Help any legal employment eagles out there?

[wangle99]

I need some advice for my mum if possible.

Mum was employed by 'The Range' (you may have heard for it they sell home products). They are opening near us so its a brand new store - she started Monday of the week just gone. Everyone is putting stock out etc not properly open yet.

Today at 1.30pm Mum was called to the office and told they were letting her go as not suitable for The Range and they were not able to tell her why.

The contract is for a 13 weeks trial, for the first four weeks they can get rid of you without any notice.

Surely they should have to give her a reason? They didn't say she wasn't suitable for her job that she wasn't suitable for the company.

I don't think they have to give a reason - but would be good practice to do so. Does she have any suspicions why they've let her go? Sad for your mum

The only thing she can think of is she asked if her hours could be reduced.

When she went for her interview the job centre told her it was for a 30 hour contract.

When she got the job and her letter of employment it stayed 39.5 hour contract.

On Monday (her first day) she was told no 30 hour contracts were issued. On Tuesday someone came in and said they had a 30 hour contract so Mum asked if possible hers could be changed to that.

She is wondering if they think she is not able to work the full time hours, she had said don't worry if can't be changed will do 39.5. She reckons she is (or was) the oldest there.

She'd been unemployed since January

Your mum needs to go and get some legal advice. Have you got a local law centre?

Specifically, she needs advice on whether the company was within its rights to insist on a 39 hour contract if she understood it would be 30 hours and whether her dismissal was unfair or wrongful. There's some explanation of those terms on the Direct Gov website. If your mum thinks there may have been an element of age discrimination, she should ask too whether that might give her any claim against the company.

With such a short contract, there's probably not much your mum can do, but she should (I think) check what her rights are.

They don't have to give a reason for dismissing her in the first year, nor do they have to pay notice. You can't claim unfair dismissal in the first year unless you think you have been discriminated against. Wrongful dismissal would be if they haven't paid notice due, but they don't have to pay notice under a month.

If she has some information that leads her to believe she has been discriminated against in terms of her age for example, and would like to take some action she could go and have a chat with the CAB.