Interim relief must be applied for within 7 days of your dismissal date. This is one of the shortest limitation periods in employment law. If you were dismissed yesterday, you have 6 days left. Contact ACAS and issue your ET1 immediately. Do not wait for legal advice that will take longer than 7 days to obtain.
What Interim Relief Is
Interim relief is a remedy available in a small number of employment tribunal claims where the consequences of dismissal are so serious, and the legal protection so fundamental, that Parliament decided employees should not have to wait months or years for a hearing before their income is protected. It is available where you have been dismissed and your primary claim is one of the following: whistleblowing (making a protected disclosure), trade union membership or activities, working as an employee representative, working as an occupational pension trustee, or exercising rights as a protected individual in workforce agreements.
Whistleblowing dismissals are by far the most common context in which interim relief is applied for. The order, if granted, requires your employer either to reinstate you, re-engage you in a comparable role, or -- if they refuse both -- to continue paying your salary and maintaining your contractual benefits until the full tribunal hearing. This is not compensation paid after the hearing. It is an order made within weeks of your dismissal that keeps money coming in while the case is prepared and heard.
The 7-Day Rule
The application for interim relief must be presented to the employment tribunal within seven days of your effective date of termination. This is the date your employment ended -- your last day of work or the date your notice expired, whichever is later. The seven days run from that date, not from when you received your dismissal letter, not from when you instructed a solicitor, and not from when you contacted ACAS. Seven calendar days from your last day of employment.
This is one of the shortest limitation periods in the entire employment law system. The standard ET claim deadline is three months less one day. Interim relief gives you seven days. Missing this deadline means the remedy is gone permanently -- you cannot apply for it later, even if your main whistleblowing claim succeeds eventually.
If your dismissal was yesterday, you have six days. If it was four days ago, you have three. Stop reading now, go to the employment tribunal online service at apply.employment-tribunals.service.gov.uk and start your ET1. You can complete the rest of this guide after you have submitted the application.
What You Must Show to Get Interim Relief
The tribunal does not conduct a full hearing on the merits at the interim relief stage. The test is whether it appears to the tribunal that the claim is likely to succeed. Likely means more likely than not -- better than 50:50. The tribunal is asking: on what I can see now, does this person probably have a valid whistleblowing claim?
To satisfy this test you need to show two things. First, that you made a protected disclosure. Second, that the reason or principal reason for your dismissal was that protected disclosure.
A protected disclosure is a disclosure of information which you reasonably believed tended to show one of six categories of wrongdoing: a criminal offence, a failure to comply with a legal obligation, a miscarriage of justice, a danger to health and safety, damage to the environment, or the deliberate concealment of any of these. From 6 April 2026, a disclosure about sexual harassment at work also qualifies as a protected disclosure. The disclosure must have been made in the reasonable belief that it was in the public interest -- though this threshold has been interpreted broadly by tribunals.
How to Apply
Submit your ET1 claim form through the employment tribunal online service. In the ET1 you need to state clearly that you are making a whistleblowing claim and that you are applying for interim relief. Tick the whistleblowing jurisdiction box. In the details section, state explicitly: "The claimant applies for interim relief pursuant to section 128 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The claimant was dismissed for making a protected disclosure. The effective date of termination was [date]. This application is made within 7 days of that date."
If you are represented by a trade union, your union must certify in writing that in its opinion you have a good chance of succeeding with the whistleblowing claim. This certificate must accompany the ET1 if you are a union member relying on this route. If you are a litigant in person without union backing, you can still apply -- the certificate requirement applies to the union route only.
The tribunal will list the interim relief hearing as quickly as possible -- usually within days of the application being received. You will need to attend and make short submissions on why the claim is likely to succeed. Prepare a brief chronology: what you disclosed, to whom, when, what happened after, and the timing of your dismissal relative to the disclosure.
What Happens at the Interim Relief Hearing
The hearing is short -- typically 30 to 60 minutes. The tribunal will hear from you and from your employer. You need to present the core of your case: the protected disclosure and the connection between it and your dismissal. The tribunal is not deciding the full claim at this point. It is deciding whether there is a realistic prospect of success.
If the tribunal is satisfied that the claim is likely to succeed, it will ask your employer whether they are willing to reinstate you or re-engage you. If the employer agrees, an order is made. If the employer refuses or the tribunal decides reinstatement is not practical, the tribunal will make a continuation of contract order -- requiring the employer to keep paying your salary, pension contributions, and other contractual benefits as if you were still employed, until the full hearing.
If the employer subsequently fails to comply with a continuation of contract order, you can apply to the tribunal for compensation. The employer cannot simply ignore the order.
What Counts as a Protected Disclosure -- the 2026 Update
Before 6 April 2026, a disclosure about sexual harassment at work did not automatically qualify as a protected disclosure under whistleblowing law. The employee would need to show the disclosure fell within one of the existing six categories -- most commonly a failure to comply with a legal obligation or a health and safety concern. From 6 April 2026, under the Employment Rights Act 2025, a disclosure of information about sexual harassment qualifies directly as a protected disclosure without needing to fit within one of the existing categories. This means an employee who reports sexual harassment to their employer, to the police, to an industry regulator, or to any other appropriate person, and is then dismissed, now has a direct route to a whistleblowing claim -- with all the protections that brings, including interim relief and uncapped compensation.
Why Interim Relief Matters More Than Most People Realise
Most dismissed employees face a gap of 18 months to two years between dismissal and their tribunal hearing. During that time, without income, the pressure to settle -- often for far less than the claim is worth -- is enormous. Employers know this. Many dismissal strategies are built around the assumption that financial pressure will force a settlement before the case is heard. Interim relief removes that leverage entirely. An employee who is being paid under a continuation of contract order can wait for a full hearing without that financial pressure. The settlement dynamic changes completely. This is why employers fear interim relief applications and why litigants in person rarely know to apply for them.
Your Checklist if You Were Dismissed Yesterday
Submit your ET1 today at apply.employment-tribunals.service.gov.uk. State that you are applying for interim relief under section 128 ERA 1996. State the date of your protected disclosure and to whom it was made. State the effective date of termination. State the connection between the disclosure and the dismissal. Email a copy of the submission to your employer's HR department. Keep a copy of everything. Attend the interim relief hearing in person if at all possible -- a remote hearing is an option but presence makes a stronger impression. Prepare a one-page chronology: disclosure date, recipient, content, employer's reaction, dismissal date.