Employer routinely sacks staff for underperforming !!!!

[pete1972]

Hi,

I work for a large global company which, incredible as it may seem, routinely sacks staff and then goes out and hires replacements.


Every year managers are told to rate their staff on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (great). However, the use a bell curve so a couple of team members always fall into the poor performer category.

Managers are warned that they cannot simply rate everybody as an average of 3. Somebody has to get a poor.


They only problem is that quite often those scoring a 2 or less are quite literally shown the door.


My understanding is that they are given the Hobson’s choice of either being simply sacked for poor performance or agreeing to leave with 6 month’s salary + a £100 confidentially clause payment.

They are also told that, if they wish to challenge the decision, then the company will pay the first £200 of their legal bill.


Surely in this day an age that amounts to unfair dismissal?


A former colleague did ask a solicitor about it and was told that, even if it went to a tribunal and he won, the most that they are likely to get is 6 month’s salary anyway.


Seems very strange to me.

[teaboy2]

Re: Employer routinely sacks staff for underperforming !!!!

Think your solicitor is wrong when they said 6 months.

Just the basic award (Max £14,250) alone is worked out as below if you have 12 months service or more:

• 1.5 weeks' pay for each complete year of service after reaching the age of 41;
• one week's pay for each complete year of service between the ages of 22 and 40 inclusive; and
• 0.5 week's pay for each complete year of service under the age of 22.

On top of that your have the compensatory award for the actual unfair dismissal, which is to cover potential loss of earnings and other direct losses as a result of the dismissal - Said award can be £10,000's to a max of £78,335.

Also failure to follow ACAS code of conduct disciplinary and grievance procedure increases any award by 25%

Also they would have to show they carried out performance review process outlining what improvements need to be made etc and giving the employee time to achieve said improvements prior to disciplinary action!

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Employer routinely sacks staff for underperforming !!!!

A former colleague did ask a solicitor about it and was told that, even if it went to a tribunal and he won, the most that they are likely to get is 6 month’s salary anyway.

Seems very strange to me.

The compensatory award is capped at one year not six months, however, how much you'd actually get depends on a number of factors, such as whether you found alternative employment and if not, whether you can show you did all you could to mitigate your loss (i.e. look for alternative employment). If you find work shortly after being dismissed then you probably wouldn't even get as much as six months. The basic award relates to age and length of service. For some people, the deal may not be that bad but you can't generalise. :decision:

[dkay59]

Re: Employer routinely sacks staff for underperforming !!!!

This doesn't really add to anything but Microsoft used to use the bell curve for their employees. I don't know whether it was as extreme as sacking people who allegedly under performed but they couldn't use the average of 3 for everyone either