DD’s boss and babe station comment?

[GazingAndGrazing]

DD is 16 and commenced an apprenticeship at the beginning of September.

We asked for a contract and the HR person said she was working on it.

1st day I picked DD up and she was full of beans, all good and laughing that they have dress down day every Friday and as long as she wore heels she could wear jeans etc

It’s a smallish team with a company director/owner. DD is autistic, I let the HR person know after her first day, explained how organised and meticulous she is.

DD is 1 of 3 apprentices she is the youngest. She grumbled that she has to make all the tea, fetch milk and then it was clean kitchen cupboards out, empty bins, fetch Directors lunch whilst the other 2 answered phones and took messages. DD is very black and white so she questioned why she was being treated differently.

I only have DDs version of events. She said, when she questioned being treated differently he said it was because he could, she was only an apprentice and she would do as he told her because he earns £300k a year and she earns nothing.

She asked to book holiday on Christmas Eve and he said no, she doesn’t get holiday for the 1st year as an apprentice and she was only allowed 15 mins lunch instead of an hour like the other 2.

Last incident where DD walked out was him telling the other males in the office that he would earn more from the apprentices if he put them to work on babe station.

That happened on Friday. I called to speak to him, he was “in a meeting” I called Again and left a message fOr the HR person to call me. I’ve heard nothing at all.

What rights does DD have as an apprentice of not even 1 month with no contract?

This guy is a prick and if they are actually behaving like this they’re breaking the law!

• not paying apprentices
• not allowing holiday
• not allowing breaks
• three year “contract” without bothering to actually provide this contract
• sexual harassment

Sounds like a giant scam to me. They deserve an almighty scare because they’re abusing their young workers in so many ways.

Our reasoning for informing HR was purely based on my own work experience when hiring new starters. Once they have accepted the offer of employment we ask them to complete a health questionnaire (along with many other forms)

If something is declared we encourage management to meet with their new starter to gain knowledge around the disclosure and ask if any reasonable adjustments would be beneficial to them and offer support in the future.

DD asked me to call and I would do the same moving forward if she wishes.

I’m assuming the negative replies around the above are people who have no experience of autism or more specifically my daughter and her autism so I’ll say no more on that on here.

I appreciate the replies and will be calling Acas in my break today.

Your daughter will never get any respect in the workforce whilst her mother is phoning in for her. No matter how old she is.

It sounds like it was a horrible place to work and they were almost certainly breaking the law with regard to the “apprenticeship”. But I don’t think there is anything worth pursuing her and I don’t think it would be healthy to put a 16 year old through a tribunal after a week in the workforce.

OP I have just cross posted with your latest. You really are doing your daughter no favours at all. Drop it. And don’t make assumptions on what other posters have experience of.

To the posters telling her to stay out of it - her daughter has autism and is only 16. This is her first experience of a workplace and her mum is trying to guide her. We don't know how the autism affects her daughter and what that may mean in regards to how she can express herself sometimes. If she is more comfortable at the moment to let her mother inform them that's up to her. I completely agree that you, OP, should have got involved. If your daughter had issues at a 6th form you would get involved. This is no different.

It certainly sounds more like an internship than apprenticeship and should be reported as they don't seem to be working with any educational facility and offering a qualification.

If the company is advertising "apprenticeships" but this is NOT a legal apprenticeship, then they are breaking at least advertising standards.
So Trading Standards maybe?

I disagree with others. Don’t drop it. Do report them. If there was no college this is not an apprenticeship, they are looking for cheap labour and are exploiting young people.

Nothing wrong with supporting your 16 year old and letting them (and their employers) know that someone is looking out for them.

As your dd is under 18, the employers have a duty of care towards her.

As I said before, report them to whoever you can, don’t let them get away with it

DD asked me to call and I would do the same moving forward if she wishes.

Then you’ll continue to do her a disservice as she won’t learn to grow up and gain independence, and it’ll jeopardise any future jobs she has.

Good luck with Acas, though.

@BubblyBarbara

Autism is a disability and is a protected characteristic. Sex is also a protected characteristic.

Sure but there’s no evidence they have mistreated her specifically because of these characteristics. It sounds like they are just terrible to “apprentices” in general.

The point is that they have not, as an organisation, gone through correct procedures and defining what reasonable adjustments must be made in relation to her autism, which they are required to do by law. And there is also direct sexism with regards to the babe station comment. And op my son is 18 and if I have to advocate for him then I will and you should continue to act with your daughter's permission if she needs an appointee. People saying otherwise clearly have no clue how badly aspergers and asd can affect young people in the work place. This is why there are dozens of charities specifically designed to support and assist young asd people in the workplace because autism is a condition that makes communication excruciatingly hard. I'd rather have my son's back by supporting and advocating when he needs it than leave him to sink or swim and end up with a dead son.

If she has not signed a contract then I would tell her not to go back. No salary and no holiday is tantamount to slave labour imo.

@GazingAndGrazing I can’t add anything to @SummerWhisper’s advice.

I will say though that she’s on 16. Aside from autism, if a grown man was making comments about Babe Station and insisting that my sixteen year old wear heels around him you bet your arse I’d be getting involved!

Good luck with ACAS. Far too much of this goes on and from some of the replies I can see how depressingly easy it is to get away with this behaviour.

What a prick. Clearly money and power has gone to his head

She really needs to fight these battles herself though. She needs to stand up for herself and stand up to him. Yes he might laugh in her face, but at least he will learn that she’s not a pushover. He can get his own bloody lunch, or is that too much of a peasant’s task when you’re on 300k a year? Fucking prick.

He needs to pay her the legal wage she is entitled to, and he needs to make your DD as much part of the workforce as the other apprentices. She’s not the tea lady or the kitchen cupboard cleaner.

He doesn’t deserve the privilege of a successful business if this is how he treats people. One day it will hopefully bite him on the arse.

he told her because he earns £300k a year and she earns nothing

Is this correct? Was she not going to be paid at all for 3 years?

'She' needs to write an email to Hr offering her notice with immediate effect and stating that she expects payment for the hours worked plus accrued holiday pay for the time she was there, email this to the director and cc HR. ACAS will tell you/her to do the same first.

Please do report it as advised earlier in the thread. There are decent employers who invest in proper apprenticeships and they are being undercut by jokers like this scamming young people.

This sort of thing makes me really cross, apprentices should not abused, it sounds like the type of business that wants cheap labour and a permanent job will not materialise at the end of it.

Whether other posters believe DD should be handling this or you should be, that's almost irrelevant OP.

The issue here is the company in question have fucked up and if I were you I would be following advise to address their appalling behaviour and how badly they have treated a vulnerable employee.

This isn't acceptable and they should be held accountable.

Good luck OP

I’m confused? Is this an actual apprenticeship I.e a job combined with study, or just a part time job?

@SummerWhisper

Well done, *@GazingAndGrazing* for having your daughter's back. Ignore commentors blaming you. Ignore commentors minimising how serious this is. You have a number of options and should do all of them.

1. Speak to ACAS today
2. Your daughter is a child in the eyes of the law AND has three protected characteristics that they have abused under the Equality Act; age, disability, sex.
3. Consider a claim for constructive dismissal based on abuse of protected characteristics. The 2 year employment rule does not apply here
4. Speak to your local Chamber of Commerce about the unlawful business practice
5. Report them to the Modern Slavery hotline
6. Report them to your local council's employment and skills department- the director and the elected cabinet member
7. Report them to the government's apprenticeship department and to the National Apprenticeship Service (or whatever it's called now)
8. Report them to the police for sexual harassment of a minor
9. Your daughter started work: that is the contract. She doesn't need a formal contract.

Good luck and don't let the bastard get away with it.

Just quoting you @SummerWhisper so I don’t lose your advice.

I’ve spoken to Acas who agreed with everything you said and I’ve also spoken to DD more about what happened on the last day.

Apparently, it was when she questioned why she wasn’t being given the same work to do as the older apprentice, he said it was because she was stupid and “the one you would avoid in school” she got upset and he said maybe this isn’t the job for you, I don’t deal with tears at work. She said maybe it isn’t, he then said he would pay her up to next week if she went and found the door.

Acas are sending some advice over and I’m to email them with an informal complaint requesting all monies owed and complaint concluded by the end of the month. If it doesn’t end there we raise a grievance.

Oh, and I asked if it was appropriate for me to be sending the email and communicating on DDs behalf which he confirmed was completely the right way to deal with it as she is technically a child never mind being autistic who has faced sexual harassment, age and disability discrimination by her employer.

Sadly doesn’t sound like an authorised apprenticeship. Working with apprentices - at that age I would welcome some parental involvement! But we don’t get it. And the requirement for under 18s to have their sign-up paperwork signed by a parent/cater is no longer there.

Sadly it seems your daughter has had an introduction to the more undesirable side of working life which I’d hoped we’d left behind in the 80s. Going forward I’d suggest looking at your local college and training providers for bona fide apprenticeships.

www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeshipsearch?_ga=2.145546996.1530566923.1600259885-1515861109.1599759305

You can look for apprenticeships through this link. Hopefully she can put this unpleasant experience behind her and move on. Good luck to her.

Good for you OP. You're handling this really well.

Parent of vulnerable 16 year old intervenes in unacceptable employers treatment of them

=

interfering?

Anyone who could have handled what OPs described at that age, treatment which includes sexual harassment, whoopy bloody doo for you.

Perhaps you could share your wisdom because I wasn't able to handle something like this at 16.

I do agree that going forward it would be helpful for OPs DD to handle more herself however her autism means it may take her a bit longer than say, the next posters DD.

Sometimes as they navigate the world of Adult our kids need guidance. I think standing up to a sexist twat who thinks he can treat an apprentice like shit, is a time when a little more guidance than usual is required.

I’m shocked and horrified reading this. That employer sounds like a nasty and horrible piece of work, I have more words I could say but they aren’t appropriate for a public forum

I’m so glad your DD has left, that abuse was not worth it. No adult should be treated like that ever, never mind a 16 year old child!

You had every right to contact the employer, your DD is legally a child as she is under 18.

My god I feel horrified after what I’ve read. I hope your DD is ok. I also hope the employer is held accountable for this.

Please reassure your DD that not all employers are like this and there are kind and compassionate bosses out there.

What a horrible experience for her first job

My dd is 16 and has just started 6th form because she is still at school, is it ok for me to step in for her?

OP he sounds like a total arse hole. Your update about his comments on Friday is disgusting. I bet you feel like ripping his head off!! Don’t let it drop OP. Your poor girl.