LIMITS ON PAYMENTS
AND AWARDS (PL827 Rev 8)
(continued)
The
awards
Details of
the qualifying conditions employees have to meet in order to qualify
for an award or payment, are described in other booklets in this
series.
These are available free of charge from
Jobcentre Plus offices or click here.
Guarantee
payments
Employees
may be entitled to receive guarantee payments for up to five days
of lay-off in any three-month period. The maximum amount of a
guarantee payment for any one day is £17.30 (£17.00 before 1 February
2003).
See also document
Guarantee payments
(PL724)
Redundancy
payments
The amount
of a statutory redundancy payment depends on the employee’s age,
length of service, and the amount of a week’s pay. The maximum
payment is up to 30 weeks’ pay, and the maximum amount of a week’s
pay which may be used to calculate a payment is £260 (£250 before
1 February 2003).
See also document
Redundancy payments
(PL808)
Insolvency
Employees
may be entitled to payments by the Department of Trade and Industry
of certain debts owed by insolvent employers - up to eight weeks’
arrears of pay, up to six weeks’ holiday pay, and up to twelve
weeks’ pay as compensation if the employer fails to give the proper
period of notice of dismissal. In each case, the maximum payment
for a week is £260 (£250 before 1 February 2003).
See also document
Your rights if your
employer is insolvent (PL718).
Unfair
dismissal
Employment
tribunals may order an employer to re-employ an employee who has
been unfairly dismissed. If the tribunal does not order re-employment
or if the re-employment order is not complied with, it will award
compensation as described below.
The compensation
awarded may be reduced by the tribunal if, for example, it is
found that the employee was partly to blame for the dismissal,
or that she/he has not tried to find another job in the meantime.
See also documents
Unfairly dismissed?
(PL712) and Union
Membership: rights of members and non-members
(PL871).
Basic
award
The basic
award compensates the employee for loss of job security. The amount
of the basic award depends on the employee’s age and length of
service with the employer, and the amount of a week’s pay. The
maximum basic award is 30 weeks’ pay (subject to the limit on
a week’s pay). In ordinary unfair dismissal cases, there is no
minimum basic award. However, in the case of employees who are unfairly dismissed
because of their membership or non-membership of a trade union,
or because of their trade union activities, or because of activities
as an employee representative or occupational pension scheme trustee,
or because they have taken certain types of action on health and
safety grounds or for the purposes of working time regulations, there is a minimum figure for the basic award.
| |
Before 1/2/2003 |
From
1/2/2003 |
| Maximum week’s pay |
£250 |
£260 |
| Maximum (30 weeks’
pay) |
£7,500 |
£7,800 |
| Minimum (trade union,
health and safety, occupational pension scheme trustee,
employee representative and working time cases only) |
£3,400 |
£3,500 |
Compensatory
award
The compensatory
award is based on the tribunal’s assessment of the employee’s
loss of earnings between the dismissal and the tribunal hearing,
and the likely future loss of earnings, loss of pension rights
etc., up to a maximum figure of £53,500 (£52,600 before
1 February 2003). There is no limit where the employee is dismissed
unfairly or selected for redundancy for reasons connected with
health and safety matters or public interest disclosure ('whistleblowing').
See also document Disclosures
in the public interest (PL502).
Where a re-employment
order is made but not complied with the maximum limit on the compensatory
award may be exceeded if the sum
of the compensatory award and
additional award (see below) would otherwise be less than the
arrears of pay element of the original award with which the employer
failed to comply.
Additional
award
If a tribunal
orders the employer to re-employ the employee, and if the employer
does not comply, the tribunal may make an additional award, on
top of the basic and compensatory awards.
The additional
award will be between 26 and 52 weeks' pay - subject to the
£260 (£250 before 1 February 2003) limit on a week's pay.
Minimum 26
weeks' pay or £6,760 (£6,500 before 1 February 2003), whichever
is the lower.
Maximum 52
week's pay £13,520 (£13,000 before 1 February 2003).
Breach
of contract
Where an
employee makes a breach of employment contract claim to an employment
tribunal (or an employer makes a counter claim) the maximum amount
that may be awarded in respect of that claim (for a number of
claims arising from the same breach of contract) is £25,000.
See also document
Contracts of employment
(PL810)
You can order
a printed version of this document from publications@dti.
|
