Does my dad have an unfair dismissal case?

[Coldhands]

I just found out today that my dad has got the sack from his job. He has worked there for 8 years. It was owned by his mates parents (mate works there too) but the parents sold it recently. Dad was still working there. A few weeks ago, he hurt his back at work. His doctor signed him off for 2 weeks. It must have been hurting as he never ever goes to the doctors unless he really has to.

He went back to work and they sacked him for having the 2 weeks off. He never takes time off sick and his job was something that he couldn't do with a bad back, hence him going to the docs to be signed off.

I have spoken to him and even though he has worked there for 2 years, they only gave him a contract to sign about 2 months ago, stating that he was on a 6 month trial period. This is their reason for sacking him.

He hurt his back doing a job they asked him to do. He said he didn't want to as they needed a machine to do it (that the company didn't have), they told him to do it anyway then he hurt his back. The accident book mysteriously couldn't be found for my dad to log it.

Do you think he has a case even with this contract?

Yes, tell him to phone Acas and they can talk to him

Presumably he did supply a med cert for his time off and tell them before taking the 2 weeks off?

By all means contact ACAS but tell your father to check his household insurance. It is very possible he has legal cover included.

Is is service continuous? So that he has worked there continuously without a break? The contract is meaningless if has worked there for 8 years without a break.

Sounds like he probably has a case yes.

Has he been working there 8 years or 2? It doesn't actually matter hugely, as long as he's been working there continuously for more than a year, he has protection from unfair dismissal.

What a contract says is completely irrelevant; if the employee has greater rights by law than the contract gives, then the contract becomes meaningless. They can't just introduce a random 'trial period' way into his employment, it has no meaning in law.

It sounds as though he probably has an unfair dismissal case and possibly a case regarding the injury as well.

I agree with llaregubb, he should check his house insurance first as he may have legal cover. He could also ring ACAS and I would recommend he also phone HSE.

Thanks for your replies.

He doesn't have home insurance as he doesn't own his own home and I doubt he has contents insurance as I don't think he has anything that valuable.

Yes he did have a doctors note for the 2 weeks.

He worked there (while his mate's parents owned it) for a number (possibly 6) years.. Then they sold it. The new owners made my dad redundant so he wasn't there for a year. Then 2 years ago they took him back on but only presented him with this contract with the 6 months trial period, 2 months ago. It says to me (and my dad thinks so too) that they were going to get rid of him anyway, thats why they suddenly introduced this trial period. Apparently they didn't like it if he questioned the way things were done or if he said about anything he wasn't happy about.

If he wasn't there for a year between, then the 6 years don't count. But as he has continous service of 2 years, it doesn't matter, he still has protection against unfair dismissal and a random contract introduced later on is irrelevant. His protection comes purely from how long he's worked there, nothing to do with any contract.

get him to see an employment specialist, all this trial period stuff is nonsense as Flowery says. If he can't afford to pay to see someone straightaway see if someone will give him an hour's free consultation etc. He might get somewhere with a no-win no-fee agreement or he might want to invest a bit of cash to get some advice privately. I assume the new owners are good for the money if he has a claim