If an employer failed to follow its procedures for employees on probation would a dismissed probationer have any redress?

Giving an employee the status of "probationer" does not give the employer the right to terminate the employee's employment without the employee having any legal recourse.

Where it is a term of the employee's contract of employment that the employer will follow a disciplinary or other procedure (such as a redundancy procedure) prior to the employee's dismissal and this is not followed, the employee could claim breach of contract. If they can show that conducting the procedure would have taken time and therefore extended the period of employment, they will be able to claim as damages lost wages for the time that the disciplinary or other procedure would have taken. In most cases, the compensation awarded tends to be a sum of approximately three to four weeks' pay.

Whether an employee who is on probation can claim unfair dismissal will depend on whether they have the required qualifying service. The service required will be six months for dismissals on or after 1 January 2027 (reduced from two years for dismissals before that date). A dismissal where the employer has failed to follow the relevant procedure, for example its disciplinary or underperformance procedure, is likely to be unfair.  

Even if the employee does not have the required service, they would be able to bring a claim if the dismissal is for an automatically unfair reason, such as pregnancy or whistleblowing.