Basic Award

This is calculated by taking the employee's age, years of service and average weekly pay to arrive at a figure. However, the weekly pay figure is limited to a maximum of £330 per week and the maximum years that will be considered is 20. However, the years of service also depend upon the age of the employee.

This is how it is calculated in detail.

Years of service below 22 years of age, the weekly pay is multiplied by 0.5

Years of service between 22 and 41, the weekly pay is multiplied by 1

Years of service from 41 onwards, the weekly pay is multiplied by 1.5

Therefore the absolute maximum that can be awarded is:
20 years at £330 x 1.5 = £9,900.

The Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform BERR, (formerly the DTI) publishes an easy calculator for working out these figures.

Basic Award Deductions
The tribunal will reduce the Basic Award in the following circumstances:

1. If the employee refuses an offer to be reinstated and it is unreasonable to refuse the offer.

2. The employee is partly to blame for their own dismissal.

3. Conduct before the employee was dismissed, this does not have to be linked with the actual dismissal. The conduct can still be taken into account if it is discovered after the dismissal.

4. Redundancy payments already paid to the employee where the dismissal was due to redundancy.

5. Ex gratia payments expressly or impliedly connected to the basic award.

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