GIBRALTAR Law and Practice Contributed by: Emma Lejeune, Stuart Dalmedo, Nicholas Isola, James Castle and Louise Anne Turnock, ISOLAS LLP
example, an employee must give one month’s notice to terminate the employment, unless the employee is paid weekly where one week’s notice is required. A failure to provide appropri - ate notice will give rise to a claim for wrongful dismissal. However, an employer may dismiss an employee, and an employee may abandon the service of an employer, without giving notice where there is good and sufficient cause for such dismissal (eg, gross misconduct) or abandon - ment, but an employer is not entitled to set up as good and sufficient cause that (a) the employee’s lack, loss or impairment of skill, ability or effi - ciency makes the fulfilment of the contract of service impossible, or (b) that the employee no longer enjoys the employer’s confidence. Additionally, employees have a statutory right not to be dismissed unfairly if they have been employed for a continuous period of at least 52 weeks, ending with the effective date of termi - nation and provided that the employee has not been dismissed for an automatically unfair rea - son (eg, making protected disclosures) where the qualifying period does not apply. Employ - ees may be dismissed “at will” before they have attained 52 weeks’ continuous service, provided that the employer complies with minimum notice provisions under statute or the contract, and provided that the employee is not dismissed for an automatically unfair reason. Depending on the reason(s) underlying the dismissal, employ - ers may also need to consider the Employment (Bullying at Work) Act 2014 and/or the Equal Opportunities Act 2006. After 52 weeks’ continuous employment, the employer must prove that there was a permit - ted reason for the dismissal of the employee. Permitted reasons for a dismissal are: • reasons relating to capability of the employee;
• reasons relating to the conduct of the employee; • that the employee was redundant; • that the employee’s continuous employment would result in the contravention of the law; or • some other substantial reason of a kind to justify dismissal. If an employee is found to be unfairly dismissed, they are entitled to compensation calculated by a statutory formula and which includes compen - sation for the unfair dismissal including a basic award (GBP2,200 or such higher amount as calculated by a statutory formula) and a com - pensatory award which is capped, presently at the lesser of two years’ salary of the employee at the time of the dismissal and GBP69,763.20. There are deductions that can be made to these awards and the maximum upper limit for the compensatory award does not apply where an employee is found to be unfairly dismissed in certain circumstances, for example, dismissals in health and safety cases. On termination of employment, a Notice of Ter - mination must be filed with the Department of Employment. Under the Employment Act 1932, collective redundancy consultation requirements apply where an employer is proposing to dismiss as redundant five or more employees at one estab - lishment within a period of 90 days or less. In such circumstances, the employer must consult with the affected employees’ representatives at the earliest opportunity and at least 60 days before the first dismissal takes place. Employ - ee representatives include representatives of a trade union or representatives elected by the affected employee satisfying the requirements of the Employment Act 1932. The consultation
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