Read the text about contract of employment again. Are the following sentences true or false?

1. The difference between the contract of employment and any other contract is that there is an equality in position of the parties.

2. Employees are appointed on either part-time employment contract or “fixed-term” contract.

3. A well written contract will provide a detailed account of what the employer and employee agreed to at the start of their working relationship.

Part III. Dismissal

The article is divided into four parts. Read four headings. What does each heading mean? Read the whole text:

It is important to separate the types of dismissal that may result in a claim to either the court or tribunal. The four basic types of dismissal are the following:

Wrongful dismissal

This is a dismissal in breach of employment contract. At common law an employer can lawfully dismiss an employee by giving him the correct amount of notice, or wages in lieu of that notice. Wrongful dismissal occurs when an employer dismisses an employee and either gives the employee no notice of that dis­missal, or insufficient notice. There will also be a wrongful dismissal where an employer terminates a fixed-term contract before the date on which it is set to terminate. Where an employee is dismissed with no notice, he is able to make a wrongful dis­missal claim unless he has himself committed actions amounting to a serious breach of the employment contract. In such cases an employer may lawfully dismiss an employee without giving him any notice. An employee may also make a claim for wrongful dismissal where an employer has failed to follow the correct disciplinary procedures. This failure will amount to a breach of the employment contract.

Unfair dismissal

This is a dismissal in breach of statute - an employee has the right not to be unfairly dismissed by his employer. The employer either dismisses the employee for an automatically unfair/fair reason, or for a potentially fair reason. In 'potentially fair reason' cases the tribunal considers the fairness or otherwise of the way in which the employer made the decision to dismiss, and whether the employer's disciplinary pro­cedures were used in a fair manner. The law on unfair dis­missal seeks to remedy a situation by giving the sacked employee the right only to be lawfully dismissed if that dismissal can be shown to be fair. An unfair dismissal claim is a statutory claim. Claims for unfair dismissal can only be made to the Employment Tribunal. This is a general right which applies to all eligible employees. Here, the tribunal looks at the fairness or otherwise of the employer's reason for dismissing the employee. However, even where the employer has a fair reason to dismiss, it does not follow that the tribunal will find that the dismissal was fair.

Summary dismissal

Summary dismissal is a form of common law dismissal. It is often referred to as 'for cause' because the employer is said to have cause to dismiss the employee'. It occurs where an employer dismisses an employee instantly without giving him any notice. An employer may lawfully dismiss the employee with no notice if the employee has committed an act of gross misconduct and so breached a major term of the employment contract.

Constructive dismissal

An employee will be treated as dismissed by his employer if: the employee terminates the contract under which he is employed (with or with­out notice) in circumstances in which he is entitled to terminate it without notice by reason of the employer's conduct. This covers the situation where an employer's conduct makes it impossible for the employee to continue working for him.

The actions of the employer must amount to a serious breach of contract. The following list merely illustrates the types of conduct that have been held a significant breach the employment contract:

• harassment;
• victimization;
• verbal abuse;
• physical abuse;
• the unilateral (одностороннее) changing of an employee's duties or status;
• demanding that an employee transfer or move to a new location;
• falsely accusing an employee of misconduct or incapability.

Even if an employee can show that he was constructively dismissed, this does not mean that he is automatically entitled to any compensation. There is no statute remedy for constructive dismissal. The claim merely forms part of an action for either unfair dismissal or a redundancy payment. In situations where an employer's actions breach the employment contract, the employee must remove himself from the workplace as soon as possible. If he remains at work for any length of time, he may be taken to have agreed, or acquiesced to the breach.

Active Vocabulary

To occur	происходит, случаться, совершаться
insufficient	недостаточный, необоснованный
To amount to	равняться (чему-л), означать
Statutory claim	законное притязание
eligible	подходящий, приемлемый, отвечающий требованиям
Summary dismissal	увольнение без предварительного уведомления
Gross misconduct	злостно неправомерное поведение, грубое нарушение
harassment	приставание, преследование, домогательство
victimization	преследование, репрессирование, увольнение (за участие в забастовке)
To acquiesce	молчаливо соглашаться, признавать

VocabularyFocus

1. Match the words to form collocations as they appear in the text. Make your own sentences using these collocations:

1. breach of                   a) notice

2. correct amount of      b) at work

3. commit                      c) to terminate

4. disciplinary                d) employment contract

5. the decision               e) working for him

6. statutory                     f) actions

7. the sacked                 g) claim

8. gross                          h) procedures

9. to be entitled               i) to dismiss

10. to continue                j) employee

11. to remain                  k) misconduct

2. Make the following sentences complete by translating the words and phrases in brackets:

1. Wrongful dismissal (происходить, случаться) when an employer dismisses an employee and either gives the employee no notice of that dismissal, or insufficient notice.

2. It's (недостаточно) to cite only one example of constructive dismissal.

3. Where an employee is dismissed with no notice, he is able to make a wrongful dismissal claim unless he has himself committed actions (приравнивать, означать) a serious breach of the employment contract.

4. (Законноепритязание) is only available where legislation has specifically provided the right to such a claim.

5. No employee will be dismissed for a first breach of discipline except in the case of (грубоенарушение), when the penalty will be dismissal without notice or payment in lieu of notice.

6. Sexual (домогательство) refers to persistent and unwanted sexual advances, typically in the workplace, where the consequences of refusing are potentially very disadvantageous to the victim.

7. At the same time, sellers might (признавать) to mafia involvement in their business as a way of ensuring payment for goods: if the buyer defaults, the mafioso will collect.

 

 

ANNOTATING AN ARTICLE

 

ANNOTATION PLAN