FREE GLOSSARY

Employment law glossary

Employment tribunal claims come with a lot of jargon. These are plain-English definitions of the terms you are most likely to meet - from ACAS Early Conciliation and the ET1 through to Polkey reductions and the Vento bands. Each links to a fuller guide where one is available.

Plain-English definitions for England and Wales. General information, not legal advice. Laws and figures change - always check the current position on GOV.UK.

Reviewed by the Aricase editorial teamLast reviewed 29 June 2026

Process

ACAS conciliation certificate: The certificate ACAS issues at the end of Early Conciliation, whether or not the dispute settled. Full definition ->
ACAS Early Conciliation: A free, confidential service from ACAS that you must notify before you can bring most employment tribunal claims. Full definition ->
Case management order: A direction from the tribunal setting out the steps each side must take before the final hearing and by when - for example exchanging documents, witness statements, or preparing the bundle. Full definition ->
Claimant: The person bringing the employment tribunal claim - usually the employee or worker. Full definition ->
Costs order: An order that one party pay some of the other side's costs. Full definition ->
Deposit order: An order that a party pay a deposit (up to a statutory maximum per allegation) as a condition of being allowed to continue with a specific claim or argument the tribunal considers has little reasonable prospect of success. Full definition ->
Disclosure: The stage where each side provides the other with the documents relevant to the issues - both those that help and those that harm their own case. Full definition ->
Employment tribunal: An independent judicial body in England and Wales that decides disputes between employees or workers and employers - such as unfair dismissal, discrimination and unpaid wages. Full definition ->
ET1 claim form: The form used to start an employment tribunal claim. Full definition ->
ET3 response: The form the employer (the respondent) uses to respond to an ET1 claim, normally within 28 days of being sent the claim. Full definition ->
Hearing bundle: An organised, paginated set of the documents both sides will rely on at the hearing, usually agreed between the parties. Full definition ->
Interim relief: An urgent order a tribunal can make, in a limited set of claims (such as dismissal for whistleblowing or trade union reasons), to keep your contract and pay running until the full hearing. Full definition ->
Litigant in person: Someone who brings or defends a tribunal claim without a lawyer representing them. Full definition ->
Preliminary hearing: A hearing held before the final hearing to deal with case-management matters (such as setting a timetable, clarifying the issues, or ordering disclosure) or to decide a specific preliminary point (such as whether a claim was brought in time). Full definition ->
Reconsideration: A request asking the tribunal to look again at a judgment where it is necessary in the interests of justice - for example because of a procedural mishap or new evidence that could not reasonably have been available before. Full definition ->
Remedy hearing: A hearing - sometimes combined with the main hearing, sometimes separate - held after a claim succeeds to decide what the employer must pay or do, for example compensation or, more rarely, reinstatement. Full definition ->
Respondent: The party a tribunal claim is brought against - normally the employer, though an individual (for example in a discrimination claim) can also be named as a respondent. Full definition ->
Schedule of loss: A document setting out the compensation you are claiming and how it is calculated - for example lost earnings, loss of statutory rights, and any injury to feelings. Full definition ->
Strike out: An order by which a tribunal dismisses all or part of a claim or response before a final hearing - for example because it has no reasonable prospect of success, was not actively pursued, or a party failed to comply with orders. Full definition ->
Time limit (limitation period): The deadline for bringing a claim. Full definition ->
Witness statement: A written, first-person account of what a witness saw or did, exchanged before the hearing and usually taken as their main evidence. Full definition ->

Claim types

Automatic unfair dismissal: Dismissals for certain prohibited reasons - such as pregnancy, whistleblowing, trade union activity, health and safety activities, or asserting a statutory right - that the law treats as unfair regardless of process. Full definition ->
Breach of contract: A failure by either side to honour a term of the employment contract. Full definition ->
Constructive dismissal: Where you resign in response to a fundamental breach of your employment contract by the employer - conduct serious enough to entitle you to treat the contract as at an end. Full definition ->
Direct discrimination: Treating someone less favourably than others because of a protected characteristic - such as age, disability, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation - under the Equality Act 2010. Full definition ->
Equal pay: A claim under the Equality Act 2010 that a worker is entitled to the same contractual pay and terms as a comparator of the opposite sex doing equal work - the same work, work rated as equivalent, or work of equal value. Full definition ->
Harassment: Under the Equality Act 2010, unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic that has the purpose or effect of violating someone's dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. Full definition ->
Indirect discrimination: Where a provision, criterion or practice that applies to everyone puts people who share a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage, and the employer cannot objectively justify it as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. Full definition ->
Redundancy: A dismissal because the employer's need for employees to do work of a particular kind has ceased or diminished - for example a workplace closing or a role disappearing. Full definition ->
Unfair dismissal: A statutory claim that an employer ended your employment without a fair reason, without a fair process, or both. Full definition ->
Unlawful deduction from wages: Where an employer fails to pay wages that are properly due, or deducts money without a legal right, your written agreement, or a contractual term allowing it. Full definition ->
Victimisation: Being subjected to a detriment because you have done a 'protected act' - such as making or supporting a discrimination complaint, or alleging a breach of the Equality Act 2010. Full definition ->
Whistleblowing (protected disclosure): Where a worker reports certain wrongdoing in the public interest - a 'qualifying disclosure', such as a criminal offence, a breach of a legal obligation, or a danger to health and safety. Full definition ->
Wrongful dismissal: A breach-of-contract claim, usually for dismissal without the notice (or notice pay) your contract or statute required. Full definition ->

Key concepts

Continuous employment (qualifying period): The length of unbroken service with an employer. Full definition ->
COT3: A settlement recorded through ACAS (named after the form) that settles a tribunal claim or potential claim. Full definition ->
Disciplinary hearing: A meeting your employer holds to consider allegations about your conduct or performance before deciding on any action such as a warning or dismissal. Full definition ->
Effective date of termination (EDT): The date your employment legally ends - normally your last day of employment or the day notice expires. Full definition ->
Fit note: A statement from a doctor or other authorised healthcare professional about whether you are fit for work, usually issued when you are off sick. Full definition ->
Garden leave: Where an employee who is serving notice is told to stay away from work while remaining employed and paid. Full definition ->
Grievance: A formal complaint raised with your employer about a workplace problem. Full definition ->
Protected act: Something the Equality Act 2010 protects you for doing - such as bringing a discrimination claim, giving evidence or information in someone else's claim, or making an allegation that the Act has been breached. Full definition ->
Protected characteristic: One of the nine characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. Full definition ->
Protected conversation: A pre-termination settlement discussion that, under section 111A of the Employment Rights Act 1996, generally cannot be referred to in an ordinary unfair dismissal claim - even if there is no existing dispute. Full definition ->
Reasonable adjustments: Changes an employer must consider making to remove or reduce a disadvantage that a disabled person faces at work - for example adjusting duties, equipment, or working arrangements. Full definition ->
Settlement agreement: A legally binding agreement in which an employee waives certain employment claims, usually in return for a payment. Full definition ->
Without prejudice: A legal rule that protects genuine attempts to settle an existing dispute from being shown to a tribunal. Full definition ->

Money & remedies

ACAS uplift: An adjustment of up to 25% that a tribunal can make to certain awards where an employer (or employee) has unreasonably failed to follow the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures. Full definition ->
Basic award: A fixed element of unfair dismissal compensation calculated like statutory redundancy pay: a number of weeks' pay based on your age and length of service, with the weekly pay figure subject to a statutory cap. Full definition ->
Compensatory award: The part of unfair dismissal compensation that reflects your actual financial loss from the dismissal - mainly lost earnings and benefits, and subject to your duty to mitigate. Full definition ->
Duty to mitigate: The expectation that someone claiming compensation for lost earnings takes reasonable steps to reduce that loss, mainly by looking for comparable new work. Full definition ->
Injury to feelings (Vento bands): Compensation for the upset and distress caused by discrimination, awarded in three brackets known as the 'Vento bands' (lower, middle and upper). Full definition ->
Notice pay: Pay for your notice period. Full definition ->
Polkey reduction: A reduction to the compensatory award to reflect the chance that you would have been dismissed anyway even if a fair process had been followed. Full definition ->
Statutory cap (compensation limit): The legal limit on the compensatory award for unfair dismissal: the lower of a fixed annual figure (reviewed each April) or 52 weeks' gross pay. Full definition ->

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