Rights against discrimination and in relation to whistleblowing apply from day one of employment. Unlike unfair dismissal where a period of qualifying service is required before you can validly present an employment tribunal claim you are protected from the moment your job starts if you are dismissed because of a protected characteristic or because you have blown the whistle. Should you reach for your phone and Google ‘employment lawyer’?
There are many reasons why you think you might want to bring a claim against an employer. Anger at the treatment is one reason. Disappointment at the way you have been treated is another. Feeling disrespected. The list goes on. But is it really worth giving your energy and, if you use a lawyer, your money, to pursue a legal claim? It might be but rare will be the case during probation that has enough financial value to make this worthwhile.
There is a widely held misconception about the value of employment tribunal claims. This may be in due to press reporting of cases where the financial awards have been substantial. Those cases are few and far between. You have to read between the lines. Many of them will concern cases where people are earning high salaries and bonuses. A few will deal with very serious issues of discrimination where the harm is so severe that it means that the person will never work again. These cases are very, very rare.
The average tribunal claim has a very low value and most discrimination cases are not worth more than an average of £30,000, if that. Awards for discrimination are valued according to the Vento Guidelines (damages for injury to feelings) and compensation starts at £1,300. Most cases will fall in the Lower or Middle Vento Bands. The Lower Band goes up to £12,600, the Middle to £37,700. As discrimination experts we generally see cases where the value of injury to feelings is somewhere in the teens, £15,000 to £20,000.
The other factor to consider about a claim you may have arising from dismissal during probation is what the wider financial value is. If you lose your job and start a claim the tribunal expects you to mitigate your loss. This means finding another job. If you cannot find another job – any job – only then do your losses start to accrue. If you find another job right away and have not lost any pay then your claim value is limited to injury to feelings. Rarely will it be worth continuing that claim when it could take 2 to 4 years to win the case and when it will suck away many hours of your life to bring it for minimal financial reward.
Many people are understandably upset when they are fired after leaving a job to start a new one only to find that the new job does not work out. It leaves you in a tricky position: no job, no money and back on the job market. But don’t start a claim that has little or limited value unless there is a sound financial reason to do so. Making a point will not teach the employer any lesson: the only loser will be you. Again. Your better option is to find an ethical employment lawyer who will try to find a resolution with the employer so that you can walk away from litigation and start over.
