Can you be sacked just like that ? No warnings etc

[luluxxx]

My partner is a manager for a kitchen company.
He has been a manager now for 7 months
Previously he was a sales assistant at the same company.
He has the area manager who is his boss.
Every month he has targets.
This month he has been ahead of targets and the area manager singing his praises
Today on the last day of month a £4,000 order has cancelled which means they are below the target of £4,000
The area manager has said from tomorrow you are not the manager
Even tho other branches in same area have also dropped money.
He is really upset
Can you really just be sacked like this ?
Obviously the area manager is worried that he will get bollocked off the regional so is taking his frustration out on him and obviously trying to save his skin.

It depends. How long has he been in the role? If less than two years not much he can do.

if longer, he may have a case.

7 months

So he's not been sacked but demoted ?
There is usually an employment lawyer on LBC Saturday 9pm.
Try to ring in.
Try before 9pm as it is v popular.

There’s no other jobs at the shop so he can’t be demoted to anything
Also this was a phone call with the area manager swearing at him “your not #####%^” from tomorrow” and hung up on him

*manager

7 months in this role but his continuous service sounds like it was longer from being a sales assistant before.

Has he been with the company more than 2 years?

No altogether it’s been 22 months

Do they have an HR team? How long has he worked at the company in total? Is he still on a probationary period? I think it’s pretty poor to demote over a cancelled order personally

Deliberate then. Get rid of someone on a manager's wage just before their 2 years are up, and replace with a NMW bod. Retail and hospitality are notorious for pulling this stunt.

Unfortunately a lot of companies get rid of people just before the 2 year mark because that's when a lot of employee rights kick in. So yes Unfortunately they can let people go for no reason at this point. The only thing that is protected is discrimination against things like gender, race etc but it doesn't sound related to them.

They have a HR team but tbh after how the area manager treats people -they don’t fill me with confidence
Its a very sales oriented business but I don’t understand how someone cancels the order (and states they found it cheaper elsewhere )
My partner wasn’t allowed to offer a price match
He has traders who specifically come to the company because of the rapport they have built with him
It’s really upset me as he doesn’t deserve it

I'd get him to call ACAS for advice.

https://www.acas.org.uk/

Put a grievance in before the morning about the bullying and threats of demotion without due process.

Unless its due to discrimination he'd be wasting his time and energy taking this any further unfortunately. With less than 2 years service they can sack you because they don't like the trainers you wear.

Less than 2 years - yes pretty much. He has very few legal rights

but he should call for free advice as at 22 months it’s starts to become a grey area

Has he spoken to HR?

Well area manager rang him apologising and said he made a mistake and was angry as he’s bonus was on the line.
He said he contacted HR to say he had been awful to him and that he was in the wrong.
Then he offered him £200 bonus to stay on as manager
My partner is going to look for another job as he doesn’t feel secure there.

Good outcome but I think your Dh is sensible to explore his options. Just keep in mind that in a couple of months he will have been an employee for 2 years and that comes with additional rights. In a new job he'd be back to the start. Although if it's a better job...

I am pleased to hear things have settled for now. It might be a good idea to look for another job. I would advise to keep things as amicable as possible with one eye on a future reference.

I am not a lawyer however I have a good understanding of the employment law.

I suggest, your husband joins a union ASAP. Any union. Anyone can join a union anywhere in the UK. It's not that expensive and it's a good insurance for situations like your described. One of the things they do is negotiate an exit package with agreed reference.

It's takes about 10K in legal fees for the HR to respond to the initial Employment Tribunal claim. A friend who works in HR said if they thought they could settle for less than 10K they would try to do this immediately rather than risk a legal process. Having a union rep on your side really does smooth things in terms of package and agreed reference.

A word of warning - unions do not take pre-existing cases and cases that arose shortly before a new member joined (something like 4 weeks I believe)