Employment law - DH got sack!!

[Zaczac]

I don't know where to start. My DH got a phone call from his employer this morning that they don't want him back at work anymore and the contract is ended from today.
He has been on a sick leave since 15th April with clinical depression. He has been signed off sick from doctor/therapist/mental nurse.He is attending counselling program every week under NHS.

He also attended meetings twice a month on how can he slowly go back to work with HR department at work. During this time he had a phone calls and emails with his boss that he wanted him back at work etc...

It was no problem until the meeting last week that he said , he wants to have work objectives/ contribution agreement and go back part time then gradually increase to full time when he is fully recover. He rang the HR this morning to find out the outcome then he found out the bad news.
The employer is only giving him 1 month full pay as they said he went to France for a long weekend in
June - that was misconduct?? So they can end the employment contract...
He was with this employer for 14 years - never had
bad performance review. What is his rights??

Sorry to hear the bad news.
First things first:
Is your husband a member of a union ?
Check your bank account/house insurance/credit cards/breakdown membership for free legal advice.

You say 'the contract is ended from today', was he a contractor or an employee ?

You should receive written confirmation of the decision, you need to establish whether he has been been sacked and if so on what grounds. Is it because he went on holiday while he was signed off on sick leave ?

Sorry to ask so many questions but the answer to what his rights are depends on many factors.

If he was an employee this is an unfair dismissal if that was the only procedure followed.

Regardless of whether he was an employee or a contractor this is highly likely to be disability discrimination as clinical depression is a disability. Depending on whether they fired him for being depressed, or for being absent depends on whether its direct discrimination or disability related discrimination. That means they have to take various steps to treat him no less favourably than a non disabled employee who has been off for this lenght of time (in reality that's hard to prove as its rare for a non disabled employee to be off for that kind of length of time). However they also have a positive obligation to make reasonable adjustments to his working conditions and they clearly haven't done so as when he suggested adjustments for his return they dismissed him.

Also unless its gross misconduct (which it doesn't appear to be) someone with 14 years service should get at least 12 weeks notice or whatever is in his contract if that's longer.

Has your husband got the appeal procedures. If not he should get them and appeal.

Thank you very much. He is a full time employee with the same company for 14 years.
This came as a big shock as he had a very good relationship with his boss- how he felt anyway.
We are waiting for a letter. And he is startng an appeal process. I'm just not sure whether we are going to get anything out of this?? Any opinion or suggession?
We have 2DS - 3.5 and 1 Year old- any immediate benefit can we get?
I am working full time but only cover childcare and mortgage. No saving with about £3k credit card debt.should we go to see Jobcenter people straight away? And how quick we can get benefits/child tax credit?
Thanks again for a difficult time..

You have to exhaust the internal remedies before going to tribunal, so I'd appeal if for no other reason than to keep options open.

As far as going to France, what is their rationale in dismissing him for this? It isn't as if he was off work with a broken leg and he went on a skiing holiday. In fact, a change of scene may be beneficial for depression (I have absolutely no clinical expertise)

OK, is it worth pursuing, depends how much your DH earned, and how you can go about fighting this.

Ifthis was an unfair dismissal which it sounds like you could get up to approx £65 k if your DH has those losses. If he gets another job tomorrow paying the same he'd get nothing as he'd have no losses. Also if the company can show he would have been dismissed in say 3 months anyway even if he was unemployed for 6 months he'd only get 3 months money.

The notice moneys would be on top of that and this sounds like a strong claim so that's another 2 months money.

Then there's the DDA claim, again that's based on losses but there's no limit as to how much he can claim.

If he earned say £100,000 pa and didn't get another job for a year that would help as it could get you over the £65k ish mark, but assuming he didn't he can't get the same losses twice. He can however get injury to feelings for discrimination and that is worht at least £5-6k on the usual scale given he lost his job.

If you are paying for your own legal advice assume somewhere between £150 - £400 per hour. Sometimes this will be paid for by insurance if you have it (check your mortgage, car etc). Even if you win you almost never get your costs back. So bear that in mind. Its often worth thinking about the CAB etc as legal costs are a lot! Also on a DDA case there may be medical evidence which you'd need to get and that will take time and make the hearing longer unless the company just accept the depression is a disability and everything your DH says about it (companies rarely do that).

Most cases do settle though and often the comapnies pay soemthing for legal advice to get a compromise agreement in place.

At this stage I would say appeal, and try to get some rl advice from someone as your DH probably has a good case at least from what you've said here. He should however also start looking for another job as its very rare for comapnies to change their mind on appeals, they are mainly going through the motions.

I'm afarid I don't know anything about benefits.

good luck.

Thanks Hildathebuilder, it is very useful information to know and I will definitely pass to my DH straight away...

Tell him to ask for "A statement of reasons IN Writing" for why he has been given the sack.