Unfair Dismissal: assessing the effects of reinstatement.

By ACIRRT

The practical concerns facing employers and employees when reinstatement is ordered in dismissal cases are a messy management issue.

A relatively small number of dismissal cases result in an order for reinstatement but when they do make such orders, the Commissions don't take into account as a matter of course the practical implications of such a decision. The termination may have taken place months or years previously for example, so the bitterness can resume with the parties still unwilling to get on with one another. In England reinstatement is a two step process with the employee placed back in the workplace before a final order from the Tribunal, thus allowing both parties to test the waters. If it doesn't work, then they go back to the Tribunal presenting hard evidence as to why not.

ACIRRT/CPD Workplace Intelligence; July 2002)