Compensation in Discrimination Claims

Compensation in Unfair Dismissal Claims

Our specialist Employment Lawyers are experts in advising on what compensation an employee might expect to recover if they make a claim for unfair dismissal, drafting the Schedule of Loss and negotiating to achieve a settlement out of Court or at Tribunal.

Potential remedies in a successful claim for unfair dismissal include:

Order for reinstatement: This is an order that the employer shall treat the employee in all respects as if he had not been dismissed. In reality, orders for reinstatement are extremely rare. However, when an employee asks for reinstatement and the employer unreasonably refuses, the Tribunal have a discretion to award additional compensation (either 26 or 52 weeks pay).

Order for re-engagement: This is an order that the employee be engaged by the employer in comparable employment to that from which he was dismissed or other suitable employment.

Where reinstatement or re-engagement are ordered, the employee will only be entitled to compensation for loss of wages to the date of reemployment taking place and will not be entitled to a basic award.

Tribunal Compensation

Basic award:

You will be awarded with one week’s pay for each year of employment with the employer. This is increased to one and a half week’s pay for each year of employment over the age of 41 and is decreased to half a week’s pay for each year under the age of 22.

The maximum amount of a week’s pay is currently £489 (effective from April 2017) and the maximum number of years to take account of is 20.

The amount of the basic award must not be less than £5,000 where the Claimant was dismissed for certain protected reasons including ‘union related’ reasons, health and safety related or activities as a work place representative.

Loss of statutory rights:

This is designed to compensate you for the fact that when you gain new employment you will not have statutory rights such as protection from unfair dismissal until you have reached two years service. This award is normally equal to one week’s gross pay.

Compensatory award:

This element is designed to put you in the position that you would have been in, but for the dismissal. You can therefore claim:

1. Any expenses reasonably incurred in consequence of the dismissal and search for alternative work;
2. Any loss of employment benefits that you would have had but for the dismissal (e.g. health benefits, bonus schemes);
3. Loss of wages from date of dismissal (or end of notice period) to the date of either 1) finding a new job, or 2) a date into the future when the Tribunal finds it is likely you will have found a new job. The calculation will be based on net pay and will take into account any sums you have earned since your dismissal.
4. Any compensation may be increased by up to 25% if your employer unreasonably failed to comply with the ACAS Code of Practice. But compensation may also be decrease by up to 25% if you unreasonably failed to comply with the Code.
5. There is a statutory cap applied to the maximum amount of compensation recoverable.  It is subject to a maximum of 52 weeks gross earnings or £80,541 (effective from 6 April 2017), whichever is the smaller.

Any compensation payable will be subject to your duty to mitigate your losses. In essence if the Tribunal believes that you did not make enough effort to find another job, it will reduce your compensation to what it believes is just and equitable in the circumstances.

The amount of compensation awarded may be reduced if the employer is successful in arguing either that your conduct contributed to the dismissal or if the Tribunal is satisfied that notwithstanding a procedurally unfair dismissal you would have been dismissed in any event.

Our Employment Advice Services

Our expert team of Employment Law solicitors will be able to assist you by: –

1. Drafting your Schedule of Loss for you, which will maximise your claim for compensation;
2. Advising you on the actual level of compensation that you are likely to recover in your individual circumstances and taking into account the factors which might lead a Tribunal to reduce the compensation;
3. Carrying out a costs/benefits analysis to enable you to make an informal decision on your options;
4. Undertake negotiations with your opponent to achieve a settlement outside of formal Court or Tribunal proceedings; and
5. Represent you at a formal remedies hearing in a Court or Tribunal.

We are able to offer very competitive rates and fixed fee packages for our work. All our initial advice is provided by qualified solicitors and offered for free, so please call us on 0844 800 9860 or request a call back through our website.

We are able to offer very competitive rates and fixed fee packages for our work. All our initial advice is provided by qualified solicitors and offered for free, so please call us on 0844 800 9860 or request a call back through our website.