WRONGFUL DISMISSAL 

Wrongful dismissal, unfair dismissal and constructive dismissal have distinct legal meanings. 

 

A dismissal may be wrongful if your employer has breached the terms of your contract by dismissing you. It is based purely on contractual terms. A dismissal is unfair if there was no legally fair reason to dismiss you. 

One of the most common wrongful dismissal claims is where an employer has dismissed their employee without giving the statutory or contractual notice. However, this doesn’t mean that the dismissal is automatically wrongful. An employer is entitled to summarily dismiss (dismiss without notice) the employee if they have committed an act of gross misconduct, such as theft or fraud. 

 

An employer may have a Payment In Lieu of Notice (PILON) clause in their contract of employment. This allows the employer to dismiss the employee without giving notice by paying them the money they would have earned if they had worked their notice. Even if there is no PILON provision in the contract of employment an employer can still make a payment in lieu of notice. In these circumstances, if the employee has been put into the position they would have been in if they had worked their notice, then a claim for wrongful dismissal is likely to fail.