Unfair Dismissal
The two-year qualifying rule, automatically unfair reasons, and the difference between unfair, wrongful and constructive dismissal.
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Free · Independent · UK employment rights
Know your rights. Use your rights.
We're always on the side of the employee — no conflict of interest, no corporate ties. Just support where it matters most. Whether it's grievances, data access, or whistleblowing — we guide you through the right steps, at the right time, with full support.
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Built from lived experience
Shaped by personal experience of the process
You are not alone, and you are not imagining it.
If something at work feels wrong, there is a process for addressing it — and it starts with understanding what the law actually says.
What are you facing?
Eight situations, mapped end to end
Every guide follows the same pattern: what the law says, what to gather, what to send, and what happens next — with the deadlines flagged in plain sight.
Discrimination
The nine protected characteristics, direct and indirect discrimination, and how claims are actually proven under s.136.
Read the guideBullying & Harassment
What s.26 Equality Act harassment actually means, the two-stage test tribunals apply, and how to document a pattern.
Read the guideWhistleblowing
Protected disclosures under the ERA 1996, s.47B detriments, and why route and wording decide whether you are protected.
Read the guideSettlement Agreements
Checklists to run before you sign: tax treatment, references, confidentiality clauses and negotiating the uplift.
Read the guideGrievances
Raise a formal grievance that creates a paper trail: the letter, the meeting, the outcome and the appeal.
Open the toolkitSubject Access Requests
Use UK GDPR Article 15 to obtain emails, HR notes and meeting records your employer holds about you.
Open the toolkitEmployment Tribunal
A realistic route map for litigants in person: early conciliation, ET1, disclosure, bundles and the hearing.
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Ready to act
Six toolkits with templates included
Download, adapt, send. Each toolkit pairs a plain-English explanation with documents you can copy straight into your own correspondence.
Grievance Toolkit
Grievance letter template, investigation meeting preparation sheet, and appeal letter — aligned to the ACAS Code of Practice.
Open toolkitSAR Toolkit
Article 15 request template, a log file to track the one-month deadline, and the escalation path to the ICO if they stall.
Open toolkitTribunal Preparation Guide
From early conciliation to the final hearing: what to file, when, and how a litigant in person can stay organised.
Open guideHow Discrimination Is Proved
The s.136 burden-shifting stages explained with Igen v Wong and Efobi v Royal Mail, plus a comparator evidence worksheet.
Open guideSettlement Agreement Checklist
Eleven checks before you sign: the £30,000 tax rule, agreed references, restrictive covenants and the adviser's certificate.
Open checklistHarassment Definitions Guide
Section 26 unpacked — purpose or effect, the s.26(4) perception factors, and how to frame incidents in your grievance.
Open guide
Why this site exists
Most people lose before they start — on deadlines and paperwork
Employment rights in the UK are real, but they are procedural. Claims fail because the grievance was vague, the SAR was late, or the ET1 missed the three-month window — not because the treatment was fair.
YourWorkRights turns that process into checklists and templates anyone can use — drawn from publicly available law and guidance, informed by personal experience. No accounts, no paywall, no lead capture — just the documents and the order to use them in.
- Aligned to the ACAS Code of Practice and statutory time limits
- Cites real case law — Grosset, Igen v Wong, Efobi, Field v Steve Pye — in plain English
- Shaped by personal experience of navigating these processes
The principle
"The law is only useful if you can reach it. Everything here exists so that the process is never the reason you give up."
— The founding note behind YourWorkRights.uk
Honest disclaimer
This is general guidance, not legal advice, and no solicitor–client relationship is created. For representation, see a solicitor, a Law Centre, or ACAS (0300 123 1100).
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Every guide, template and checklist on this site is free to read, download and adapt. There is no account, no paywall and no upsell. The site is funded by its founder as a public resource, not by selling services or leads.
No — and we say so plainly on every page. This is general guidance about UK employment law and process. For advice on your specific facts, contact ACAS (0300 123 1100), a trade union, a Law Centre, Citizens Advice, or an employment solicitor.
In most cases, three months less one day from the act you are complaining about (for dismissal, from the effective date of termination). You must contact ACAS for early conciliation first, which pauses the clock. The deadline is strict — see our tribunal guide for how it is calculated.
For ordinary unfair dismissal, usually yes. But there is no qualifying period for discrimination, harassment, whistleblowing detriment or dismissal, or for automatically unfair dismissals (such as pregnancy, health and safety, or asserting statutory rights). Our dismissal guide maps the exceptions.
Every page starts from publicly available sources — statutes, ACAS guidance and published case law — and is organised around the practical steps people commonly need, informed by personal experience of navigating parts of the process. Where a step carries risk or the law is uncertain, we say so in a warning box rather than presenting it as settled.
Start with the Grievance Toolkit. A well-drafted grievance creates the evidence base for almost everything that follows — and if matters escalate, the SAR Toolkit shows you how to obtain the records your employer holds about you.
Ready to put it in writing?
Download the grievance letter template, adapt it to your situation, and start building your paper trail today.