Introduction
When you receive a claim for unfair dismissal, you may want to challenge the application. To do this, you need to tell us why you object to the claim.
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Common reasons you may object
You may object if you believe the employee is not eligible to claim unfair dismissal. For example, if:
- the employee is not protected by law from dismissal
- the employee applied more than 21 days after you dismissed them
- you ended their employment because of a genuine redundancy
- you are a small business and followed the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code.
The employee may also not be eligible if you did not dismiss them. This could be because:
- they are still employed
- they resigned from their position
- their fixed-term contract expired
- they were a contractor, not an employee.
How to object
If you are the employer named in the application, you have 2 choices:
- When you respond to the application, add your objection to Form F3 – Employer response to unfair dismissal application OR
- Complete a separate Form F4 – Objection to unfair dismissal application. You can send this with your response form or later.
After you object
Making a jurisdictional objection will not stop an unfair dismissal application.
After you submit an objection, we ask you to decide whether to:
- Take part in a conciliation. If the conciliation does not resolve the application, a Commission Member will consider your objection. We may hold a jurisdictional hearing.
OR - Opt out of the conciliation. We schedule a formal hearing. You miss out on the opportunity to resolve the issue in a less formal setting.
If we dismiss your objection, the application continues to a hearing.