Hypothetical
An employee has been in post for 6 months, can they be sacked without reason?
Do they have to be made redundant?
I can’t find decent guidance on this.

Yes.

You need 2 years service to be able to claim unfair dismissal.

https://www.gov.uk/dismissal/what-to-do-if-youre-dismissed

Ok That is the page I was looking for cheers.

Yes, ‘without reason’

*unless* they are really being sacked for a protected reason – whistleblowing, discrimination etc.

*unless* they are being sacked for a protected reason – whistleblowing, discrimination etc.

Just dismiss them for something else. Poor work standard etc. They can’t claim unfair dismissal so how could you they prove it’s for another reason?

You need 2 years service to be able to claim unfair dismissal at a tribunal.

This doesn’t mean that their is no legal recourse, just that the path to it would be different.

This doesn’t mean that their is no legal recourse, just that the path to it would be different.

What path would that be then?

Pretty much yes unless its something very blatant, eg race, sex, religion then the chances of you winning a legal action are very slim and it would be hugely costly. A mate challenged his dismissal at a tribunal and it cost £25k, he won but got very little compensation and was out of pocket as he had to pay his costs. Doing something similar via the courts is much more expensive

EDIT it won’t be without reason, they will say something like “performance concerns, business/strategy changes” etc

This page spells it out in a bit more detail:

https://www.gov.uk/dismiss-staff/eligibility-to-claim-unfair-dismissal

i.e. They can be sacked without being given a reason, but if the actual reason for the dismissal is one that is “automatically unfair”, they can claim unfair dismissal. Otherwise, you can only claim unfair dismissal if you’ve been there for 2 years.

So for example is it fair if the above mentioned 6 months employee is dismissed because the emplyer has found soemone who can do their job better?

So for example is it fair if the above mentioned 6 months employee is dismissed because the emplyer has found soemone who can do their job better?

If that doesn’t come under performance concerns, I don’t know what does.

From my 1 day course, I seem to remember that there had to be attempts to resolve it. At our company that was a three strikes and out type system. The point being, an employer has to give an underperforming employee time to improve.