Hi all, I really hope someone can give us some advice. I'm a bit of a nervous wreck at the moment. I've been a SAHM for 11 years, with 3 DCs. Having had my first child very young, I have had little work experience, and all of them in entry-level positions, so don't have a CV to speak of. We've always relied on DH's income, which was decent enough, but today things changed, as during a disciplinary meeting, he was dismissed straight away for gross misconduct.
This was due to an incident where he failed to inform his manager of an issue as well as deliberate falsification of documents to cover up the issue. This was when he was made to work 9 days consecutively without off days, and on that particular day, he worked for 24 hours (yes, 24 hours) and was so knackered at the end of that, that when the issue arose, he chose to falsify records so he could come home to catch some rest.
He admitted all the charges against me and stressed to the hearing that he was overworked and tired when he made the mistake, due to working an extra night, weekend shifts and call outs without overtime pay due to a colleague being on long term sickness. These haphazard working hours have been going on since his colleague went off on sick leave round about a year ago.
They dismissed him today, reason being a breakdown of trust, as he was a supervisor. He's read somewhere that if he is dependant on drugs, they can not sack him but must get him into rehab while allowing him to keep his job. He has been a regular cannabis smoker for the past year since his job shift patterns changed to accomodate his long term sick colleague, because he was so stressed out with all the extra work, he needed help to sleep.
It's not the right thing to do, I know, and he feels really remorseful for the way things have turned out. Not that the cannabis was a main reason why he did what he did, but it could have played a part. He's wondering if he could appeal his dismissal raising the cannabis dependency issue as a reason, and thereby have a shot at keeping his job, while he actually goes looking for a new one? He has not been happy for the past year. Our family life has suffered a lot because he was always on call, doing shift work (when he shouldn't, because his contract states his job hours should really be 9 to 5 Monday to Friday)...
Do you think he has a chance of winning his appeal and keeping his job and getting rehab from the company?