Just been sacked ,what are my rites?

[Marne]

Hi,
I handed my notice in on monday to look after my autistc dd2 and gave a weeks notice, i was told this should be ok, got to work today to be told i have to work 5 weeks notice (a week for each year i have worked there), i got upset as i have planed to finish friday and to start working with dd at home with speech therapy. Anyway i was called to the office and then sacked , i was upset and crying, i told my boss that my little girl ment more to me than the job as it would for any mother, i was told to stop trying to get sympathy and leeve. I was then told i could'nt collect my things or say goodbye to anyone, by this time i was hysterical, they collected my things and marched me to my car

Since i have been home i have looked at my contract from 2005 which states i need to give 1 weeks notice if i have worked longer than a month, it also states that i need 3 writter warnings before they can sack me. I am unsure if i have signed anything else since being there but im sure if i did it would be with my other contract.

I only worked 25 hours a week but have been there for 5 years. Where do i stand, surely they cant treet people like this?

This is'nt the first time they have done it either.

You don't need to spend £130 on a solicitor, flowerybeanbag has just told you what you need to do.

I am very surprised that they chose to dismiss you after you resigned. Seems to be a very odd state of affairs indeed.

Go back, read Flowery's advice and draft a letter. Post it here if you want, I'm sure people will be happy to help you with it. Be sure to include in your letter what you want the outcome to be.

Just don't waste your money on a solicitor.

I will talk to dh, at the moment dh wont let me contact them through e-mail, phone or letter and i know they would'nt talk to me face to face.

I think writting a letter to them would be a sensible thing to do, the manager that has delt with the contract is now on holiday (from monday) for a month.

If i had my way i would just walk in there and show them the contract and explain there mistake but dh does'nt want me to do anything, he wants to leeve it to the solicitor. Another option is to push for a letter from my solicitor (my fathers friend) which i might be able to get for free.

Marne I've been pondering whether to answer your last post. Actually there's nothing specific that I can add to what I've already said. I've given my advice and I think you have taken it on board which is good.

I can understand that your DH is angry on your behalf, but I am a wee bit concerned that you have to get him to 'let' you do anything in this situation, assuming that he doesn't have particular or relevant knowledge of employment law which I'm guessing he doesn't. Obviously your relationship is none of my business but I wouldn't want you to be pushed down a particular path because someone else wouldn't 'let' you do what you want to do (having taken advice as you have here) and for it to have a negative impact on you as a result.

I do urge you to talk through some of the points made on this thread with him to agree between you on the right course of action for you to take to achieve the best result for the whole family.

Having a DH who is obviously trying to protect you from getting upset further is absolutely his job!

The problem is that a solicitor, with the best of intentions, may not achieve what you want to achieve.

Further, the company's H/R department will know that one cannot go to Employment Tribunal without exhausting all the internal remedies which means grievance procedure.

May I make a suggestion? Speak to your solicitor and ask:

1. If he/she writes a letter, what is the next step?

1. If the company disputes the version of events, can the matter go to court or will internal grievance procedure need to be followed?

1. Does he/she have experience in employment claims?

1. How are damages being assessed based on the fact that you resigned?

Thankyou flowery- dh has now read through this thread and has taken alot in. Tonight we are going to sit down and write a letter to my employer stating the mistak they have meade and asking for a written apoligy and a referance. If they do not reply or refuse this them i will be seeing the solicitor a week monday. We have all the evedance that they have messed up and i will be sening the copies of this.

I think they should pay you for your weeks notice. They basically have told you not to work it out. That is all the has happened, you haven't been sacked. Also they should not be making deductions from the wages and holiday pay they owe you.

Ask for a reference up front. Employers are not allowed to give a bad one.

Hope you get what you are entitled to.

When you write ask to see a copy of the contract they say they have which specifies 5 weeks notice. They probably got that wrong.

In that case you are entitled to the week's pay. So really you're just arguing over a week's pay. The reference will be so anodyne, unless they want to be sued, it will be fine but again get them to agree that. If they realyl really want toi insist they have sacked you then they have not followed a special procedure they have to go through so you'd have an extra claim but as it stands it lokos like what you're arguing over is a week's pay so because you spend a lot of time and energy on that better spent with your children just work out how much that sum of mnoey is a week's pay.

Marne - that's great. I would add that you should put in the letter that this should be considered a formal grievance. This is because should you want to take it further, you will need to have raised a grievance first, so if you just make sure your letter is clear that it is a grievance, you will be fine.

Just a quick note on damages - the point of damages (in any case, employment, medical, contractual) is to try and put the person who has been wronged back in the situation they would have been if the wrong had not occured, or as close it it as it possible.

You don't get punative damages (like you see in Amreican TV shows) here, which are just to punish the wrong-doer, on top of "normal" damages.

Take note of everything FBB said, she knows what she's talking about. Write the letter and then try and get someone else to read it through for you as an editor. When you are very close to an issue it's easy for letters to go overboard with emotional points and for easy things like spelling and grammer to be missed - the last impression that anyone in this situation wants to give is the impression that they (the person wronged) are in anyway unprofessional.

Good luck

A letter was sent yesterday by recorded delivery, dh and i sat down and wrote it, we kept it short and to the point, pointing out the mistake they have made with the contract and asked for an apoligy and a written referance, i ended it with 'please take this as my offician grievance'. Dh wrote it out for me as his spelling/grammer is alot better than mine

Excellent, fingers crossed that does the trick quickly.

Do let us know!

Ok, i recieved a letter this mornig which reeds;

Dear **
We refer to your letter dated 5/9/08 in which you lodged a formal grievance in accordance with the companys grievance procedure.
We apoligise for our unfortunate mistake regarding the notice period on the contract, this was over looked by us and should not have occurred. We have now revised our company procedures to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.
As you have now left the company's employment and the grievance has been raised after your employment from has ended, we suggest that we deal with this matter in accordance with the modified grievance procedure. If you agree to apply for the modified procedure, we will respond to you grievance in writting without a grievance meeting being held. There will be no right of apeal.
Please let me know in writting (by letter or e-mail) by no latter than 17/9/08 whether you agree to apply the modified procedure. If we do not hear from you or you do not agree to this procedure ,we will proceed in accordance to the standard grievance procedure and will arange for a grievance meeting.

Yours sincerely
***

So they have admited they are wrong so where do i go from here?

Depends what you want.

They have admitted they acted wrongly and have apologised for it.

As I mentioned before, should you want to bring a case for unfair dismissal at a tribunal you would have to go through an internal grievance procedure first. Often when the person has left employment already, as you have, you would use the modified procedure as they have described. Now that you've raised a grievance they are giving you the option to do this or to go through the full procedure.

It's completely up to you. If you wanted to take it further (bearing in mind all we've discussed above) you will need to decide which procedure to use, modified one easiest, and let them know.

I think all you probably want is to get a decent reference agreed and to ensure that when supplying information to potential future employers, they state that you resigned not that you were dismissed.

If I were you I'd probably write to them (by email for speed but consider a letter as well) thanking them for their quick response and for the apology for their conduct.

State that you would like written assurance that information provided to future employers in the form of a reference will refer to your employment ending by resignation not dismissal. Following your dismissal you are also naturally concerned about what comments would be put on a future reference in terms of your work capabilities as well. You would also like to agree with them appropriate wording for a more detailed reference with regard to your work to be supplied to future employers should that be required.

if they indicate that they are happy to provide both the written assurance and to agree appropriate wording for a more detailed work reference, you will be happy to confirm that you will drop the grievance.

Should they not be happy with these requests, you will proceed with the grievance and would [be happy to use the modified procedure][like a grievance meeting in line with the standard grievance procedure] (delete as appropriate).

Advantages of requesting the full procedure including a meeting would be that you would be able to discuss your concerns about references in person and might get the reassurances/agreement you want quite easily.

What you could do is write along the lines I've suggested, giving the standard grievance procedure as an alternative if they do not agree straight-off to the things you've requested, then you will get an opportunity to discuss your concerns.

I think by giving a written apology straight away they are probably hoping you'll drop it now as by bringing a case you are not really going to get anything more. But you need to make it clear that there are a couple of things that need ironing out before that.

Thanks flowerybeanbag

All i realy want is a referance but i did'nt know if i should ask for pay for the thursday and friday as i was supposed to leeve on the friday (or will that be pushing my luck?)

Before all this happened i was hoping that one day i could return to work there but i can't see that happening now and i'm not sure that i would want to after how they treated me last week.

Thankyou so much for your advice, i have never had to do anything like this so i hav'nt got a clue so thankyou so much for your help.

Are you owed pay for those days? I think you mentioned earlier in the thread that you actually owed them holiday back? If after balancing this all out they still owe you for pay then yes get that.

What you want is

Leaving date to be the Friday and specified as such on documentation.

Pay arrangements to be as if you left on the Friday.

Agreed reference information.

It might be worth ringing HR or whoever your letter is from, having a chat and outlining these concerns to get the ball rolling or see what they say. You could then drop an email following up the conversation and confirming what was said.

I worked mon and tue so they will take my holiday that i owe out of that IYKWIM so they should pay me for thur and fri should'nt they?

You should get paid a full week as you were prepared to work a full week, but you should also then have holiday owing deducted from that.

So if you work 4 days a week and owed them 2 days holiday, you should receive 2 days pay in total for that last week.

Does that make sense?