Dismissing an employee is sometimes necessary when there are issues with misconduct or poor performance, or when the organisation needs to reduce its workforce due to financial reasons. However, as an employer, it’s crucial to remember that even when you have a clear and legitimate reason for dismissal, it must be handled fairly and in accordance with the law.

Broadly speaking, employees (not workers or the self-employed) have the right not to be unfairly dismissed or to be forced out of their job. As an employer, you must be able to demonstrate that you have genuine and valid reasons for dismissing an employee.

There are different different ways in which you can lawfully justify a dismissal:

• By reason of redundancy – for example, if your company is restructuring and certain roles are no longer needed, or if there is a decline in business leading to a reduced need for staff.
• By reason of capability – for instance, if an employee consistently fails to meet performance standards despite receiving additional training and support, or if they are unable to perform their duties due to a long-term illness (please note, ’s important to explore all possible ways to remove or minimise any disadvantage an employee may be experiencing because of a disability. Dismissal should only be used as a last resort and will only be fair and non-discriminatory when the employee is unable to perform their job despite reasonable adjustments, and their inability to perform is significantly impacting your business.)
• By reason of conduct – for example, if an employee engages in serious misconduct such as theft, harassment, or repeated violations of company policies despite warnings.
• For a legal reason – such as, if an employee loses a required licence to perform their job, such as a driver’s licence for a delivery driver, or if continuing to employ them would breach immigration laws.
• For some other substantial reason (SOSR) – this is a general ‘catch-all’ category designed to cover dismissals which do not fall under any of the other categories of potentially fair reasons for dismissal. Examples could include:




–       business re-organisations requiring changes to employee terms and conditions (not amounting to redundancy),
–       protecting the employer’s interests by preventing employees from setting up in competition or safeguarding confidential information,
–       responding to third-party pressure to dismiss,
–       dealing with employees refusing to work with a colleague, and
–       the expiry of a fixed-term contract (not considered redundancy).

However, SOSR does not cover every possible reason for dismissal outside the other categories, as case law has specifically defined the circumstances under which SOSR can be applied.