Dismissal

[Nick02]

My boyfriend has been with his employee for 1 year and yesterday was pulled in a meeting to say he wasn't qualified for the role and didn't know if they had any work for him. He started his qualifications to be and electrian and has been open and honest about this from day one and has even spoke to the director months ago about training to gain the next qualification. Where does he stand with not having two years service. Nothing has been raised about his capability before yesterday and now told him they are giving him one months notice.

[ULA]

Unfortunately, with less than 2 years’ service, an employee can be (fairly) dismissed without the employer giving any reason at all. Although with anyone who has gone beyond their probationary period I would always advocate an employer follows a procedure to dismiss an employee with less than two years’ service that is in line with best practice, however this does not always happen.

There are certain types of dismissals that are automatically unfair, however from what you have said in your post the circumstances would not fall into any of the categories.

However just one thing to check, is whether your boyfriend's employers' dismissal process is contractually binding. This means that if they have not followed their own procedure in dismissing him then there is a possibility of having a claim for breach of contract and be in a position to claim damages resulting from the breach of procedure. There is no qualifying service requirement in order to bring a claim of breach of contract. Most days employers state that their disciplinary process is non-contractual in which case this would not apply but it may be worth the check just in case.

He has the right to a minimum notice period as stated in the contract of employment which should be paid if his is asked not to return to work plus he is entitled to all contractual pay up to the termination date, including a payment for any untaken holiday entitlement.