employment tribunal

You might have heard of ACAS before, but might be unsure of how they might be relevant in your role as a teacher at school. ACAS stands for the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

Age discrimination in teaching is a growing issue with more reports of experienced teachers feeling like they are being excluded and forced out of the workplace. Younger teachers can also be affected by age discrimination through recruitment and promotion opportunities to redundancy practices. 

If you have attended a disciplinary or grievance hearing you will have the right for appeal if the outcome is not in your favour. Your school will have a disciplinary and grievance policy which will outline the appeals process in your school.

Early conciliation is a process to settle disputes in the workplace without going to an employment tribunal. The early conciliation process is managed by an organisation called ACAS.

You might feel like you have been the victim of racial discrimination at your school. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) explains that racial discrimination is when you are treated differently because of your race in one of the situations covered by the Equality Act.

You may be suspended from your school when you are being investigated for a disciplinary issue. You should normally be paid during this period and you should be told why you have been suspended. However, in some rare cases you may be suspended without pay if your employment contract says that this can happen.

You may have heard of employment tribunals but probably have not experienced attending one before. You can make a claim to an employment tribunal if you think your school or academy trust has discriminated against or you have been treated unlawfully. In this article we outline what employment tribunals are, how you can make a claim to a tribunal and what to expect if you attend one.

Arbitration might be a term you have not heard before. Essentially, in your role as a teacher, it is one of the ways to resolve employment disputes without having to escalate to employment tribunal.

Sometimes conflicts will arise among school staff where mediation can be a useful way of resolving disputes in school. Workplace mediation is a confidential process, usually carried out by a trained, neutral mediator.

Unfair dismissal can occur for school staff when your school or Trust does not have a good reason for dismissing you. GOV.UK explains that in certain situations, you may be able to take legal action if you are unfairly dismissed.