Unlocking Employment Law

21Termination of employment (3) wrongful dismissal

Aims and Objectives

After reading this chapter you should be able to:

• ■ Understand the nature of wrongful dismissal
• ■ Understand the circumstances in which an action for wrongful dismissal is likely to be brought
• ■ Understand the context in which wrongful dismissal claims are still relevant
• ■ Understand the process for masking wrongful dismissal claims
• ■ Understand the available remedies for a successful claim of wrongful dismissal
• ■ Critically analyse the concept of wrongful dismissal
• ■ Apply the rules on wrongful dismissal to factual situations

21.1 Introduction

Before 1971 an employer could, with few exceptions, in effect dismiss an employee for any reason or indeed for no reason. The law ...