can job sack me over missed time due to son being sick ?.....

[morninggirl]

my overly worried mind has kicked in this morning and i'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction/s on this.

ds, since easter, has had chicken pox (i had to miss time from work because of this, 4 days i believe), he had an eye infection (pink eye) in april (which again i had to miss 3.5 days) and this week, he's got an ear infection (so i've missed 4 days). when i phoned my job this morning to let them know that yet again, i would not be in, they mentioned having to talk to me about my attendance record (which is usually stellar, minus for the times i've been poorly, but i usually try to work unless i'm really bad).

this is the first job i've held in the UK and i dont know about employment laws.

i know these are valid reasons and my job also knows i have no friends/family local enough to watch my son when he is poorly and unable to attend nursery.

sigh... i guess i'm just worried about this, as it took me quite sometime to find this job (albeit, it's only part time, but still.)

thanks in advance...

added: if they can't legally sack me, what can they do, if anything?

lackaDAISY - apparently they are. They say that I'm not meeting the companys high standards. Mind you, on your first absence, wether its a day or a week you get a formal wanring and told that you are not meeting expectations.
So their expectations must be really high.
I ahve seen colloeagues in with chest infections and one was ill with flu, she was aching all over, had a headache and couldn't speak to customers because she had lost her voice, yet she still went in.

If you have been there for less than a year RB is right that you won't have a claim for unfair dismissal. However - you may have a claim for Wrongful dismissal if they dismiss you without following the correct contractual procedures.

Edam - I think you mean me, not Ripe (similar names, but mostly post on different threads!).

I don't think that sex discrimination would work as an argument. It would be indirect sex discrimination (because, as you note, there is a disparate impact upon women, who tend to take primary responsibility for childcare), but indirect discrimination can be legally justified if the rule is proportionate to achieve a legimate aim. I think it is legitimate to ensure that employees are attending the office and not taking excessive absence and proportionate to take action to ensure that. You also have to bear in mind that there is no legal right to be absent from work at short notice to care for dependents, other than the emergency leave. Discrimination laws will not normally protect people from doing things that would otherwise be disciplinary offences unless you can come up with VERY strong reasons (e.g. illness causing underperformance).

It might be possible to run an argument of sex discrimination, but I think it would be extremely risky. Also, bear in mind that these cases can easily take 6 months to a year to bring to Tribunal. In all honesty, I think the OP is better off focusing on winning round the manager and convincing him that this is a blip.

join a union, morning girl, then you will have someone you can bring.

And v. good point from Ribena about them having to follow the statutory procedures - I think the link further down might explain them or look at the Dept for Business website (or try www.tiger.gov.uk)

Yes, I did mean you, sorry! And agree tribunals are horribly stressful so best avoided. But if all else fails...

Unfortunately, a claim for failure to follow the statutory procedures only works if you have unfair dismissal rights, or another claim (e.g. discrimination) to tag it on to...

not syre about before a year, but certainly after that there's a minimum amount of notice they have to give you as to the exact date and time of a dismissal (can you tell my dh works in an industry with dodgy hr lol?). thats to allow you to find a rep.

RB? Are you sure? Why would you need something to tag it onto? Its based on breach of contract?

www.compactlaw.co.uk/monster/empf15.html

(do what we did- get a best mate wjhoses sister is a Barrister and teaches Law at Oxbridge pmsl......- excellent scray letters and rep time!)

Nervousal - sorry if I wasn't clear. You can claim for wrongful dismissal no matter what if you are not paid any notice. That is just a claim to be paid your notice pay. Bascially, if you are dismissed for gross misconduct (i.e. summarily) and you shouldn't have been, you can sue for the notice money.

My point about the statutory dismissal process is that it doesn't really get you anywhere to claim about a breach. You need to tag it onto a claim to complain. Failure to follow the process does not open the door to more substantial compensation for the wrongness/unfairness of the dismissal.

My assumption would be that this would not be a summary dismissal and that the OP would be paid her notice (if the worst came ot the worst, which I hope it wouldn't). If she wasn't, yet she could include a claim about statutory process, but it wouldn't really help get the money up to more 'substantial' levels.

Hope that makes sense.

Yes it does thanks.

i just wanted to update on this briefly.
i was at work yesterday, no one said anything to me, although i had a small chat (off the record) with the head of admin and i clued her in a lot more to my situation, although she was non-commital as to what the 'talk' would be about and when.

i will update again when it happens and what does happen.

thank you everyone for your input. it helped a lot and i learned a lot about the employment laws here

As far as I am aware you are entitled to 30 days off to care for dependents but it is unpaid it has definately been that for my last 3 or 4 jobs.