Are there grounds for unfair dismissal if employed less than 1 year

[carleajam]

Hi there, im new here and looking for some advice regarding my son. He started a new job in January working for a printing company. He passed his 3 months probation with flying colours and the bosses said they were happy with his work. Over the past couple of months things have started to go wrong. Basically he is paired with another guy who had worked there for several years who is not pulling his weight. Things have gone wrong a few times through no fault of my sons but the Managers are pulling both of them up and have said to both of them if things dont improve they will both be put back on probation. Now rumour is going round that the guy who used to work there before my son wants his old job back. My son is now worried that the company are planning to have this guy back and will dismiss my son on grounds that his work is not satisfactory and because he has been there less than a year he wont have a leg to stand on.
I have told him to start keeping a diary of anything that goes wrong as proof etc but if the company were to sack him does my son have any rights as he hasnt been there a year. Any advice would be appreciated.

[ULA]

Re: Are there grounds for unfair dismissal if employed less than 1 year

Unfortunately, with less than 2 years’ service, you can be (fairly) dismissed without the employer giving any reason at all. Although with anyone who has gone beyond their probationary period I would always advocate an employer follows a procedure to dismiss an employee with less than two years’ service that is in line with best practice.

There are certain types of dismissals that are automatically unfair. This means that the employee does not have to have worked for 2 years in order to make a claim. Examples include employees who are dismissed for any of the following reasons:-

· They asked to be released for jury service.
· The employee was intending to take action to enforce a statutory right, such as the right to be paid the National Minimum Wages.

In addition, the law does not allow an employer to discriminate against an employee on the grounds of any protected characteristic, such as race, gender, religion, disability so if they did dismiss on these grounds then an employee would be able to claim compensation for discrimination, even if they’ve only recently started their job.

However I cannot ascertain from what you have said inyour post whether the circumstances would fall into any of the categories should they decide to dismiss your son.

Justone thing to check though is whether your son's employers' dismissal process iscontractually binding. This means that if they did not follow their ownprocedure if they dismissed him then there is a possibility of having a claim forbreach of contract and be in a position to claim damages resulting from thebreach of procedure. There is no qualifying service requirement in order tobring a claim of breach of contract. Most days employers state that theirdisciplinary process is non-contractual in which case this would not apply butit may be worth the check just in case.
If it did happen then he would have a right to a minimum notice period as stated in his contract of employment which should be paid to even if they ask him notto return to work plus there is are entitlement to all contractual pay up tothe termination date, including a payment for any untaken holiday entitlement.

As a suggestion if over a period of time his diary keeping does provide some evidence he could discuss informally with a manager it may be worth considering this approach however it would have to be balanced against what else you say is happening as it may provoke them to go down a dismissal route with your son.

I am sorry if this all sounds very negative but it is the current situation with regard to someone with less than 2 years service.