Contract term, withheld/ deductions from pay, summary dismissal

[Westway88]

Hi,

After speaking with ACAS today I've been advised to get some legal advice. I raised a regulatory concern with my employer. I won't go into details but it was a regulatory issue that went against what they were asking me to do. I was dismissed on the spot for "refusing to work" even though I never refused to work. The employer has retained the months salary, saying because I have refused to work (which I would dispute) they are entitled to recover costs associated with my on boarding to the company. I had been in the role for one month. The employer is relying on this clause in the contract to withold pay, and, further than this, they have said they will seek costs beyond my salary associated with my employment.

1. You agree that we may deduct from your wages any money we believe that you owe us. This could include the cost of damage you have done to our property, paid holidays taken in excess of your entitlement, other overpayments of wages or expenses, cash shortages or anything else where we believe that you owe us money whether under this contract or otherwise.

Because they have summarily dismissed me, they have said I'm not entitled to the one weeks notice period in the contract. There was no investigation into the alleged misconduct, or refusing to work, nor did they ask for my side of the story before firing me.

Are there any legal or employment specialists in the forum who can provide a view on whether this term is likely to be enforceable? It is so broad I can't imagine there's any way they can recover costs. I guess the second point is what are people's thoughts on the summary dismissal. This seems to be reserved for exceptional cases of loss of trust, criminal behaviour and this type of thing. I asked the employer whether we should seek confirmation from the regulator before proceeding and they have taken this to mean I was refusing to work. It seems a massive overreaction to me.

[ULA]

sorry for the delay in responding to your post.

If you have only been employed for one month and you have less than 2 years service then your employer can "fairly" dismiss you without having to conduct a disciplinary process. However there are certain situation where it may be an automatic unfair dismissal and the nearest example to what you have stated may be if your dismissal was related to whistleblowing. However this will depend entirely on the regulatory concern you were raising.

There is also something called wrongful dismissal which is essentially a breach of contract claim, usually founded on the basis that an employee has been dismissed without notice or pay in lieu of notice together with a claim for unlawful deductions of wages by not paying your salary without being able to evidence the costs associated with your on boarding to the company.