As an employee you are entitled to,

• A written statement of your terms and conditions (after one month's service) whether you are 'permanent' or not, and regardless of whether you are in any probationary period.
  
• Be paid at least the national minimum wage for each hour that you work.
  
• Four week's paid holiday per year (the police, the armed forces, workers at sea and some workers in the transport sector are excluded).
  
• Statutory sick pay if you fall ill at work.
  
• Minimum notice of termination of employment (after one month's service).

You can take your employer to an Employment Tribunal if you do not receive these benefits.

You have the right to the following minimum termination payments,

• You must receive all wages and holiday pay owing.
  
• If you have at least one month's service you are entitled to a minimum of one week's notice.
  
• If you have at least two years' service you are entitled to a minimum of one week's notice per year of service up to a maximum of 12 weeks.
  
• If you have at least two years' service between the ages of 18 and 65, you are entitled to a redundancy payment.  This is in addition to any notice entitlement.
  
• If your contract, offer letter or other agreement with your employer provides for better benefits than the above, then you must receive the agreed amounts.  No matter what your contract says, you are entitled to the above minimums.

If your employer has become insolvent, then some of the above payments may be obtained from the government instead. However, your employer cannot avoid these payments by saying that he has not got the money to pay.

In addition, if you have at least a year's service, you may be able to claim unfair dismissal if your employer has made you redundant and,

• You are not genuinely redundant (for example if your post still exists with just a change in job title).
  
• Your employer has not consulted with you properly over the redundancy.
  
• A fair method of selecting you for redundancy has not been used.
  
• Your employer has not  made a proper effort to find you alternative work.

Also, if 20 or more staff are being made redundant, your employer is obliged to consult with employee representatives, and you may be entitled to up to 90 days pay by way of consultation if he does not do so.

To claim unfair dismissal you must have at least one year's service. If you do not, you are only entitled to receive a minimum of one week's notice (after one month's service), and any wages and holiday pay due.

This rule may not apply if you can show that you have been dismissed because of,

• sex, race or disability discrimination, or discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or religion.
• working part time.
• your exercising or insisting upon legal rights such as statutory minimum holidays or the national minimum wage or time off, or maternity rights or time off for family reasons.
• a health and safety complaint you made.
• your disclosing or threatening to disclose unlawful or dangerous practices by your employer.
• your activities as a trade union or other official representative for employees.
  participating in other trade union activities.
• If you have been dismissed for any of the above reasons, your dismissal will usually be automatically unfair.

If you have a year's service, before dismissing you, your employer must,

• have a good reason for dismissing you.
• investigate the matter thoroughly.
• write to you setting out the reasons why dismissal is being considered.
• invite you to hearing (at which you are entitled to be represented by a trade union official or co-worker of your choice).
• give you a proper chance to defend yourself and properly investigate any matters you raise.
• set out in writing the reasons for dismissing you.
• give you the right to appeal the decision.

In cases of alleged poor performance or misconduct (except in the most serious cases) you should also have received warnings about your conduct or performance before you were dismissed.

If your employer has not done these things, your dismissal is likely to be unfair.

Note, however, that your dismissal will not be unfair purely because you did not commit the misconduct of which you were accused, or because the decision to dismiss you was wrong. If there is at least some evidence on which your employer could come to the conclusions he did, he has investigated the matter thoroughly and given you a proper opportunity to defend yourself, then your dismissal will not be unfair even if you disagree with the decision.

If your employer is making life difficult at work, it may still be possible to claim unfair dismissal if you resign.

You will need at least one year's service to claim, and will have to show that you left because your employer, by his actions, made it impossible for you to stay. You should be aware that it this is very difficult to do.

To give yourself the best chance of being able to claim, before taking the final step and resigning,  you should,

• Keep a diary of everything that happens.
• Complain to your employer through your employer's formal grievance procedure, or, if your employer does not have one, put your complaint in writing and give it to your employer, stating that it is a formal grievance.
• Detail to your employer everything that has gone on and make a note of the response.
• Do not assume that your employer knows what is going on, and make sure every compliant you make is recorded in writing.
• Go through any appeals procedure if your grievance is unsuccessful.

If you resign after giving your employer the every possible chance to correct the problem, you have the best chance of claiming following termination of your employment.

There is no general right to claim against your employer for unfair or unequal treatment. To claim the discrimination must be due to,

• Your sex, race, nationality, religion or sexual orientation.
• Your being a part time or temporary worker.
• Your exercising or insisting upon legal rights such as statutory minimum holidays or the national minimum wage or time off, or maternity rights or time off for family reasons.
• A health and safety complaint you made.
• Your disclosing or threatening to disclose unlawful or dangerous practices by your employer.
• Your activities as a trade union or other official representative for employees.
• Participating in other trade union activities.

If you are subject to a detriment on these grounds then you may be able to claim against your employer.

Unfair treatment on other grounds may not be something that you can claim for, unless it breaches the terms of your contract, or the situation gets so bad that you have to resign (see 'What if I resign?' above).

If you have been discriminated against you should keep a diary of what is happening. The first step must be to go through your employer's grievance procedure, or if your employer does not have one, put your complaint in writing and give it to your employer, stating that it is a formal grievance.

If your employer has not dealt with the matter within 28 days of your having submitted your complaint, then you may take the matter to an Employment Tribunal.

In the case of unfair dismissal or failure by your employer to give proper notice, a claim must be brought within a period of three months beginning within the date of termination of employment.

Most other claims also have a time limit of three months beginning with the incident being complained about.

In most cases, you must write to your employer stating your grievance and giving your employer 28 days to resolve the matter before you can claim in an Employment Tribunal.

In many cases, writing to your employer in this way will increase the time limit on the claim to six months, but we do not recommend that this be relied upon, and it is safer to bring the claim within the ordinary three month deadline.

Most employment rights require that you be an employee to claim. Most claims of discrimination, and in respect to the minimum wage, or for holiday pay under the working time regulations only require that you be a 'worker', which means that you have to be required to do your work for your employer personally (instead of sending a substitute) and cannot be running your own business of which your employer is a customer.

Sometimes, although employers say that you are 'self-employed' you may still be an employee. This will occur most often where you work for a single employer on a regular, permanent basis for set hours and under your employers control.

Even if you have signed something to say you are 'self-employed', if your working arrangements are in reality those of a 'worker' or employee, you may still be able to claim in an Employment Tribunal.

These are available from a Job Centre or Citizen's Advice Bureau.

If you want Farleys to act for you in your dispute, we are able to obtain copies, fill them in and submit them for you.

The Employment Tribunals do not charge for their service.

In general, you only have to pay your own legal costs, but if you have brought a misconceived (i.e. hopeless) case, or persist in pursuing the case just to cause problems for your employer without any real chance of success, you can end up paying some or all of your employer's expenses in fighting the claim (although this is rare).

It is possible for you to obtain your costs and expenses back from your employer, if they have been unreasonable in dragging out a claim they cannot win, but this is also rare.

Legal costs for taking a case all the way to its conclusion can cost around £2500 to £3500 or more, although it is possible (if difficult) to bring a case yourself without representation.

If you believe you have an Employment Tribunal case then Farleys can do an initial assessment of your claim for free if you contact us with the details.

If you do have a case, many home contents insurance policies come with a legal expenses policy which will pay for Employment Tribunal claims.  If you can let us look at your policy we can check this for you.

If you do not have insurance, and do not want to pay on an hourly rate, in appropriate cases Farleys may be able to carry out the work for you on a 'contingency fee' basis.  This means that instead of you having to pay  up front for our legal costs, we will pursue the matter for you and take our fees out of any compensation you obtain.  (If you were unsuccessful then you would not have to pay our fees).

This is not always available in every case, but please ask and we will let you know whether we are able to do this for you.