This ppt (the author is Dra. Daniela Zabala, from E.T.I.J.) was created to be used in a Legal English Class. Employment law. Ways of termination of a Contract.

1. The
Languague of
Employment
Law II
Daniela Zabala-
Seminario de Ingles Jurídico 2020
Universidad Católica de Cuyo sede San Luis.

2. How can an employment
contract end?
1. Resignation
2. Retirement
3. Redundancy
4. Dismissal
5. A fixed-term contract ends

3. 1. Resignation
✓ The employee informs the
employer, usually in writing, that
he or she will stop working for the
employer’s business.
✓ Informally known as “handing in
your notice”.
3

4. 2. Retirement
✓ The employee leaves his or her
job with the intention not to work
again because he or she is a
certain age. They must live on the
money they receive from their
pension.
✓ In many countries the age of
retirement is 65 years old.
4

5. 3.Redundancy
✓ The employee is made redundant.
✓ This means that the employer does
not need them. This might be
because business is not good for the
employer or because the business is
closing.
✓ The employee receives a redundant
payment, that sometimes depends on
the number of years that he or she
worked for the employer.
5

6. 4. Dismissal
✓ The employers dismiss the employee.
✓ This means that the employer is
unhappy with the performance or
behavior of the employee and tells
him that they no longer have a job.
✓ The employer must follow a certain
procedure of warning the employee,
except in case of gross misconduct.
6

7. 5. A fixed-term contract ends
✓ The employee stops working for
the employer or leaves his or her
job because his or her contract
was for a specific period of time,
which has ended.
7

8. ACTING FOR AN
EMPLOYEE
The employee has the right to
make a claim against the
employer in a special court called
a tribunal.
8

9. Acting for an employee
When an employee makes a claim he or
she must state the grounds for the claim.
Here some reasons:
✓ Grievance: is a complaint, that
employers must listen and help the
employee. Employees often leaves
their jobs because employers has not
followed the correct procedure for
dealing with a grievance.
9

10. Acting for an employee
✓ Discrimination: It means to act towards
someone in a different, more negative way
from other employees. This could be
because of their age, sex, color of their
skin, or because they have some physical
or mental disability.
✓ Harassment: It means to act towards
someone in a way that makes that person
feel uncomfortable or distressed. The
employer has a duty to stop the
harassment, if he does not and the
employee leaves work, it is constructive
dismissal. 10

11. Acting for an employee
✓ Unfair dismissal: it means that the
employer fired the employee without
a good reason. Most employers do
appraisals, this is an evaluation of
how the employee is doing. If an
employee gets two or three bad
appraisals the employer might not
want to continue employing that
person.
11

12. ACTING FOR AN
EMPLOYER
This is very different from acting
for an employee.
12

13. Acting for an employer
✓ Often the job involves non-
contentious work. This means that the
employer is not involved in a dispute
with anyone.
✓ The job involves doing work such as
drafting contracts of employment or
giving employers some advice about
the latest legislation. It is very
important that employers comply with
employment law.
13

14. Acting for an employer
✓ Sometimes this might involves
contentious work.
✓ This is because an employee makes a
claim against the employer.
✓ Some employees make very serious
allegations and the job is to defend
our client at an employment tribunal.
14

15. Let’s do a listening
activity
An Employment Tribunal Claim
(ILEC Book, Unit 8)
15

16. 16
A sex discrimination case
Solicitors are not immune from employment law cases being brought against
them; in what is being heralded as a landmark case, a tribunal has awarded
two female former employees of the London firm Sinclair, Roche and
Temperley awards totaling £900.000. The employees successfully claimed
that they were victims of sex discrimination and, in particular, that the
discriminatory culture pervading the firm prevented women from becoming
senior equity partners.
An interesting feature of the case is that the tribunal found that the way in
which a partner at the firm behaved during the litigation was malicious and
designed to discredit one of the applicants without having any real
foundation. In consequence, the tribunal imposed £3.000 extra aggravated
damages. Such awards encourage caution in the way in which proceedings
are defended.

17. Let’s discuss the following questions
✓ What do you think the text was written for?
✓ What was the case about? Who were the claimants,
and who were the defendants?
✓ What is a landmark case?
✓ According to the claimants, what prevented them from
becoming senior partners at their firm?
✓ Why were extra damages imposed on the defendants?
✓ What does the text say about the effect that the
award of extra aggravated damages would likely have
on future proceedings of this kind?
✓ Explain what you think is meant by a discriminatory
culture at a law firm. 17

18. Thanks!Any questions? Please write to:
daniela.zabala26@gmail.com
adelamperezdelviso@gmail.com
Sources: Mason Catherine. “The Lawyers English Language Coursebook”,
Second Edition, Global Legal English LTD, 2014, England.
Krois-Lindner Amy. “International Legal English”, Cambrigde University Press,
2008, UK. 18