Statutory Dismissal Procedures

The EAT has held, in Venniri v Autodex, that tribunals are obliged to consider whether a dismissal is automatically unfair under the statutory dismissal procedures. It is not necessary for the employee to raise compliance as an issue (see para. 34).

This contrasts with the position for grievance procedures, where tribunals are not obliged to consider whether the employee has lodged a grievance and waited 28 days before submitting a claim. The burden is on the employer to raise this as a defence.

Note that the judgment leaves open the question of whether a tribunal is likewise obliged to consider the s98A(2) defence (the partial reversal of Polkey), or whether it has to be expressly raised by the employer