Employment Law Terms

This has two meanings: a) the subject matter of the case (such as unfair dismissal or discrimination etc.); b) the worker’s document which starts the ET proceedings (originating application) known as an “ET1”.

An agreement made between a trade union and an employer on behalf of a specified group of workers, usually relating to pay and working conditions.

Discrimination is the concept that someone has been treated “less favourably” than others as a result of a particular characteristic that they possess. With minor exceptions, treating someone less favourably is unlawful where that characteristic is, for example, age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, sex, sexual orientation or religion […]

Another legal term for the worker, used in the questionnaire procedure under the anti-discrimination legislation. Sometimes it is used to refer to the Claimant in a discrimination case.

Renamed “settlement agreement” on 29 July 2013, this is a written agreement by which an employee gives up his or her entitlement to bring an employment claim or claims. The employer who is the other party generally agrees to make some form of financial payment, often provides an agreed form of reference, and may provide […]

Normally refers to the role of an ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) officer in liaising between the parties or their representatives off the record, usually on the telephone, to help encourage a settlement. Conciliation officers cannot provide legal advice. There is no substitute for the advice of a good solicitor. ACAS officers are not […]

Where an employee resigns because of the employer’s fundamental or repudiatory breach of the employment contract they are said to have been constructively dismissed. It is treated as a form of unfair dismissal like actual dismissal. It’s a form of unfair dismissal because in situations where someone was not sacked but instead, for example, was bullied […]

The period of time that an employee has worked for the same employer ignoring breaks for maternity, sickness, holidays and some other temporary interruptions.

This is often used to refer to workers employed on fixed-term contracts who may or may not have unfair dismissal rights, according to whether they meet the eligibility criteria.