Tax Credits Act 2002 Schedule 1 para 4

Right not to be unfairly dismissed: Northern Ireland

Schedule 1 paragraph 4 amends the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 to protect employees in Northern Ireland from being unfairly dismissed for reasons connected with tax credits.

• An employee is treated as unfairly dismissed if the reason for dismissal is that they took action (or proposed to take action) to enforce rights under tax credits regulations, or because a penalty was imposed on the employer as a result of such action, or because the employee is or may become entitled to working tax credit.
• The protection applies even if the employee does not actually have the right in question or the right has not actually been infringed, provided the claim was made in good faith.
• Where an employee is selected for redundancy for any of these tax-credit-related reasons, the dismissal is also treated as unfair.
• No minimum qualifying period of employment and no upper age limit apply to claims of unfair dismissal on these tax-credit-related grounds.

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