Frequently Asked Questions

This is a possibility if there are valid legal reasons for your proposed redundancy. However, women on maternity leave should be prioritised by employers in terms of their attempts to mitigate redundancies and in most circumstances be offered any vacancies first. Bumping may even be considered to retain the pregnant or new mother in the business. Check out our blogs on redundancy, Sham redundancy and guidance here.

There should be no premeditated decision from the chairperson of the disciplinary hearing. However if you have been informed, normally in your invitation letter, that one of the outcomes from the hearing could be dismissal then you must consider this as a possibility. Check out our free guide which will help you prepare for a disciplinary meeting. Get the Disciplinary Meeting Checklist here.

• the name(s) of your employer and your name

• the date when your employment began, and if relevant, the date on which your period of continuous employment began (taking into account any employment with a previous employer which counts towards that period). This point will be relevant if you transfer from another employer.

• the scale or rate of your pay or the method of calculating pay

• the intervals at which it will be paid (that is, weekly, monthly or other specified intervals)

• any terms and conditions relating to hours of work (including any terms and conditions relating to normal working hours)

• your entitlement to holidays, including public holidays, and holiday pay (specifying how holiday pay is calculated)

• any provision for sick pay

• pensions and pension schemes

• the length of notice which you are obliged to give and the notice you will be entitled to receive if your employer elects to terminate your contract of employment

• Your job title or a brief description of the work you will be/are employed to do

• where your employment is not intended to be permanent, the period for which it is expected to continue or, if it is for a fixed term, the date when it is due to end

• either your workplace or where you are required or permitted to work if at various places and an indication of that and of the address of your employer

• Any disciplinary rules and procedure applicable to your employment or a reference to a document (that should be accessible to you) if the full rules and procedures are not contained in your contract of employment. This should specify who you can appeal to in the event you are unhappy with any disciplinary decision including a dismissal decision

• Your contract should also specify a person who you can apply to if you have a grievance and how that should be done or if this is not explicit a reference of where you can access a policy on how to make a grievance and the employer procedure on this

• If you are required to work outside the UK for a period of more than one month or not, if you are, it should state; the period for which you will work outside the UK and the currency you will be paid in whilst working outside the UK and any additional remuneration payable and any benefits to be provided in respect to being required to work outside the UK, and any terms and conditions relating to your return home

• any collective agreements which directly affect the terms and conditions of your employment including, where the employer is not a party, the persons by whom they were made. Collective agreements refer to any recognised union in the work place

It is possible for you to be disciplined for sickness depending on how your employer deals with absence. It may be that you receive a warning for persistent absence or for failing to follow the notification procedure. If you do not believe that the warning is fair you should be able to challenge the disciplinary warning by raising an appeal. Check out our training course on how to do this.

A formal warning is where you have been;

1. Informed in writing of a hearing with at least 48 hours notice.

2. Had the right to be accompanied at the hearing.

3. Attended a hearing and notes of the meeting were taken.

4. Received notice of the warning in writing.

If you employer has not followed this process they have not been following the ACAS Code of Practice (read more here), which is a minimum requirement for a disciplinary warning to be valid and thus your warning or dismissal might be unlawful. You should appeal your unlawful disciplinary warning. Consider our training course on how to do this here.