Employment law help needed.

[onitlikeacarbonnet]

Posting here for traffic. Also posted in legal.

My partner has been dismissed without warning and has been offered a settlement but it is time restricted.

He wants to negotiate and has already contacted acas and used the settlement agreement document they have to draft a counter offer, however he would like a solicitor/employment law specialist to consult since the company will pay a small sum for him to do so.
Its complicated by geography as he lives in Scotland but is employed in England so can’t just walk into a local law firm or research locally. Google searches are too wide and throw up only large (expensive) firms.
Can anyone help please?

Any settlement agreement requires a solicitor to process which is why the company have provided some money to do this (about £500’ish?). You cat get this signed & sealed without one.

If he wants to negotiate the solicitor can do this but there will be extra charges.

Thanks for replying. They’ve offered £350 +vat towards his legal fees. We're aware it probably won’t cover any negotiations but the amount he’s been offered is barely more than what would cover his notice period.

Its interesting to know that any agreement won’t be legally binding without it though.

He’s been given 2 weeks to settle with the implication their initial offer will be binding then. Is that correct?

Going to PM you now

Make sure reason for leaving is covered in the agreement. Ideally he wants it to be designation rather than “mutual agreement” but a solicitor will help with that.

It is usual to get an agreed wording for a reference as well in these cases, so you'll know what the company will say when they are asked for a reference by a future employer.

Can you say what the reason for dismissal was? It hugely impacts the way forward.

*resignation that should say.

IANAL

I think rather than using a Google search, maybe try a local mixed practice solicitor that has an employment law specialist - that way you could potentially even have a face to face consultation for the included fee. The point of these meetings is to ensure that as the employee the settlement offer is fair so it would be fine to question whether you can push for more.

Just re-read your post about locality - sorry for missing that crucial info! I still think a “local” firm would be better than these massive firms monopolising Google SEO, but perhaps not local to you

How long has he worked there?

He’s been given 2 weeks to settle with the implication their initial offer will be binding then. Is that correct?

yes, but if it’s gross misconduct he can walk away with nothing. So the agreement stops him taking action and is very common. We do it every time even though we know the employee can never win, Ie like clear evidence of theft, but simply because we can’t be arsed with the work Involved in defending, not we think we’d loose, so we always do an agreement.

this is why the reason and length of service is important. I’d advise a local employment lawyer though.

Trade union rep here. It is usual for the employer to offer an amount to pay for a solicitor to look through any settlement. Unions usually sort the processing of these. Aside of that any employment law Solicitor would be able to do this.

Settlement agreements can be dealt with via telephone/email and signed electronically. It's not necessary to see a solicitor in person unless you want to.

Ok I’ll try to go through questions.

He's worked there just shy of a year (so aware he can’t claim constructive dismissal).

The reason isn’t actually clear.
It wasn’t gross misconduct and he’d had no prior informal or formal warnings.
He was just told they’d have to let him go.

I believe the wording in the settlement refers to his decision to leave so it reads as if he resigned.

I hope that answers everything.

Hmmm. Ok I’m guessing op this is gross misconduct and he doesn’t want to tell you I’m sorry. Normally this is done when you give the employee a chance to resign so you give them a chance to get a better job. Less than a year they can fire for any reason . to confirm, has he been told to leave immediately or is he working his notice.

DH has been through similar recently and found a good employment solicitor to advise for around this cost. It’s all been over the phone/email so don’t think location needs to be an issue. Happy to pass on details if you want to DM me.

I'm now assuming the same. Forget about arguing the money side of it. He had no case and he's not going to get more than notice pay (if that!). The reference is the money in the bank because he needs it to secure another job. You need an agreed reference. Then take any money and run!

Assuming there are no protected characteristics at play here, they can just do a short service dismissal and he will be entitled to his notice only.

What reason does he think the dismissal is for? Conduct? Redundancy? Face doesn't fit? Performance?

I’m aware he might not be telling me everything; whether that’s because he’s trying to spare my feelings or because he’s embarrassed/ashamed, I can’t say.
From what he’s said his face just doesn’t fit. He was told he wasn’t meeting certain criteria when the dismissal meeting was held but he’d had an appraisal a week or 2 prior with the same person where none of these issues were raised. They wouldn’t amount to gross misconduct. They’d perhaps have triggered a performance improvement notice. But as you say, I might not have full disclosure.

As to protected characteristics, a few days before he was dismissed he received an email asking him for his DOB. He’s 60.
He’s also diabetic which he’s not sure they were aware of until recently when there was a covid outbreak. He’s currently signed off with anxiety but that has only been since just before he was dismissed.

Sorry op; yes he’s been fired, and with immediate effect, I doubt it’s his face doesn’t fit. The anxiety prior to this and going off before dismissal indicates he’s been going through discipline, otherwise it’s a huge do incidence, I’d have assumed they put him on garden leave whilst they investigated,

sure, could have been poor performance though, but would be a heavy way to deal with it.

I mean you can go to the hassle of getting a lawyer, but with a year service. Effectively getting his notice covered, and clearly some reason they are terminating (not that they need one after a year, it needs to be two) . It’s quite cut and dried.

My sister is going through this at the moment too. Never had any performance reviews, so I pointed out if her work wasn’t satisfactory, they could have had an appraisal.

her former employer offered her 1months notice plus 2 months salary. I advised her to ask for 3 months salary, now she has found her contract she has realised she’s on 3 months notice!

IANAL but am employed by a large company and advised her to push for more than they offered as it is supposed to be @ negotiation.

There could be more going on but not necessarily. I’ve known people be treated like this in many companies where I worked in the HR depts. I used to 6 month Fixed term contracts so I’ve worked if a few. Often it’s nothing more than their face doesn’t fit or the business is struggling and they’ve been set targets that are impossible to meet. As he’s covered by the disability discrimination legislation and age discrimination is also a risk for the business - and nothing was raised at an appraisal a couple of weeks ago - then I think it’s appropriate for him to have a “without prejudice” conversation and ask for a little more money than has been offered. The more senior the role, the more likely it is to be this scenario. A solicitor will help him with this. If he’s never had any problems at work before and he’s usually upfront with you, I wouldn’t leap to he must have done something that counts as gross conduct.
Im not surprised it has stressed him out and made him anxious. He’ll feel better once it is all sorted and behind him. All the best sorting out another role.
If it is that he has done something that could constitute gross misconduct, unless he has a career history of this, then it would more than likely just be a mistake and the business set up would likely have contributed to that (hence the compromise agreement rather than dismissal) and he can move on from that and will likely never make the same mistake again.
Once you get to the compromise agreement stage, it’s worth spending a little time seeing if you can get some more money, get it signed on the dotted line, more on and leave that company in your dust. It’s more common that most people know as one of the conditions is that it isn’t discussed so lots of people get them and no one ever knows. Hope you’re doing ok.

Will be be brief but effectively:

• under two years they can dismiss with just contractual notice and there’s no legal recourse
• he is protected in terms of his age and disability and it may well be the company decided to get rid of him for those reasons (indirectly)
• however they are both bloody tough to prove unless he has copious evidence eg emails
• he could do a subject access request where the company is obligated to hand over every piece of intel with his name on, including private emails between other colleagues (though their names would be redacted) however in some ways this is a nuclear option because it would greatly antagonise the company. (It’s a huge ballache). On the other hand it could throw up some evidence for a possible claim. But also it takes a lot of time - I think they have at least a month to process it
• on balance it might be best to see if he can get them to up the amount they’re offering without seeing a lawyer and then do a subject access request and see if that throws anything up. But he’d have to make sure any settlement docs he signs don’t sign away his right to sue at a later date.
• the time period for employment law claims is super short anyway - 3 or 6 months off the top of my head

the above isn’t legal advice btw but just some practical insight

Depending on your bank account or home insurance you should be able to access legal advice with the amount offered. If your solicitor needs to be paid more than they are offering then go back to them and let them know. They should increase that payment to the cost of basic advice.

, a few days before he was dismissed he received an email asking him for his DOB.

Isn't it normal for an employer to ask for DoB when you join a company and have it on record? I've certainly always had DoB details for my reportees. Who asked for his DoB and did they give a reason why they needed it? I'm pretty sure they would need to say why they need this personal information and who it will be shared with?

As PP said, onus is on the employee to prove discrimination, which really isn't easy. But interesting that they asked for his DoB just a few days before dismissal. Maybe someone with legal qualifications could advise what sort of evidence this could be for discrimination. Suggest he keeps a copy of this email.

As you've said, you may not have all the information and maybe it is performance related. Or maybe they needed to reduce their workforce and anyone with under 2 years employment will be easy targets. If they've selected him based on age then you have a case but he will need to prove it. (Or disability discrimination based on his diabetes but not sure you have any evidence if this).