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Can someone please remind of employment rights for my part-time mother's help?

6 replies

clumsymum · 10/03/2008 13:06

This lady has worked for me for about 18 months, between 6 hours and 18 hours a week, depending on my commitments and school hols, average less than 16 hrs/week.

In the last 2 or three months she's become "careless", late for school pickups, not bothering to make healthy meals etc. Last week she let me down badly, I got home at 10:30 at night to find my son crying at the top of the stairs, the house a mess, basically she didn't do her job.
I've decided I need to make the point to shape up or ship out.

Can someone remind me what warnings etc I have to give (even tho' I'm hoping she'll respond positively to tonight's discussion).

OP posts:
clumsymum · 10/03/2008 13:32

?

OP posts:
flowerybeanbag · 10/03/2008 18:05

Clumsymum see businesslink website about disciplinaries, tells you the process you must follow.

flowerybeanbag · 10/03/2008 18:21

Or directgov, it's aimed at employees rather than employers but is a bit more accessible, again will tell you basic procedure you must follow to discipline someone.

clumsymum · 11/03/2008 10:47

Thanks FBB, thats helpful.

I didn't get to talk to her last night, cos she carted ds off to get her car taxed, and then I had to get him settled to do his homework when they came in.

Would it be OTT to put my concerns in writing, in an email.

OP posts:
flowerybeanbag · 11/03/2008 11:01

Do you want to discipline her or improve her performance?

If you want to improve her performance, you need to speak to her face to face, letter or email instead is not really on. I would ring her, say you have some concerns about her performance that you need to discuss with her and arrange a time to meet, without distractions of children or anything else.

Write down everything beforehand, make a note of all your concerns with examples of when she has done each of these things so she is clear what the problem is. Give her a short timescale to make drastic improvements, arrange a follow up meeting to take place after a couple of weeks to review it, make clear that disciplinary action will result in a lack of improvement.

If you want to go straight to disciplining her, you must put your concerns in writing. I would ring her first, let her know that you have concerns and are considering disciplinary action, you will be writing to her to outline these.

Then put it in a letter, outlining concerns, giving examples, inviting her to a meeting with sufficient time to prepare, and making her aware that she has a right to be accompanied by a union rep if she wants to. Ensure she lets you know if she wants to take advantage of this right.

Hold the meeting, hear her case, then decide what level of warning is appropriate. Write confirming this and giving her the right to appeal it, and tell her how she should appeal it and by when (letter to you within a week, for example).

It is possible to skip straight to a final written warning if you feel the concerns are serious enough, or even dismissal if it's really serious gross misconduct. I would say this isn't that situation though. A written warning would be fine, if you do that state in the letter that this is a written warning which will remain active for (say) 6 months, during which time any further concerns will be taken extremely seriously and will automatically result in further disciplinary action.

If you've had no previous discussion with her about your concerns, I'd advise considering the first option rather than leaping straight to a warning tbh. You can as I say make it quite clear that any repeat will result in disciplinary action.

clumsymum · 11/03/2008 11:08

Thanks again FBB

You are right, I don't want to wade in at this stage with it all in writing.

I do need to talk to her, but quite firmly.

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