Dismissal Probation Period

[Lodi]

If anyone could offer some advice on this situation it would be appreciated.

Employee - service of 4 years, resigned and left for 2 weeks. Came back at the request of management on a new contract.

2 months into new contract, complaint from a client is received where said employee has sworn at member of staff at client site - employee was waiting for work instructions on clients site and had been for a length of time and asked to leave site to get a bottle of water from shop 50 yards away due to heat. Client said no due to vehicle blocking access and refused to allow vehicle to be moved which resulted in confrontation and employee swore in conversation not directly at client.

client makes complaint to head office regarding swearing. Client is renowned to be difficult - corroborated by other colleagues of said employee.

employer aware of complaint for 6 weeks. Waits for busy period of work to end before addressing the complaint with employee. Invites employee to meeting to discuss probation over text. No request to be accompanied. Just come into office to discuss. Employee attends and is dismissed. Employer also alleges that colleague of employee has disclosed that client is ‘good and fair’, colleague disputes this and said employer is lying.

employer then calls a colleague of employee instantly ‘in confidence’ to say employee sacked - this information is disclosed to various other colleagues


can they employee appeal?

[Scruffy]

error post

[MIKE770]

ULA may be able to advise

[ULA]

Did the person sign a new contract when they rejoined the company?

Was the commencement date given in the contract the new date of them joining?

[Lodi]

ULA thank you for replying. They did sign a new contract and the probation terms were 6 months probation. Start date was July 22nd I think.

original reason for leaving was due to treatment by other management for raising issues with transport/maintenance. Employee in question is a class 1 driver. Whistleblowing to HR regarding driving hours and conditions of vehicles but met with resistance from transport manager and HR and labelled as difficult employee.

transport manager in question/employer who issued dismissal is under qualified. Employee has tried to advise the transport manager that they are operating incorrectly and this has been met with further resistance and employee is classed as difficult again. Legally where driving and taco regulations stand, the employee has been right all along however this has built up a breakdown in relationship between employee and transport manager over time and resulted in the dismissal and transport manager has used the client complaint as a reason to dismiss the employee

[ULA]

If it was an entirely new contract and no continuous service from the previous contract carried over then my undstanding is that the 2 year service time for bringing a any time of claim for unfair dismissal will have been reset from July 22.

The only way that the person could consider a claim is if they could prove that in fact they were dismissed for Whistleblowing during their current employment since July and not for the complaint made by the client.