terminate an employee’s contract of employment.
There are instances where an employee can be dismissed with immediate effect, but employers must be aware that there are certain procedures to follow.
Failure to do so could lead to a potential claim against your organisation for unfair dismissal.
In order for an action to be considered a serious breach of contract, employers must remember to provide sufficient evidence.
This is both for the action itself and the fair process that has been conducted.
A dismissal letter is a formal document explaining the decision to dismiss an employee. The document should be handed to an employee within a reasonable timeframe following their dismissal and should outline the factual circumstances and the reasons for the decision.
Please note, that if legally requested to give a statement, you must do so withing 14 days.
The letter will include a date, and you must outline that they have the right to appeal.
Although it is not always a legal obligation to produce a dismissal letter, it is important that you follow the terms of your employment contracts.
Often an employment contract will include terms stating that notice of termination needs to be in writing.
Despite this, a dismissal letter is an important document for many reasons. The biggest of which tends to be the fact that a letter provides a level of certainty for both employer and employee that the dismissal is going to take effect.
In effect, the letter helps avoid misinterpretations.
If you take the decision to dismiss an employee you must make sure you have followed fair process, utilising the ACAS code of practice. There must be fair reasons, based on any or all of the following:
Not all conduct-related dismissals are gross misconduct. Conduct covers a range of issues such as:
If you have a member of staff who falls into any of those categories, then dismissal might be an option. You need to ensure that the whole process is fair if you decide on contract termination.
Fair process usually means flowing through with warnings before getting to dismissal unless it is so serious it amounts to gross misconduct (where might go straight to dismissal) after full investigation and disciplinary.
Dismissing someone for capability means that a member of staff doesn’t have the ability, skillset or qualifications to undertake the role they were hired for.
A tribunal might deem a dismissal unfair if you haven’t proved two things:
Sometimes a decision to let go of an employee has nothing to do with their performance of conduct. Redundancy could be due to their job no longer being required because of the business downsizing or departmental closure.
One thing to be aware of as an employer is you will leave yourself open to litigation if you make an employee redundant and then hire someone else to fulfil the same role. Redundancy means that the job is made redundant, not the person.
You would summarily dismiss an employee when you terminate their employment, without a notice period or pay in lieu of notice. You will still need to carry out a full investigation and disciplinary hearing to ensure fair procedure is followed.
This is normally because of gross misconduct such as theft of company property, fraud or violence.
A statutory restriction is when an employee isn’t able to continue working due to statutory restrictions.
For example, if the employee is required to drive for their job and they lose their license.
Although there is some ambiguity here, this is intentional. SOSR refers to any situation where an employee is dismissed on grounds that don’t fit into any of the above categories.
In short, yes you can, as long as there is a fair reason. Employers are able to dismiss a member of staff whilst they are in a probationary period.
The only time an employment tribunal may rule in favour of an employee is in an instance where the reasons are automatically unfair.
Otherwise, an employee would need to have been in continuous employment for two years to bring an unfair dismissal claim against you.
As you would expect, your dismissal letter must inform the employee why their contract has been terminated.
Wrongful dismissal is a common claim at an employment tribunal. As an employer, you need to be vigilant when it comes to your processes.
You can face litigation if you break the terms of your employment contract when dismissing an employee.
Often, the breach is related to notice period terms, whether they are contractual or statutory requirements by UK law.
There are, however, many things to be wary of when it comes to wrongful dismissal. These include:
You should also make sure that once an employee has been dismissed you adhere to any contractual terms.
This might include things like making sure they are allowed to work any notice.
Bear in mind that things like right to holiday pay, right to appeal and right to a dismissal letter are statutory rights and contractually they may be entitled to more than the statutory level.
Employer Advice is an expert advice service dedicated to supporting UK businesses. We only offer support to employers so you can be assured that we uphold your organisation’s best interests.
If you have challenges in your business with producing a dismissal letter, then why not contact our team of dedicated HR and employment law experts or download our dismissal letter template.
With over 80 years of experience in helping employers take the stress of handling their HR and employment law obligations. Get in touch with one of the Employer Advice experts on 0800 470 0613.