Furious at ds work dismissal

There is no chance they told him it was ok to be late every single day. None at all.

This is simply not true. As usual I'm amazed but not surprised at MNers inability to see outside their own experiences.

I've worked at plenty of places where, if I'd said to my boss "my train gets me in at 8.06am - is it okay if I wait inside until we open at nine, or shall I just wait at the station?"" they would have said don't be daft! Just get the next one that arrives at 9.06am and stay a few minutes late at the end of your shift!

In fact I've had one or two jobs where colleagues have had similar arrangements.

Of course that's not to rule out the DS not having been honest to OP about it, as PP have pointed out.

He should of thought about getting the earlier train before now

I’m actually baffled by this. If there is an earlier train available, why did he even need to inform them he’s going to be late in the first place when he could have just caught an earlier train from the very beginning and got there in time every day. If it was the first train of the day with no other train running before it I could understand your frustration, however, the whole letting them know he’s going to be a few minutes late every day seems bizarre when there was an earlier train he could have caught anyway. Perhaps the company have realised this. There is no reason to catch a train that’s going to make him late if there’s an earlier train available that won’t make him late

Unfortunately it’s a lesson for your son to learn. He’s not at school anymore where they just give you a ‘late mark’, it’s a job that are paying his wages and they probably don’t see why they should pay his wages if he is knowingly late every single day when he had the option to catch an earlier train 🤷‍♀️

My first job after uni I had 5am starts, the buses were unreliable so I got a bus at 4am to get there for 4:30. There was a bus that arrived at 5am and I would have loved an extra 30 mins sleep, but I didn't want to be late. Why did he not just get the earlier train from the beginning 😂

When I was 17 I had a retail job and during the interview negotiated coming in half an hour later than the proposed start time and making up this time in my lunch hour (owing to non-existent public transport). I wouldn't have expected to then be fired for turning up late.

So if your DS's boss genuinely agreed to this arrangement it shouldn't suddenly be a problem. However if that's not the case and he fibbed about this, then it's unsurprising they've lost patience.

ACAS advice will very likely be there is nothing you can do. Unless he has a disability with a documented 'reasonable adjustment' of being a few minutes late every day, he has no protection under the law.
Why on earth didn't you tell him to catch the earlier train, if he couldn't work it out for himself?

This in spades.

Of course he needed to be on time every day. Not late.
He should have worked out he needed to get the earlier train even if that meant he arrived early to work.

This is just basic common sense.

You are only being told a smidgen of the whole story. Sorry but you should be recognising that he can’t be late for work and understanding as to why he’s been let go. Not being angry with the employer for acting appropriately with someone constantly late. Life lessons and all that.

I can imagine the conversation going something like this

The DS: sorry I'm late, the train doesn't get in until 8.58 and then i had to walk over

The employer: ok, don't worry about it. (Thinking to himself- at least he knows to get an earlier train now)

The DS (thinking to himself- oh cool they don't mind me being late)

This is a big learning curve for your son. He should have been getting the early train to begin with. I can’t believe he wasn’t getting the earlier train to begin with and thought it was acceptable to be late even by a few minutes.

Them having to email him about his lateness and advise him to get an earlier train shows he didn’t use his own initiative and had to be told to. So management did care that he was late but had hoped your son would sort himself out which he didn’t.

There was no need to mention your workplace as he isn’t working with you is he, so that’s irrelevant if your place of work is happy for people to be late everyday.

Stop making excuses for him.
Its his responsibility to turn up on time and nobody at work should have to tell him this.
Your son was taking the piss by being to lazy to get a train that guaranteed his arrival at work on time.
You are not helping your son hear by pretending that this is anyone's fault other than your sons and possibly your own for not teaching him a proper work ethic of turn up on time and do your job

Thing is in the first few months punctuation/attendance/attitude is all being assessed.

Yes they could have told him, but their point will likely be its such a basic requirement they shouldn't need to.

Im almost certain whoever said it was ok probably had their manager on their arse querying why young Jimmy was late every day and to let him go.

Harsh lesson but this will help him in future.

Oh.. you told your son it’s ok to be late for work. And now you’re furious he got the sack.

ho hum.

Was he staying behind everyday to make up for his lateness? Because honestly after a few times it gets people's backs up!

He really needed to use some common sense and be getting the earlier train... If you start a job at 9 I wouldn't rock up at 9, I'd be there 8.50 so I was ready for 9... Rocking in a few minutes after then needing to sort myself out, it's not really acceptable.

They might have been waiting to see if he worked out himself that he had to be on time for work. He will have been on probation he should have been on time shown enthusiasm.

The obviously didn’t. He told the op they were ok with it when she asked, but there’s zero mention of it being discussed in interview or even properly discussed.

Well that's important for the context. If he's max 5 minutes late and he works 5 minutes extra every day and this has been agreed upon with the employer then they are unreasonable for letting him go. I suspect they are using his tardiness as a pretext tbh..

I really doubt this is the whole picture and I think you're naïve to blindly take your son's side.

I am flabbergasted that he thought it was acceptable to be late every single day, instead of getting an earlier train.

A 40 minute commute isn't even that bad!

Unless you're going to drip feed that he has to be on site at 5am and was getting the 4:15 train every day...

Employees, of any age, should be able to turn up to work on time without being late. Employers aren't there to hand-hold.

And he might have told you they were okay with it, but that doesn't make it true. The fact is, with the economy the way it is, any 19 year old who wants to keep a job needs to be putting in 100% - there's dozens, if not hundreds, of people willing to put in 100%.

It seems that - They don't mind him being late - was actually he didn't get a telling off about it so he has assumed it was ok.

He should have gotten the earlier train everyday. As he was in his probation period there's nothing he can do

What sort of job was it?

that's when he said they were ok with him being a few minutes late.

That is emphatically NOT the same as his employer actually saying that it's ok to be late. That's him being a lazy 19 year old. I can guarantee they did not give him permission to be late every day.

If work agreed to it, particularly at the interview stage then work are completely in the wrong.

Hopefully ds has it in writing.

But why was he even on that train in the first place? Why wasn't he on the one that gets him there on time? Why did he think that was an option?