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Discrimination
Northern Ireland has some of the toughest Employment Laws in the world.  The standard United Kindgdom discrimination regime encompasses:

• Disability;
• Sex;
• Sexual Orientation;
• Marital Status;
• Having dependants;
  
• Race; and
• Age.

Further, due to the troubles we have legislation which prevents:

• Religious discrimination.

The legislative regime requires that an individual must not be treated less favourably on any of the above grounds.  Discrimination can be either obvious or subtle in nature.  If an employee feels that they failed to get a job or have suffered unfair treatment at work, whether by their fellow employees or by you the employer, for any of the reasons above they may be able to bring a claim against you in the Industrial Tribunal.

Dismissal
Where an employee has been dismissed they may be able to bring a claim.  Furthermore, if you the Employer is deemed to have acted unreasonably in breach of the contract of employment and the Employee resigns as a result an Employee may claim Constructive Dismissal.

• Dismissal Without Notice

This is the most common ground for a claim of breach of contract.  It occurs when an employee is dismissed but is not given the notice required by statute or by their contract of employment.

• Unfair Dismissal

Unfair dismissal is where an employer has dismissed an employee in contravention of the statutory regime.  This will commonly occur in three situations:

Unfair Selection for Redundancy
You may need to reduce your workforce due to market pressures.  The tribunal understands this can be a necessity.  However, there is the possibility that selection for redundancy may be unfair.  As such you are under a duty to go through a fair process and mark the employee on subjective unbiased criteria.  If they do not an employee may have a claim.

Misconduct
You may dismiss an employee for misconduct.  However, you must follow correct procedures in disciplining and/or dismissing an employee.  If you do not follow the correct procedures the grounds upon which the dismissal was made may be held to be unfair.

Capability
You may dismiss an employee because they are not capable of carrying out the job.  You may also dismiss an employee if they lack the qualification required for a job.  However in doing so the employer must follow a fair procedure and provide the employee with reasonable opportunity to improve their performance.  If you do not follow the correct procedures the grounds upon which the dismissal was made may be held to be unfair.

Other Statutory Rights
If you breach an employees statutory right the employee will have a remedy through the Industrial Tribunal.   Commonly employers overlook the right:

• to parental leave
• to a 48 hour working week
• to a contract
• to payslips
• not to have unlawful deductions made from wages
• not to suffer a detriment for Whistle Blowing
• for Part-time Workers not to suffer a detriment compared to full-time workers.