I need some advice WRT something that has happened to my DH at work today.
Background: He started in this company in March this year working as x role. Two months in, the person who managed him was sacked and they called my DH into the office and asked him if he'd be interested in the sacked person's role. He said yes.
After that meeting, he didn't hear anything else; didn't get a new work contract or job description and didn't get any pay rise. He (wrongly it seems) thought this meant they were askign him if he was interested, but then changed their minds.
They called him into the office today to tell him that he wasn't doing his job properly and that he has two months to start doing the role or they will sack him at Christmas. This was the first he'd heard since the informal conversation in May that he was meant to be doing this other job.
Also in the meeting they said that he wasn't liked by other members of staff (not true, he gets on well with them), Customers don't like him (they do) and that they didn't really want to employ him after his interview but they gave him a chance, but he's not good enough.
They said that if he doesn't start doing the role to their satisfaction, he won't be able to step back into his old role as they've already appointed someone new to that post.
DH thinks that because he's been there less than a year they can just get rid of him like this.
To me, this sounds like they're a) acting incredibly unprofessionally and b) illegally, but I'm not 100% certain about b.
This is a privately owned small to medium sized business where the owner is the MD. Please can anyone help?