Case for unfair dismissal or investigation?

[Fred Olow]

Hi,

I am writing to seek legal advice and guidance on behalf of my wife, who recently experienced what she believes to be unfair treatment leading to her losing her job from quite a high-level position at a finance company. After careful consideration of the events that have transpired, she is concerned that her rights may have been violated, and she would greatly appreciate your assistance in determining if she has grounds for a claim of unfair dismissal or if an investigation into her boss's work practices is warranted.

The circumstances surrounding my wife's situation are as follows: A few months ago, a new boss joined the company, and my wife, who has been with the company for four years with an exemplary record and rewards for her performance, found herself reporting directly to this individual. This new boss soon began displaying a negative attitude towards my wife, along with her entire team, attempting to micromanage their work and excessively criticising their performance. Consequently, some negative feedback was received by the boss from my wife's team members during a performance review. As a direct result of this, my wife began to suspect that her boss then developed a personal vendetta against her with a view to trying to force her out of the company.

My wife was then informed, completely out of the blue, that her current role was being phased out and would be replaced by a new position. My wife believed she possessed approximately 80% of the necessary qualifications for this new role and so rightly thought she would be trained up for it, which is a reasonable expectation. However, her boss had other ideas and wanted to interview her for the role. She was encouraged to apply for the role, despite her boss's expressed belief that she was not qualified for it which she mentioned quite a few times before the interview. My wife was told there was no other candidate for the role and that if she didn't get it it would be advertised externally. She decided to put herself through the interview even though her boss had made it abundantly clear she didn't favour her for the role.

Unsurprisingly she did not succeed in the interview. However, recent revelations have led my wife to suspect that her boss may have already had a preferred candidate in mind, possibly someone she already knows, despite stating to the contrary. It is worth mentioning that this boss already has a history of hiring in friends/acquaintances without adhering to proper interview procedures.

Now, my wife has been notified that she must leave the company with a six-month notice period. My wife firmly believes that she has been subjected to unfair treatment, and her boss's actions have been driven by nepotism and a desire to remove her from the company purely based on negative feedback she received on her performance from my wife's team. She also believes that with the appropriate training, she could have become fully qualified for the new position without too much effort. It's also worth mentioning that anyone coming into the role externally would need to be trained up to be able to do the portion of the new job that encompasses my wife's old role, something that would require considerably more effort.

Given the circumstances outlined above, I kindly request your professional advice regarding the following matters:

1) Whether my wife has legitimate grounds for pursuing a claim of unfair dismissal against the company.
2) If an investigation into her boss's work practices is advisable to assess the validity of her allegations regarding nepotism and unfair treatment.

The reason I am sending this on my wife's behalf is that the way she has been treated has upset her greatly and she is still very raw from the whole experience. Your guidance on this matter and perhaps who we should turn to if we have a case for further action would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance of your reply.

Fred

[atticus]

Your wife may have grounds to claim unfair dismissal.

BUT

These things are not easy. They are stressful, particularly if the employer decides to play rough.

Your wife has been given 6 months notice. She should use this firstly to clear her head of the emotion, and then to look for a new job. She has the advantage of being able to give a definite start date - possibly sooner if the employer will agree a shorter notice period once a new job has been found.

An unfair dismissal claim must be lodged within 3 months of the last day of employment (e.g. by March 31 - NOT April 1 -if employment ends on January 1), so that time has not yet started to run. Obviously if your wife secures a new job, than this will reduce significantly the possible level of compensation for unfair dismissal.

To sum up, my advice to Mrs Olow would be to look for a new job. If she finds one, negotiate an earlier release, and an additional payment in compensation for unfair dismissal.

Let's see what ULA might have to say.

[ULA]

Can I ask a few quick questions:

1. How long has your wife worked at the company?

2. Does her contract of employment provide for 6 month's notice?

3. You mention her manager quite a lot but what if any involvement have HR had?

[Fred Olow]

Your wife may have grounds to claim unfair dismissal.

BUT

These things are not easy. They are stressful, particularly if the employer decides to play rough.

Your wife has been given 6 months notice. She should use this firstly to clear her head of the emotion, and then to look for a new job. She has the advantage of being able to give a definite start date - possibly sooner if the employer will agree a shorter notice period once a new job has been found.

An unfair dismissal claim must be lodged within 3 months of the last day of employment (e.g. by March 31 - NOT April 1 -if employment ends on January 1), so that time has not yet started to run. Obviously if your wife secures a new job, than this will reduce significantly the possible level of compensation for unfair dismissal.

To sum up, my advice to Mrs Olow would be to look for a new job. If she finds one, negotiate an earlier release, and an additional payment in compensation for unfair dismissal.

Let's see what ULA might have to say.

Thank you. There are a number of factors that play into her anxiety and grievance over this, one of which is her age (she's in her 50's) and thinks the likelihood of her managing to get another job at the same rate is highly unlikely. I guess that's a challenge she's just going to have to overcome, or accept. I've told her she needs to let things settle down and clear her head a bit. It's difficult for her because she didn't see it coming and she feels completely blinded sided out of spite. Thanks for letting me know what the period is for lodging an unfair dismissal claim. I appreciate it will probably be very difficult. Once things have calmed down a bit we'll reassess the situation. Plus something else may develop in the meantime.

[Fred Olow]

Can I ask a few quick questions:

1. How long has your wife worked at the company?

2. Does her contract of employment provide for 6 month's notice?

3. You mention her manager quite a lot but what if any involvement have HR had?

She's been with them for 4 years (5 years this coming Nov).

Because of her level she is required to give 6mths notice so that a proper handover can be made. Her job is business-critical and technically complex. This is another reason why she struggles with what her manager (actually a company director) has pulled. She was told, when she asked if she could be trained up for the new position, that there was time for that. Yet now they will have to go outside the company to find someone and train them up to do her job as well, which makes a mockery of the reason given. Just feeding this in for the complete picture.

HR have been sympathetic but pretty useless. They understand and are aware of the situation and that my wife and her manager are not aligned in many respects. They seem to be trying to appease her as much as possible and have actually said that she doesn't need to work off her notice period - so she can actually leave at the e/o this week and receive pay for the next 6 mths. It's a strange decision given that that allows for no handover and will effectively leave critical services in the soup with no one to effectively manage them. Her manager isn't qualified and doesn't understand the technicalities and is expecting my wife's team to step up and cover. They've openly stated they can't do her job and are very upset and annoyed at the way she is being removed. Many are talking about handing in their resignation as they don't feel they can work for this manager and certainly don't want to directly report to them until a replacement is found. It's all a complete mess tbh and my wife's attitude is now "Well they're making their bed..." Another point about HR is that they seem to be turning a blind eye to this manager's pretty blatant recruitment of people they know from the previous company they used to work for without due interview process.

[ULA]

Thanks for responding back to my questions.

1. Given your wife's years of service she does have employment rights in terms how they deal with her termination from the company.
2. Thank you for confirming that 6 months is her contractual notice period.
3. Interesting the stance that HR appears to have taken.

I am just trying to work through what your wife's best option may be, however I am intrigued as to the point you make that "her current role was being phased out and would be replaced by a new position". Is her position being made redundant and in which case was she being asked to interview for a potentially suitable alternative position? Just wondering whether there is a potential case for redundancy?

Also another suggestion has your wife thought about bringing a grievance or does she not think, given the situation, it would get her anywhere?

[Fred Olow]

Thanks for responding back to my questions.

1. Given your wife's years of service she does have employment rights in terms how they deal with her termination from the company.
2. Thank you for confirming that 6 months is her contractual notice period.
3. Interesting the stance that HR appears to have taken.

I am just trying to work through what your wife's best option may be, however I am intrigued as to the point you make that "her current role was being phased out and would be replaced by a new position". Is her position being made redundant and in which case was she being asked to interview for a potentially suitable alternative position? Just wondering whether there is a potential case for redundancy?

Also another suggestion has your wife thought about bringing a grievance or does she not think, given the situation, it would get her anywhere?

Thanks really for taking the time to look at this. Yes, the word redundant was used and she will get some form of redundancy payment, but it's really next to nothing (I think a couple of £K at most if memory serves). She was given the option to interview for the new role that was created, of which her current role covered about 80% already, but her boss made it abundantly clear that they didn't think my wife was suitable for the role given the extra 20% she would need to learn which they say the company didn't have the time to train her up for. As mentioned that rationale made no sense given that there is no one currently within the company that can do the role and therefore they need to hire in, and anyone brought in will need to learn my wife's job as well, so basically it was just an excuse to try and get rid of her (or that is the most logical conclusion). She failed the interview but, as that was conducted by her boss and the questions were skewed towards the areas my wife would need to train for, that was no great surprise.

What this really boils down to is an executive that doesn't really know what they're doing in their job, that was brought in because they knew someone already in the company, that has struggled since they came into the role to gain any sort of respect because of their management style and tendency to panic at every given opportunity, who sees my wife as a potential threat because she is both very competent at her job and has considerable respect from her team, and who has therefore worked out a way to remove my wife from her role no matter the service cost to the company. That's about as succinctly as I can put it based on the evidence to date. It's an unfortunate state of affairs, especially as my wife has gone out of her way to help this executive settle in to their role since they joined. She feels as though she's been stabbed in the back and HR don't seem to really care other than lending a sympathetic ear.

[ULA]

There may be a case to be made around the redundancy process and for your wife to claim unfair dismissal. However, the company have given your wife her six months' contractual notice, which they would argue gives her time to try and mitigate any loss by finding another job. What are your wife's prospects of getting a similar position elsewhere?

I appreciate completely the sentiments in the last paragraph of your post #7 and your wife must feel very upset by what has happened. How does your wife feel about the suggestion to not work her notice and they either put her on garden leave or pay her in lieu of notice together with any redundancy payment due, and other payments such as any accrued but untaken holiday and compensation for any loss of benefits?

[Fred Olow]

There may be a case to be made around the redundancy process and for your wife to claim unfair dismissal. However, the company have given your wife her six months' contractual notice, which they would argue gives her time to try and mitigate any loss by finding another job. What are your wife's prospects of getting a similar position elsewhere?

I appreciate completely the sentiments in the last paragraph of your post #7 and your wife must feel very upset by what has happened. How does your wife feel about the suggestion to not work her notice and they either put her on garden leave or pay her in lieu of notice together with any redundancy payment due, and other payments such as any accrued but untaken holiday and compensation for any loss of benefits?

Over the past few days she's had an agreement with HR that she can leave this Friday (today), so she doesn't have to work her 6mths but will be paid for it along with any outstanding leave due. Her boss is now being incredibly friendly to her, I think because she's now seen firsthand how upset and angry my wife's team are, and they are the glue that holds this critical service together. Quite a few of them are now talking about leaving as well. My wife wasn't even allowed to break the news to her team herself - her boss insisted on doing it with her not present, which is pretty disgraceful. So it is what it is. I've told my wife to leave her boss in the soup as much as she can, but she's not like me, she's too nice a person. After the initial anger and upset she's resigned herself to the situation and now just wants to move on. I have no doubt she will be able to get another job, she's very talented, but she is concerned about her age and how much that will affect her employment prospects. Only time will tell. I'm more angry that people like her boss can pull shit like this and seemingly get away with it. I suppose all it takes is one cuckoo in the nest though. Thanks again for your help. I think we just have to move on from this and hopefully things will work out okay in the long run.

[atticus]

let Mrs Olow take a break for 2 or 3 weeks, and then she will be in a better place in her own mind to decide what she wants to do and look for something suitable.

[ULA]

Sound advice from atticus. I would just add please make sure your wife is provided all the arrangements regarding not working her notice and payments due to her in writing before she finishes her day today.

We wish your wife all the best and if there is anything further, then please just come back to this thread.

[Fred Olow]

Thank you both for taking the time to read through and provide your guidance. It is very much appreciated!

[Manxman]

If she accepts the offer to leave early but still get paid the 6 months that she's entitled to, what will be her last day of employment?

(I'm thinking about if she decides she still wants to make an unfair dismissal claim...)

[atticus]

The date on which she leaves early. The 6 months pay will be in lieu of notice.