My mum is in her late 60s and is still working part time - at a big retail firm. They were taken over a year or two ago. The store will be closing down this summer and though my mum has been there for six years and performed pretty well, the new manager is obviously bullying my mum. It seems as though he wants to fire her and say she is incompetent rather than let her see out to the time the store closes and give her a redundancy package.
Lots of younger people have left the store but my mum won't go for another job after this one.
I don't know if it is worth pursuing a course of action against the company or not.
An example of some things that have been said.
-Manager: You are doing your work well enough.
-Mum: I got 100% in the scanning test. Only 5 people in the store including the manager and the dep manager got this result
-Manger: Well you don't talk so much to the customers
- Mum : I am trying to get the job done and reduce the queues
(Due to staff shortages, queues have been ten deep).
My mum had asked three days of holiday around Christmas time but did not get it approved. Unfortunately she did get a viral infection around then and was very ill. She got a doctor's sick note.
- Manager:This is a cloud. You are a liar.
- Mum : I have a sick note, I am not a liar
- Manager: Anyone get a sick note.
-Manager: Which area do you live in?
-Mum: XY
-Manager: Oh that's a rich area. How long have you lived there?
That sort of thing.
My mum took quite a bit of time off last year as my dad had a heart attack in March and then she ended up in hospital after collapsing in hospital too. But no time off since May.
The manager said to her before Christmas, " I am giving you a warning, and if you don't improve, I will give you a final warning and then you will have to leave."
Another example was my mum had to do some work checking in stock from five crates. She did this in time allocated to her. She told the duty manager this. The next day, she gets called into a meeting and the main manager tells my mum off for not doing the work. The duty manager gets called in and says that my mum didn't do it all properly. She later says to the duty manager, "Why didn't you back me up?"
He replies, "The boss told me to say that".
He hasn't set targets just been very vague. Nothing has been put into writing. When my mum asked for past reviews, they do not give her anything.
The manager has reduced her hours from 12 hours a week to 6 hours. I am not sure if they are allowed to do this to someone on a permanent contract?
Anyway, I just would like some advice from people with HR or legal employment knowledge on whether we ought to write some sort of letter to the company to address this manager's behaviour or whether or not it is worth it if my mum will have to leave in six month time anyway. I just don't like my mum being treated so badly.