potential Unfair dismissal - what steps now?

[legaleaglet]

Friend of mine - Sacked with no warning, no procedures, nothing. Appealed dismissal - at very brief internal meeting under handbook rules senior manager admitted procedures not followed and said a disciplinary meeting would be held. Now, forgive me if I am dense - how can a disciplinary be held if an employee has already been terminated? Minutes of appeal hearing have been requested. Is this so ridiculous that it is time to involve ACAS for conciliation before even considering Tribunal? The trust has gone, and no way my friend would go back to work for them.

What is the next logical step after receiving the minutes?

Thanks in advance.

[ULA]

How long has your friend been employed?
What reason was given for the termination?

[legaleaglet]

How long has your friend been employed?
What reason was given for the termination?

Employed for over 5 years. Terminated because he did not make himself available for work. (the employer claims text messages were sent that were not responded to (he never received any such messages) and they had no choice but to terminate, as they needed functioning staff). No disciplinary hearing, no warnings, nothing, just terminated. No previous issues, no indication of any difficulties, nothing.

[ULA]

Not sure what you mean by "he did not make himself available for work". Is he on a zero hours contract if not please confirm contract type?

[legaleaglet]

sorry for any confusion - the termination states 'You are receiving furlough pay as part of the government scheme and as part of the conditions of that scheme you are required to be available to work when the business requires it.' His contract was full time, but in August 2020 he asked to be reduced to 1day/8 hour shift per week, and employer agreed. The employer then downgraded that to 1day/6hour shift per week.

Thank you for the ongoing assistance.

[ULA]

What was called flexible furlough was introduced on 1 July which allowed employers to have staff come back to work and be paid as normal for the hours they work and then be on furlough for the time that they do not work. If your friend was on that arrangement after his agreed reduction in hours to one day per week then yes he would have had to be availalbe to work on that day if requested and received normal pay or if not required to work would receive furlough pay for that day.

Anyway potentially they have realised the error of their ways in dismissing without due process and are trying to back-track to recover the situation. You could wait to see what the meeting notes say. If your friend really does not want to go back to work for them he may want to consider submitting an Early Conciliation form to ACAS which needs to happen prior to an employment tribunal claim being made. This may prompt the employer to agree to negotiate a settlement.

[legaleaglet]

UPDATE

Employer has still not supplied meeting notes BUT has sent an email stating that a Disciplinary Hearing will be heard next week!!!! How can you hold a Disciplinary hearing for someone you have terminated? He is dealing with a bunch of utter incompetents! I think an ACAS early conciliation form is now the only way to proceed - yes? (well, along with a prompt for a copy of the minutes first of course!)

[ULA]

1. Do you now whether they have paid him furlough for the one day a week since he was dismissed? If so then the company could have an arguement to say that, once they realised they had not followed the correct procedure they carried on paying him in accordance with the furlough agreeement pending a disciplinary hearing. However if this is what they had decided to do they should have informed your friend in writing that they had rescinded his termination pending a discisplinary hearing.

2. Also in the email inviting him to the meeting have they set out, full details of the allegations, any documentary evidence they are going to rely on, given him the right to be accompanied and indicated what disciplinary action may be taken? This is required information as part of a "proper process" to invite someone to attend such a meeting

If they have not done any of the above then I would suggest that yes ACAS early conciliation may be the best way to go now.

[legaleaglet]

1. No. 2. No

ACAS it is then - thank you again for all your kind assistance. I will pop back if and when there are any updates.

[ULA]

Keep us posted and if your friend needs any more help then please just back to this thread.