Dismissed for no good reason

[jon1965]

Hi
A close friend of mine has just had hos employment terminated . He has only been there 7 months.
On Wednesday he was off sick and also Thursday. He got a phone call asking if he was in as they had a letter to deliver. the letter stated that due to poor performance and customer complaints they were terminating his contract, paying a months salary in lieu of notice. They also claimed that his performance issues had been discussed although he denies it.
With the best will in the world he is not a Mans man but neither is he a camp queen, just a nice 30 something lad who maybe has had a sheltered life.

He started the job so he could move to London after his civil partnership and says he has always felt disliked at his workplace.
I also suspect that this might be a cost cutting exercise and that the company is in trouble, or so word on the grapevine suggests.

Does he have a hope in hell of , basically revenge, or is he best to move on , apply for different jobs and use it as an opportunity.
My personal view is that he will never be certain of the reasons for his dismissal and he needs to take this as an opportunity to re-evaluate what he wants to do and maybe change paths.

[bluebottle]

Re: Dismissed for no good reason

Unfortunately, having been employed for only seven months means he is not protected by Unfair Dismissal regulations. For anyone to make allegations not backed by credible evidence can be deemed to be harassment under certain circumstances. Have the issues alluded to in the letter he received been an ongoing matter since he commenced his employment with his employer? If so, did this contribute to his ill health?

[charitynjw]

Re: Dismissed for no good reason

Hi jon1965,

A 'protected characteristic' is covered under the Equality Act 2010, but a high level of proof that there was any kind of discrimination would, in reality, be necessary to counter the employer's claim of poor performance.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Dismissed for no good reason

Hi
A close friend of mine has just had hos employment terminated . He has only been there 7 months.
On Wednesday he was off sick and also Thursday. He got a phone call asking if he was in as they had a letter to deliver. the letter stated that due to poor performance and customer complaints they were terminating his contract, paying a months salary in lieu of notice. They also claimed that his performance issues had been discussed although he denies it.
With the best will in the world he is not a Mans man but neither is he a camp queen, just a nice 30 something lad who maybe has had a sheltered life.

He started the job so he could move to London after his civil partnership and says he has always felt disliked at his workplace.
I also suspect that this might be a cost cutting exercise and that the company is in trouble, or so word on the grapevine suggests.

Does he have a hope in hell of , basically revenge, or is he best to move on , apply for different jobs and use it as an opportunity.
My personal view is that he will never be certain of the reasons for his dismissal and he needs to take this as an opportunity to re-evaluate what he wants to do and maybe change paths.

They obviously took advantage of the fact that he'd only been there 7 months so they could get rid of him without having to make a valid case, :sad: however, when there are issues such as discrimination involved, there may still be an argument.

You say he started his job so he could move to London, is he in London at the moment? If so, I know just the place for free legal advice. :thumb: This is the place I went to when I was dismissed years ago and I found someone there to take my case pro-bono. At that time, a friend and former colleague was unhappy because his co-workers were paid overtime and he wasn't.

This was a result of a TUPE transfer - the bank we used to work for had stopped paying O/T in 2000 but the outsourcing outfit that took over still paid it. I took him to this place and we were lucky to be seen by an employment lawyer of Afro-Caribbean origin who quickly brought up the subject of discrimination. My friend is a white British male but he is also gay, and he was successful in getting his terms of employment changed so he could get paid O/T, even when the lack of payment was due to historical/contractual reasons and nothing to do with his sexual orientation. :grin: :grin: :grin:

Although all this took place many moons ago (hence I feel free to post it up here), the legal advice place is still up and running, and they offer employment advice on Monday evenings. If your friend is in the London area, he could do much worse than pop-in for a chat: http://www.toynbeehall.org.uk/legal-advice

You will see they also offer debt advice, I never went there for that purpose and I suspect their advice in that area may be similar to that offered by the CAB and be based around DMPs rather than UE, just a wild guess on my part. :noidea: :confused2:

[jon1965]

Re: Dismissed for no good reason

Thank you all for that. FP I will pass on that link to him. I know discrimination can be very hard to prove especially when it may not be even conscious. I am not saying that there was discrimination as I am up here and he is down there and I haven't seen anything. What I do know is that he has been unhappy almost since day 1 and we have drifted apart a little but I assumed that was down to him having a new life , his partner at home etc etc but who knows.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Dismissed for no good reason

Thank you all for that. FP I will pass on that link to him. I know discrimination can be very hard to prove especially when it may not be even conscious. I am not saying that there was discrimination as I am up here and he is down there and I haven't seen anything. What I do know is that he has been unhappy almost since day 1 and we have drifted apart a little but I assumed that was down to him having a new life , his partner at home etc etc but who knows.

This works BOTH WAYS. It can also be very hard to prove there was no discrimination involved when making a decision concerning someone who belongs to one of certain groups. Even if they got rid of him to cut costs, there is the question of why *he* was chosen.

My friend above was not dismissed but nor was he really discriminated against, yet he succeeded!

[jon1965]

Re: Dismissed for no good reason

Thanks again, it's a bloody good job you FP still fits your name , I have to think about it every time I write it.

They have come up to see his Mum this weekend so I will try to meet him when his OH goes back on Monday .

[smileyculture]

Re: Dismissed for no good reason

Hi Jon, just one question, was he paid anything in lieu of notice, in other words , was he paid a weeks extra pay?

[charitynjw]

Re: Dismissed for no good reason

Hi Jon, just one question, was he paid anything in lieu of notice, in other words , was he paid a weeks extra pay?

Hi
A close friend of mine has just had hos employment terminated . He has only been there 7 months.
On Wednesday he was off sick and also Thursday. He got a phone call asking if he was in as they had a letter to deliver. the letter stated that due to poor performance and customer complaints they were terminating his contract, paying a months salary in lieu of notice. They also claimed that his performance issues had been discussed although he denies it.
With the best will in the world he is not a Mans man but neither is he a camp queen, just a nice 30 something lad who maybe has had a sheltered life.

He started the job so he could move to London after his civil partnership and says he has always felt disliked at his workplace.
I also suspect that this might be a cost cutting exercise and that the company is in trouble, or so word on the grapevine suggests.

Does he have a hope in hell of , basically revenge, or is he best to move on , apply for different jobs and use it as an opportunity.
My personal view is that he will never be certain of the reasons for his dismissal and he needs to take this as an opportunity to re-evaluate what he wants to do and maybe change paths.

Chaz

[smileyculture]

Re: Dismissed for no good reason

Thanks for highlighting that, I am getting worse when reading and missing quite a lot out. Personally, I think that as they only had to pay 1 week and paid 4, this is not even get off the ground. Had they not paid a penny, wrongful dismissal was a starting point. I can only see wasted time and money, with very little chance.

[jon1965]

Re: Dismissed for no good reason

As far as i am aware the notice period was contractual. My gut feeling is that there were other motives but can't prove it. I think he us going to visit the law centre FP suggested.
Quite strange in that his partner wants to negotiate a resignation however the director has said she will give a reference. My opinion is first find out what the reference will say as there really is nothing at this point to negotiate with.

Has anyone ever heard of application forms that ask if you have EVER been dismissed from a reference

[teaboy2]

Re: Dismissed for no good reason

I think dismissing someone without a disciplinary procedure being followed is automatic unfair dismissal, especially if they gave no previous warnings or failed to follow any disciplinary procedure as per the employment contract or ACAS CODE (which most procedures are now based on). Which would give grounds for a claim at tribunal.

[smileyculture]

Re: Dismissed for no good reason

Wrongful dismissal/ breach of contract is the only option under 1/2 years employment. I think the 2 year rule applies in most cases now. Unfair only applies once the 2 year period has been worked.

[wales01man]

Re: Dismissed for no good reason

This might upset some but
Could it be he was dismissed because he was not good enough and they could do it as the time frame for more employment rights had not been reached,I don't like to see someone lose their job but could this be the reason .
Its too easy to try and look for a reason and to try and play the Discrimination card does the OPs friend want to try and fight this or get a reference and get another job.
Having always been self employed I only got paid when I did the job and the few that I employed could do the job they were paid for that's all an employer asks .

[jon1965]

Re: Dismissed for no good reason

Walesman
Maybe that was the reason and I suspect i will never know however it is unethical to dismiss someone who has past the initial probation period without going through some sort of retraining/extended probation .
What concerned me was the way it was done, it had been decided , payroll processed and paid before he was told there was an issue. the MD has also called my friend and said she is happy to do a reference for him at any time.

My personal view is that there was probably some discrimination there which fostered a poor working environment which maybe gave rise to poorer performance than would have been the case with good working practice.For all I know the discrimination could have been because he was the new guy , or from the Midlands . lets face it, if I had my way, Hadrians wall would be rebuilt , Yorkshire would be bombed and as for wales, well just cut it off and let it float out to sea