Over the winter “tens of thousands” of Britons could lose their job, it has been claimed, whether through redundancies being carried out by their place of work or through being fired.

The Independent newspaper reports that people could face losing their job through actions they take which, during a time of economic prosperity, would be overlooked, such as behaviour at the Christmas party.

The newspaper explains that cases where employees could have a grievance if they have lost their job include those told they are being made redundant when the employer actually “simply wants to get rid of them”, people who are dismissed so employers can avoid paying for redundancies and those who are accused of stealing from their workplace.

“Employment lawyers believe that many organisations are setting up their redundancy programmes – and, particularly, the multiple matrices used to rate and select staff – in order to weed out specific members of staff,” it adds.

The article advises people who feel they are being pushed out of their job because of their age should present their case to their HR department.

Employees are advised to seek third party advice if they believe they have been unfairly dismissed to see if they have a case to take to an employment tribunal.

It was reported this week that the maximum award which can be handed out at an unfair dismissal hearing is to fall to £65,300 from £66,200.

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