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Section 136: Circumstances in which an employee is dismissed.

Employment Rights Act 1996 · 1996 c. 18View on legislation.gov.uk

Part XI: Redundancy payments etc. — Chapter II: Right on dismissal by reason of redundancy

Subject to the provisions of this section and sections 137 and 138, for the purposes of this Part an employee is dismissed by his employer if (and only if)—

the contract under which he is employed by the employer is terminated by the employer (whether with or without notice),
he is employed under a limited term contract and that contract terminates by virtue of the limiting event without being renewed under the same contract, or
the employee terminates the contract under which he is employed (with or without notice) in circumstances in which he is entitled to terminate it without notice by reason of the employer's conduct.

Subsection (1)(c) does not apply if the employee terminates the contract without notice in circumstances in which he is entitled to do so by reason of a lock-out by the employer.

An employee shall be taken to be dismissed by his employer for the purposes of this Part if—

the employer gives notice to the employee to terminate his contract of employment, and
at a time within the obligatory period of notice the employee gives notice in writing to the employer to terminate the contract of employment on a date earlier than the date on which the employer's notice is due to expire.

In this Part the "obligatory period of notice", in relation to notice given by an employer to terminate an employee's contract of employment, means—

the actual period of the notice in a case where the period beginning at the time when the notice is given and ending at the time when it expires is equal to the minimum period which (by virtue of any enactment or otherwise) is required to be given by the employer to terminate the contract of employment, and
the period which—
is equal to the minimum period referred to in paragraph (a), and
ends at the time when the notice expires,

in any other case.

Where in accordance with any enactment or rule of law—

an act on the part of an employer, or
an event affecting an employer (including, in the case of an individual, his death),

operates to terminate a contract under which an employee is employed by him, the act or event shall be taken for the purposes of this Part to be a termination of the contract by the employer.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.