Some other substantive reason

The dismissal of an employee for Some Other Substantive Reason (SOSR) is a residual “catch-all” potentially fair reason for dismissal.

There is no statutory definition of the term, but the reason for dismissal must be substantial. Each case will depend on their own specific facts, and an employer is still required to follow a fair process. Any decision to dismiss an employee for SOSR must be ‘reasonable’ in all the circumstances.

Common examples of when an employee could be dismissed for SOSR include (but is certainly not limited to)

• Business reorganisation (which don’t give rise to a redundancy situation)
• Refusal by an employee to accept changes to their terms and conditions of employment
• Personality clashes between employees or their managers
• Pressure from third parties to dismiss an employee – this could arise where a customer refuses to have a particular employee on site for some reason and there is no other work for the employee to do
• Employed couples – where one employee is dismissed say for gross misconduct and continuing to employ the other employee of the couple proves extremely difficult because of the dismissal.

If you are an employee who finds themselves being dismissed from your employment and the reason given by your employer is that the dismissal is for SOSR, get in touch with a member of our specialist employment team to discuss your options, and seek advice as to whether the dismissal was fair and reasonable.