Sacked for domestic abuse!

[Lindtballsrock]

So I have been shocked to find out that one of my friends has lost her job, because she is a victim of domestic abuse. Her partner is an awful human being, who goes through this cycle of being extremely physically abusive, and then convincing her not to leave him by being all apologetic and full of promises that it won't happen again. She has alluded also to him having made threats that if she leaves he will 'find her' and I think she is really scared of him.

She ended up telling her employer about the abusive relationship because she needed to request a specific day off (finally she has made contact with a domestic abuse charity and they can see her that day). Her employer said that he's really sorry but he doesn't want someone who 'gets involved in this kind of situation' working for his company, and he thinks that she will not be a reliable employee so he has given her notice to that she is being sacked in a month!

She's worked there for 7 months and had passed her probation no problems last month, but apparently she has no legal right to challenge the employer because employers are allowed to discriminate against you for reasons to do with domestic abuse.

AIBU to think this is crazy and that it shouldn't be allowed?

There are some things employers cannot discriminate against - like pregnancy, disability, race etc. I think domestic abuse should be included in that list. Since getting involved in my friends situation I have seen there is a petition to get this law changed, link below if anyone is interested. Apparently the government are consulting at the moment on how domestic abuse victims can be better supported at work so it seems like they do recognise there is a problem. I just hope something changes because this is awful.

www.change.org/Protect_domestic_abuse_survivors

Just to be clear she does absolutely have rights here under the legislation on indirect discrimination as @Shamoo says in an early post. She should seek legal advice from the CAB.

@sosew

Just to be clear she does absolutely have rights here under the legislation on indirect discrimination as *@Shamoo* says in an early post. She should seek legal advice from the CAB.

Not necessarily. She may have, but it’s not clear cut.

She should definitely seek legal advice though.

Is there any more to this? It's hard to understand why aa
manager would let go of a reliable, hardworking person they have just trained. Are they letting people go due to Covid anyway and her timing sucked? She was asking for a particular day off. Has she needed a lot of time off?
I have to hope this would be rare. Very strange indeed. I hope she gets the help she needs. Now you and your colleagues know what kind of company you work for and they'll let you go on a whim.

@DianaT1969

I wondered that also. I think most people people would be sympathetic to domestic abuse. Maybe the day was at short noticed, not suitable for the company (would leave everyone short), lots of days off etc. Ie. Was she let go, not because of the domestic abuse, but for other reasons.

Has she got anything in writing to say why she was let go, otherwise it’s her word against his?

I hope she’s able to get all the help she can with the domestic abuse and wish her well.

However even that is uncertain. If the wording is he sacked her for being involved in DV, he’s not actually saying he’s sacking her for being the victim of DV just being involved. One could say as many men as women are ‘involved’.

As long as he would sack a man for similarly "being involved in DV" (presumably needing time off to go home and practising it ?) there is an argument that it's an equal treatment.