Employment Dispute
What is an employment dispute?
The term covers all sorts of issues that you might have at work. Anything that you might consider complaining to your boss (or about your boss) about, including mistreatment from management, colleagues, third parties and even customers, where your employer didn’t do enough to prevent or resolve it.
How are employment disputes settled?
You can resolve a workplace dispute in several ways, depending on the severity of the dispute and what area of your statutory or contractual rights are affected.
Most disputes begin with an informal complaint, or raising a grievance. In some employment disputes you may be able to skip the grievance stage, and in others, raising a grievance may cause you more hassle than its worth. Our expert employment law advisors can help you compose a formal grievance letter, or, make an initial assessment on the prospects of your claim.
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Types of employment disputes
If you cannot resolve your employment dispute using your employer’s internal grievance process, the next steps may differ slightly depending on what type of dispute you have. This can be trickier to determine than it might first seem.
Discrimination Disputes
You’ve been subject to detriment, as a result of a protected characteristic. This might be direct, or a policy which affects everyone with your characteristic. It also includes victimisation - being treated unfairly because you have or might be expected to report discrimination.
Dismissal Disputes
You’ve been fired, and it wasn’t fair. This may be a case of potentially unfair dismissal. However, it could in fact be wrongful or constructive dismissal. This will depend on the circumstances of the termination of your employment:
| You were dismissed as a result of exercising your legal rights. For example:
| You were dismissed, or made redundant, without following proper procedure (your contract was breached). For example:
| You were forced to resign by your employer or their conduct. For example:
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Harassment Disputes
Harassment is defined as unwelcome verbal or physical behaviour based on a protected characteristic. If the harassment is not based on a protected characteristic, then it will be classed as bullying, which you can bring a claim for in some cases, though it relies on a different aspect of employment law, see more below.
Pay Disputes
Here's where it can get really tricky.
- If your employer is under paying you - this may be unlawful deduction of wages.
- If your employer withholds your bonus you might also have a claim under breach of contract, discrimination, or even no claim at all.
- If your employer withholds your notice pay, redundancy pay, or holiday pay, after you leave your job, you may also have a claim for wrongful dismissal
- If your employer has been paying a member of the opposite sex better pay, for equal work, you pay have an equal pay claim, under sex discrimination
Escalating an employment dispute
As you can see, employment disputes must be handled correctly once they progress to a legal dispute. It is not enough to simply be right.
Once you understand which part of the law your employment dispute relates to, you can escalate the dispute to tribunal.
Where can I seek help on employment issues?
We offer a huge amount of free information regarding all sorts of employment disputes in our news section, in the top banner.
We also work with an excellent selection of panel solicitors who can help you, from case assessment, to settlement review and negotiation, to managing your claim and representing you at court or tribunal.
If you need fast, frank advice from an employment law specialist, you can book in fixed fee services with our legal advisors, in the next working day. If you have to bring a claim to tribunal yourself, your Employment Law Friend is here to get you expert advice at the crucial moments along the way, to give you a fighting chance of beating the big dog.
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