Service Personnel have important employment law rights.
However there is a widespread lack of understanding about them and very often people only seek advice late in the day, only to be told that while they might have had a claim if they had acted promptly, because they have delayed, they have lost their right to bring a claim.
In the CMJ’s experience there is also widespread misinformation inside the services as to the scope of legal rights affecting Service Personnel generally and there can be a lot of direct and indirect pressure on people not to go outside the services to get independent legal advice or help.
It is really important that people know and understand that they cannot be prevented from seeking confidential independent legal advice and we would always urge them to do so if there is an issue at work that is of concern to them.
With that in mind, we have prepared this user-friendly guide to employment law for Service Personnel, based on the cases we have brought and the experiences of some of our clients. There is a particular focus on race and sex discrimination because those are the kinds of cases that feature most prominently in our caseload, but the guide will be useful to anyone seeking initial information, signposting and guidance about employment law rights in the armed forces.