Understanding Employment Contracts and Dismissal

This document provides an in-depth understanding of employment contracts and dismissal. It explains the types of terms in an employment contract, such as express and implied terms, and the influence of statutes and common law. The document also discusses the differences between wrongful and unfair dismissal, including the minimum period of service required and the available remedies. Additionally, it explores the various methods of resolving employment disputes, including court-based litigation and alternative dispute resolution methods like arbitration, mediation, and conciliation.

Running head: Business Law Assignment 0
Business Law
4/19/2019
Student’s Name

Business Law Assignment 1
Contents
Essay 1.............................................................................................................................................1
Essay 2.............................................................................................................................................2
Essay 3.............................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................6

Business Law Assignment 2
Essay 1
An employment contract is a type of contract, which states the rights, and liabilities of an
employer and employee under an employment contract. These rights and responsibilities are
known as terms of the contract. The employment contracts are legally enforceable (Reel and
Abraham, 2007). Mainly two types of terms are there under an employment contract namely
express and implied terms. Express terms generally vary according to the parties of the contract
as the same are based on the personal identification and features of employer and employee.
These terms mainly include provisions related to the job description, work rules, disciplinary
actions, and grievance procedures, code of practice and so on. This varies employer to employer.
Nevertheless, this would be wrongful to state that the parties decide all the expressed terms and
they can modify them according to their will. Employer is required to give statement of
particular to employees within 8 weeks of starting work. On the different side, implied terms are
usually universal in nature. It means they exist in almost every employment contract irrespective
of type and size of organization.
Statutes help to decide the express as well as implied conditions of a contract. For example,
hours of work are an important express term of an employment contract. Parties to the contract
can mutually decide this term but while finalizing the same, they have to comply with the
provisions of Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2003. These regulations state that an
employer cannot ask his/her workers to work more than 48 hours a week. Further particular of
pay is also an express term of an employment contract, which is again influenced by the National
Minimum Wage Act 1998.

Business Law Assignment 3
Statutes, customs, practice, and common law also influence implied terms such as responsibility
and rights of employer and employees. For instance, Christmas bonus is a culture in the UK and
therefore it is common that the employer will pay the same to his/her workers regardless of the
personal identification of parties. It is implied in UK and this is not required to be mentioned
under an employment contract. Common law states that it is implied a duty of employer and
employee to act in the best interest of each other and not to adopt any fraudulent activities while
dealing with each other or on behalf of each other (Legalvision.com.au, 2018). Further it is
implied duty of employees to not to misuse assets provided by employer. In addition to this, it is
implied duty of employer to provide safe working environment to employees. After the above-
mentioned discussion, it is clear that statues and laws have a huge influence on the terms and
conditions of an employment contract and these terms does not always comes from the parties to
the contract.
Essay 2
Unfair and Wrongful dismissal are the two most general kinds of unlawful dismissal. Unfair
dismissal, this is to state that this is a situation when an employer dismisses his/her employee
without having a lawful reason. Section 98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 provides certain
fair grounds of dismissal. If an employer terminates the employment of an employee for any
reasons, which is not set out in the above-mentioned section, then such termination is known as
unfair dismissal. It is the statutory right of every employee to not to be dismissed in an unfair
manner. For instance, if an employer dismisses a female employee because of her pregnancy
then it will be treated as unfair dismissal. An employee is eligible to bring a claim of unfair
dismissal who has completed minimum 2 years of service with employer. Reason of claim and

Business Law Assignment 4
remedy are mentioned further below under the head of difference between unlawful and
wrongful dismissal.
Wrongful dismissal is defined under Employment Rights Act 1996. It is a termination where the
employer dismisses an employee breaching the terms of an employment contract. It means there
are no universal grounds of wrongful dismissal and it varies according to the employment
contracts. Any dismissal can be treated as wrongful dismissal if the same happens in against the
terms and conditions mentioned under a contract of employment. For instance, if the minimum
notice period of 2 weeks is mentioned under contract and an employer serves a notice of less
than this period while dismissing the employee then it will be treated as wrongful dismissal
(Gov.uk, 2019). The statutory minimum period of notice is one week for every completed full
year upto the limit of maximum 12 weeks (Lexology.com, 2019).
As mentioned above there are many differences between wrongful and unfair dismissal, the same
is mentioned hereunder:-
Period of Service: - No minimum period of service is required in cases of wrongful dismissal but
in cases of unfair dismissal, minimum of 2 years of service is required in general (apart from the
cases of automatic unfair dismissal).
Courts: - The claims for wrongful dismissal can come before High court or Country court or the
employment tribunal claim limit is limited to £ 25,000) whereas the claim against unfair
dismissal can be heard in the employment tribunals only.
Reasons for the claim: - Claim of wrongful dismissal can be initiated when an employer does not
comply with the employment contract terms related to notice period , or grievance or contractual
discipline while dismissing the employee. Unfair dismissal claim can be initiated when an

Business Law Assignment 5
employer dismisses the employee for a reason except for the one that is Section 98 of the
Employment Rights Act 1996. Further, a dismissal is also treated as unfair where the reason of
dismissal is the one, which is defined under section 96 of ERA 1996, but employer did not
follow the correct procedure
Remedies: - Under wrongful dismissal, an employee can ask for the damages for breach of
contract (Inbrief.co.uk, 2019). The amount of damages is the payment of wages that an employee
could earn if the employee would have been dismissed as per contractual terms. In cases of
unfair dismissal, an employee had the right of reinstatement, compensation, and re-engagement.
In this manner, this is clear that both of dismissal have many differences in between them.
Essay 3
There are many ways to resolve employment disputes. Court-based litigation is one of them. It is
the traditional method of dispute resolution. The matter goes into the court and judges will hear
the arguments of the parties, evaluate the situation, and provide justice. The Jury of traditional
courts does not provide advice to the parties (Law.uc.edu, 2019).
In addition to this court-based litigation, some methods to resolve the dispute are also there.
These methods are known as alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Three of the most important
types of ADR are mentioned below:-
 Arbitration- In this process, a third party is involved which is known as an arbitrator. This
arbitrator is general the specialist of that particular area of dispute. This person hears the
parties and then provides the decision. It is a private judicial determination. In general,
one or three arbitrators are involved in the decision of a particular dispute. Here it is

Business Law Assignment 6
necessary to mention that the manner to choose an arbitrator and other factors related to
the same are also mentioned under some of the employment contract. The decision
provides under an arbitration process is usually final and binding on the parties
(Mediate.com, 2019). No appeal is available against the decision of arbitrator.
Nevertheless, the same has certain advantages, as it is flexible and less formal than the
traditional courts.
 Mediation: - It is another dispute resolution process, which consists of a neutral third
party that facilitates negotiation between/among parties to the dispute. This option is
good in those situations where parties do not want to communicate with each other.
Mediation Agreement can be developed in oral or written mode. The lead focus of this
process is the resolution of disputes rather than finding truth or fault (Adr.findlaw.com,
2019).
 Conciliation: - Conciliator is the person who settles the case by consultation with the
parties to disputes. While proposing a settlement, Conciliator considers the financial,
personal, and commercial interest of parties and not only their legal position. The lead
difference between mediation and conciliation is that in the case of conciliation, parties
can ask for non-binding settlement proposal but this option is not there in case of
Mediation (Dispute-resolution-hamburg.com, 2019).
ADR methods are easy and flexible. They can save cost of the parties and maintain the goods
relationship between them. Further, these methods are time-saving and parties to the case adopt
these methods for this reason. However, some disadvantages of these methods are also there. For
instance, the decisions of the same are final sometimes and parties cannot make an appeal in

Business Law Assignment 7
against of the same or in some cases. Regardless of the disadvantages of these disputes, parties
choose them because of the cost and time involved in the traditional court-based litigations.
References
Dispute-resolution-hamburg.com. (2019) Conciliation. [online] Available from:
http://www.dispute-resolution-hamburg.com/conciliation/what-is-conciliation/ [Accessed on
20/04/2019]
Employment Rights Act 1996
Gov.uk. (2019) Dismissal: your rights. [online] Available from:
https://www.gov.uk/dismissal/what-to-do-if-youre-dismissed [Accessed on 20/04/2019]
Inbrief.co.uk. (2019) How to claim for a wrongful dismissal. [online] Available from:
https://www.inbrief.co.uk/employees/wrongful-dismissal/ [Accessed on 20/04/2019]
Law.uc.edu. (2019) Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution. [online] Available from:
https://law.uc.edu/education/areasofstudy/litigation-alternative-dispute-resolution.html
[Accessed on 20/04/2019]
Legalvision.com.au. (2018) Employment Obligations and Implied Duties. [online] Available
from: https://legalvision.com.au/employment-obligations-implied-duties/ [Accessed on
20/04/2019]

Business Law Assignment 8
Lexology.com (2019) Global employee termination law: United Kingdom. [online] Available
from: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=7ca6b04b-89a8-42ba-976e-26b42fff9b07
[Accessed on 28/04/2019]
Mediate.com. (2019) What is Arbitration? [online] Available from:
https://www.mediate.com/articles/grant.cfm [Accessed on 20/04/2019]
National Minimum Wage Act 1998
Reel, S.J. and Abraham, I.L., 2007. Business and Legal Essentials for Nurse Practitioners: From
Negotiating Your First Job Through Owning a Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.