Situation...

[Mikethenight2good]

A close friend was offered a temp to perm job. Pretty much told that the perm job was there but they had to do a recruitment process but could they start on a 6 month contract. They left a job to work with the new company.

A month in they were told the interviews were happening the following week. They played it down and did give her the details the day before. On the day itself they said they were interviewing her and one other (external). This was a surprise but she thought maybe they had to to be transparent.

The external candidate got the job. They agreed to keep her on the remaining of the 6 month contract as agreed.

Then a week later they canx her contract immediately saying they can't afford her. However in a separate conversation they brought up some performance issues. They never gave her any feedback and she had only been in the job 6/7 weeks and was onboarding from home.

We don't know what we can do about the situation. The whole thing stinks and is totally unethical. I feel like as it is less than 2 years service there is nothing we can do.

Any advice?

Unless there is some kind of discrimination involved probably nothing to do unfortunately. I assume the six month contract has provision to terminate early with notice?

No it doesn’t sound like there is anything she can do, even if she had immediately been given the “permanent” position, nothing is really permanent and there would be nothing to do in that scenario either.

All to be done, is to ensure that the final pay slip is correct and includes the correct notice period and any unused accrued holiday.

It sounds like she wasn't what they'd hoped for. Sadly employees can be dismissed within 2 years for no reasons, unless discriminatory.

It's an awful situation to be in. I hope your friend finds something new very soon. Could she at least ask for a reasonable or neutral reference? If not, just not mention them in her CV and come up with a reason to have taken a break.

That’s very sad for your friend. You’re right though, there isn’t much she can do unfortunately. The main thing now is to check that she has been paid what’s she’s owed (pay up to last day, notice period, any holidays owed).

Don't leave a perm job for a temp to perm ever!!! You can be let go without reason for 2 years even in a perm role but at least they've shown a bit of commitment to you. T2P is a stop gap/trial.
Nothing she can do. For whatever reason, they didn't like her enough.

Try not to take it personally. I know it's upsetting

I'd disagree about leaving a perm job for a temp job, I've done it twice and it was great, got my foot in the door and both went perm, but that was a long time ago.

It's irrelevant anyway as others have said , as you have no rights under any type of contract for the first 2 years. Its just so shit how employees are treated by so many companies these days, never used to be like this. I was let go from a job after a few months when my bosses wife needed a job and was given mine! Lovely!! Couldn't exactly compete there

Your friend has to put it behind them and move on