Most employee representatives are protected by law from dismissal and detriment for carrying out their role.
This advice is about the rights of non-union employee representatives.
You can also read our advice on dismissal and detriment for trade union representatives.
Who is protected
Most employee representative roles have legal protection from dismissal and detriment. It applies to:
- TUPE representatives
- collective redundancy representatives
- pension representatives
- employee representatives involved in European consultative bodies
- workforce agreement representatives
- information and consultation representatives – only for consultation groups set up under the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 (ICE)
Who is not protected
Employers can choose to set up workplace forums that are not related to the ICE regulations. Employee representatives in these forums do not have legal protection from dismissal and detriment.
Find out more about the rights of employee representatives in consultation roles
When the protection applies
Having this legal protection means an employer must not dismiss someone, or cause them detriment, for:
- carrying out certain representative duties
- standing for election
- being appointed to an employee representative role
Dismissal
An employer must not dismiss an employee representative for carrying out certain duties. This would be 'automatically unfair dismissal' if a representative has the legal protection.
An employer should allow a representative to appeal a dismissal.
If the appeal is not successful, the representative can take it further. They might want to make a claim to an employment tribunal.
Find out more about unfair dismissal
Example of when the protection does not apply
Charlie is dismissed for stealing from work. Their employer follows a fair dismissal procedure.
Charlie appeals the dismissal. They say they had legal protection from dismissal because they were elected as an employee representative.
However, the reason for dismissal is not related to carrying out the employee representative role. This means Charlie's dismissal could be fair. Charlie loses the appeal.
Detriment
An employer must not cause someone 'detriment' for:
- carrying out certain representative duties
- standing for election or being appointed to an employee representative role
Detriment means a representative experiences one or both of the following:
- being treated worse than before
- having their situation made worse
Examples of detriment could be:
- they experience bullying
- they experience harassment
- their employer turns down their training requests without good reason
- they are overlooked for promotions or development opportunities
- their employer reduces their hours without good reason
If a representative experiences detriment, they should raise it with their employer. If this does not resolve the problem, they might be able to make a claim to an employment tribunal.