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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To dock a worker's pay for every penny they have cost my dad?

148 replies

Roary1 · 08/06/2013 13:49

I have been left to run my dads building firm for the last month. Last week a member if staff TEXTED in claiming they had been admitted to hospital with laryngitis. I did not believe him and requested a ward discharge summary which he could not give me and then just admitted he had gone to A&E and did not go to the ward as the hospital had no beds. He was told a sore throat is not a valid reason for absence but he stayed off for the week. After returning he went AWOL for a day he claimed he had texted in but I never received it and when I asked him to produce the text off his mobile he claimed he deleted it. His messing around has lost the company £200. Should I dock it from his pay?

OP posts:

kungfupannda · 09/06/2013 12:04

Don't be daft, OP. Of course you can't.

And you've put yourself on very shaky ground with your high-handed assertion that a sore throat isn't grounds for being off sick.

There's been a sore throat doing the rounds where I live. I've had it, as has DP and we were both completely wiped out by it. I couldn't even close my mouth at one point.

Alisvolatpropiis · 09/06/2013 13:54

Have a Op.

What the fuck was your Dad thinking letting you run his business. Poor decision making on his part.

WilsonFrickett · 09/06/2013 19:55

I'm a freelancer so if I don't work I don't get paid. I also have a ferocious work ethic. I took a week off sick when I had laryngitis though. It's as far from a 'sore throat' as you can get.

LeGavrOrf · 10/06/2013 07:06

Funnily enough there must be something doing the rounds, my boss has been off for weeks with laryngitis and an additional infection, I never knew that it was so bad. And this is a woman who has never had any time off sick.

greenfolder · 10/06/2013 07:15

i think you would do well to either of the following.

pay to go on a 2/3 day HR course

pay an hr professional to advise you and sort out your policies and procedures

hire a solicitor- you will need one shortly.

People are ill all the time- at times inconvenient to them and their employers.

ComposHat · 10/06/2013 08:56

I am beginning to think that the construction firm the op mismanages specialises in under bridge maintenance with a sideline in scaring billy goats.

TheBirdsFellDownToDingADong · 10/06/2013 09:17

No, don't think so Compo. Though tbh, it almost would be preferable than to think someone really thinks like this about their employees.

She is on other threads on a variety of subjects. She does normally seem reasonable tbh, just here she has lost the plot. Must be all that lovely power.

Pigsmummy · 10/06/2013 09:39

If an employee is off sick the employer isn't entitled to know every detail and to ask for medical notes is a terrible invasion of privacy and possibly illegal.

Was the week off self cert? If so then he is entitled to do so. Did he and you follow return to work procedure?

2margarinesonthego · 10/06/2013 09:56

Sore throats have loads of knock-on effects. I should know, I've had one for 6 weeks and even penicillin hasn't seen it off. If I wasn't heavily pregnant I'd definitely have had time off (and I've only had a handful of days off in 10 years employment) but I was scared they'd make me start mat leave early. At its worst I couldn't eat, speak, sleep, and even breathing was painful. Don't underestimate the sore throat, it's evil!

Are you Carla from Corrie btw? She just fires people at will too.

Mugofteaforme · 10/06/2013 09:57

"We only keep a discharge summary in medical notes and send one to GP. We have never given one to a patient"

Indeed also there can be a considerable time lag in getting the discharge summary to the GP practice.

It sounds like something out of the 1970s to be honest. If you want to plant the seeds of an angry employee culture then go ahead. You didn't go to bed with him and not get a cuddle afterwards did you OP?? :)

ComposHat · 10/06/2013 10:28

Thebirds

Oh dear, the fact that is (probably) real is really depressing. I can imagine the conversation when her dad returns to work. Hey op how are things at work?

'Well I managed to ilegally sack one of your employees for being ill, without consulting you and have managed to royally piss off the rest of the workforce to such a degree that they aren't speaking to me and your name is now mud across the construction industry.'

Op's father buries head in hands and starts silently sobbing and makes mental note to put his pet cat in charge next time he is away.

pandaptogether · 10/06/2013 13:10

You need to follow the company procedure and if there isnt one in place this might be a good oppertunity to impliment one. I run a business and its really frustrating when people are ill and you still have to cover their work but if they( the staff) have no written policy of how to contact you what to do in the event of ill health you can not discipline them with out getting yourself in a hole load of trouble.

Caboodle · 12/06/2013 21:02

If he is 'crap at his job' then look at his file - it will be chock full of verbal / written warnings.....but I suspect it isn't (or you haven't looked); and, sorry, but not liking him is not a reason to fire him. The best policy would be to have a chat with him but I suspect this wouldn't go so well now....
Do not think tribunal is a game (and I'm sure 'unlawful deduction of wages gives is a reason for him to take you to tribunal).

WafflyVersatile · 12/06/2013 21:14

He surely can't be any worse a worker than you are a boss.

pointythings · 12/06/2013 22:24

I'm at the idea that a sore throat isn't a reason to be off sick. Having lived through a streptococcal throat infection which left me crying in pain when swallowing saliva, with a temperature of almost 42C and unable to speak at all, I can tell you that not all sore throats are created equal. Fortunately I had a lovely, normal boss who accepted my notification by email and just told me to focus on getting better. Which took a week, and a lot of horse-sized doses of antibiotics which made me very ill.

You are un-bloody-believable, OP.

TigerseyeMum · 12/06/2013 22:48

Having had laryngitis twice I concur that it is not 'a sore throat'. It is usually accompanied by fever, flu-like symptoms and can last weeks. I couldn't speak at all. This alone could be a health and safety concern in the building industry?

ComposHat · 13/06/2013 00:26

I don't thonk the op is coming back, she is probably busy invading Poland.

Crumbledwalnuts · 13/06/2013 01:39

He sounds useless. Starting getting shot of him legally.

Mimishimi · 13/06/2013 01:42

I think people are being unnecessarily harsh on the OP. The man lied to her twice - first he said he had been admitted to hospital when he had not and then he said he texted in when he did return, which he did not, then claimed to have deleted the text. What in his character should convince her that he was telling the truth at all about the sore throat that caused him to take the week off? Maybe he thought"ahh, the boss is off, let me see how much I can get away with with the daughter". You have no proof OP but based on the lying, your suspicions of him faking or greatly exaggerating his illness, and his other shortcomings at work, I'd be shortlisting him for the next round of layoffs.

cranverry · 13/06/2013 01:57

I know what it's like to feel mad on behalf of a parent. I worked for my dad and was seriously pissed off at the way some of the staff took advantage of his kind nature. And then when he got ill they took advantage even more.
But you can't go around ignoring employment law, firing people you don't like and just generally behaving like a bitch. Work with your dad when he comes back, learn about how to run a business and slowly implement changes so people can't take the piss any more.

TheBirdsFellDownToDingADong · 13/06/2013 07:58

Do we believe the OP though Mimi?

Had she been a little more measured in her OP and subsequent posts about her father's employee, she may have found a little more sympathy and constructive advice.

And whilst not wishing to speak on behalf of other posters, I guess most of us felt she was "being unnecessarily harsh" on that person.

quoteunquote · 13/06/2013 10:59

Do we believe the OP though Mimi?

well in my previous post I asked, How has it cost the company £200?

because I run a construction company, and was slightly intrigued as to how His messing around has lost the company £200

I think that the scrutiny help the OP to decide to not return when they were unable to answer some obvious questions.

Crumbledwalnuts · 14/06/2013 00:47

Why on earth would she return? I wouldn't. This employee sounds like rather a bad lot and everyone's taken his side, not just to point out the legalities, but to be personally offensive to the poster.

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