Non-compliance with statutory dismissal procedure

The Employment Appeals Tribunal has held that there is no free-standing right to bring a claim before a tribunal for breach of the statutory procedures.

The claimant lacked the one-year qualifying period for claiming unfair dismissal. Nevertheless, he argued that he could bring a claim for breach of the statutory dismissal procedure, as contained in the Employment Act 2002. HHJ McMullen QC upheld the tribunal's decision to strike out his claim.

This decision is plainly correct and one would have thought relatively uncontroversial. However, the surprising number of times one sees claimants running this argument in correspondence makes this case a useful piece of ammunition in rebuttal.

This document is for general guidance and research purposes only, and does not purport to give professional advice. Please check the date at the top of the article; the Workplace Law Network retains historic articles for general research.