Sudden job loss can be financially and emotionally crushing. While employers typically have a right to lay off their employees, the right in this regard is never absolute. There exist stringent labor laws designed to protect the employees against wrongful and unfair dismissal. If that is your position in 2025, understanding your rights and discovering what to do can make an enormous difference to your chances of claiming redress and achieving a fair outcome.
Knowing What is Wrongful Termination
Your first move at root is to determine whether your dismissal was unfair. The Employment Act, 2007 stipulates the grounds upon which an employer reasonably dismisses a contract. They are reasonable grounds related to an employee’s behaviour, ability (e.g., illness that makes a person incapable of performing the work), or organizational requirements (e.g., redundancy because of economic factors).
The dismissal will be unfair or wrongful if:
No good reason: No good and true reason is provided by the employer for the dismissal, or the stated reason is untrue.
Procedural unfairness: The employer fails to adhere to the due process in the Employment Act. This encompasses the aspect of issuing reasonable notice of intent to terminate the contract, affording the employee a right to be heard (fair hearing), allowing the employee an opportunity to have a colleague or union representative with them, and notification of the decision and reasons in writing.
Illegal grounds of dismissal: Dismissal for illegal reasons such as pregnancy, membership of a trade union, religion or politics, social opinion, race, sex, or because one is handicapped, or in response to making a complaint against an employer is illegal by default.
Retaliation: As long as the dismissal was for whistleblowing or exercising a statutory right. Even if the reason can be sound, the dismissal would be unfair if the employer is at fault of not using the correct procedure.
Document Everything and Seek Advice
Once you have been issued with a notice of dismissal, don’t act in a rush. Rather, try to get all those documents that pertain to the case. They include your contract of employment, pays lips, warning letter or performance appraisal, and any records of accomplishment. The more documents you can present to substantiate your case, the good it is for you.
Get a veteran advocate with labour law expertise on a case by emergency. They will talk through your case, advise on whether the dismissal was unlawful under the current 2025 law, and advise on how to proceed. You should not be asked to sign anything, especially releases or redundancy notices, without them because they can exclude your right of claim.
Seeking Remedies: Labour Officer to Court
If your lawyer feels that you have a solid case of wrongful dismissal, there are various remedies. To start with, you report the issue to the Labour Officer, and he tries to mediate between you both and make you reconcile. The administrative channel sometimes delivers an earlier settlement.
Where mediation does not work, or where the matter is complex, your lawyer may advise instituting a claim before the Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC). ELRC can hear and determine employer-employee disputes. Your lawyer will present your evidence and submissions in this instance before court. The burden of proof is normally on the employer to show that the dismissal was substantively and procedurally fair.
Redress for Unfair Dismissal
When the court finds you to have been unfairly dismissed, the court can grant one of a number of redresses. These are:
Compensation: Most common remedy, traditionally in the form of money for a number of months’ wage or earnings, typically up to twelve months’ gross earnings, under Section 49 of the Employment Act.
Pay in lieu of notice: You would be compensated in lieu of the notice period if the notice period is not provided by the employer.
Unpaid dues: It means payment of earned but unavailed leave days, unpaid wages, or contractual benefits.
Reinstatement: Only in exceptional cases, your employer may be required to re-in-state you in your former employment as if it had not been brought to an end. The order will more probably be made where the parties’ relationship is not irretrievable.
Re-engagement: Your employer may be required by the court to re-employ you into a like or similar work on the same conditions.
Conclusion
Unfair dismissal is a horrifying experience, but not the end of the world. The labour legislation of 2025 offers strong protection guarantees to employees against wrongful dismissals. Having an understanding of what constitutes wrongful dismissal, exercising extreme care in showing evidence of your case, consulting lawyers as soon as possible, and pursuing the remedies available to you with perseverance, you can assert your rights and work towards a just and honest resolution with minimal adverse effects of a wrongful dismissal.
