How is the basic award for unfair dismissal calculated
Your basic award is calculated based on various factors, these being your length of service at the date of dismissal, your age at the date of dismissal and your gross weekly salary.
PLEASE NOTE: In all scenarios you will have needed to work for the company for more than 2 years, unless your claim relates to automatic unfair dismissal, discrimination or whistleblowing.
-
- If you are older than 41 at the date of dismissal you will receive 1.5 weeks pay (this is capped at £475/week gross) for every full year you have worked over the age of 41 plus 1 weeks pay for every year you have worked below the age of 41. The number of years worked is capped at 20
-
- If you are younger than 41 but older than 22 at the age of dismissal, you multiply the number of full years worked (capped at 20) by 1 and then multiply this figure by your gross weekly pay (this is capped at £475/week gross).
- If you are younger than 22 at the age of dismissal, you multiply the number of full years worked (capped at 20) by 0.5 and then multiply this figure by your gross weekly pay (this is capped at £475/week gross).
Your compensatory award
In addition to this, you may be awarded a compensatory award, however this cannot be calculated so easily as it depends on various factors which the Employment Tribunal will consider based on various factors. These include:
- Future loss of earnings;
- Immediate loss of earnings;
- Loss of your employment rights;
- Loss of benefits and pension rights;
Other factors to consider
If your dismissal relates to any of the following, your compensation can be unlimited:
- Health and Safety grounds. ie if you raise a health and safety concern and are subsequently dismissed for it;
- Whistleblowing. ie if you make a protected disclosure – please see our whistleblowing page for more details on this;
- Discrimination. ie if you have been discriminated against on the grounds of your sex, age, race, disability etc.
Potential reductions to your award
There are other factors that the tribunal will consider when making an award, these include reductions for:
- Any money already paid to the employee after they have been dismissed;
- If the employee has contributed in any way to their dismissal;
- If the tribunal considers that, despite the procedural errors by the employer, the employee would have been dismissed anyway. This is called a “Polkey reduction”;
- If the employee has failed to mitigate their loss. ie they have made little or no effort to find other work;
- If an employee fails to comply with the ACAS code.
Redundancy
If you have been made redundant, please see our redundancy calculator to find out what you should be paid if you are made redundant.
Contact us now
If you have been unfairly dismissed please contact us now on 0800 756 6605 or 020 3923 4777. Alternatively, you can submit your details via our quick and simple enquiry form or if you need to speak with a lawyer urgently you can make a Talk to Tom priority appointment.
[maxbutton id=”1″]
————————————————————————–
Further information on Unfair Dismissal
Tom Street qualified as a solicitor in 2003 and has over 20 years experience in employment and litigation law. He studied law at the University of Manchester before undertaking the legal practice course at the College of Law in Guildford, going on to complete his legal training at a firm in Chancery Lane, London. Once fully qualified, he moved to a niche litigation practice in the City of London.
In 2010, Tom set up his own legal practice, Tom Street & Co Solicitors and as part of this, in accordance with his strongly held objective to provide everyone with an easy pathway to justice he established the online portals Do I Have A Case? and Tribunal Claim. These websites are trading names of Tom Street & Co Solicitors.