Unfair Dismissal
Discussion
Daughter gets married next month and my future Son in law has just been told he does not come up to the grade and they want him to leave at the end of term (July). He's a school teacher working at an International school in Cologne Germany on a British Tutors contract (written in German).
Basically the letter sacking him is total fabrication and they have cited things that either never happened and mentioned issues he was totally unaware of. They are also blaming him for an incident he had no control over and his head of PE was teaching next to him at the time. They are in the process of reducing the PE staff from 4 to 3 and it seems they are using him as a scapegoat to reduce the staff numbers. There is also another letter saying he will recieve full pay until Aug, obviously he still has to work but as you can imagine dosen't want to but, if he seeks legal advice they will terminate his employment as soon as he starts any legal procedures. Annoyingly, one of the issues mentioned in the letter is his lack of supervisory skills with the children and commitment to pastoral duties. Yet, this Weekend he has to take the kids rugby team away by himself, something he does not get paid for. It all seems to have started after he refused to step in for the head of PE on a Weekend football duty.
Sorry for the long boring whinge but, I have all the information (to long winded to write about here) and really feel for him. He's not sleeping, struggling to eat properly and is panicking about returning on Monday. Any advice for an avenue he can turn to (no Union for British tutors) where he could recieve free advice to see if it's worth perusing?
Basically the letter sacking him is total fabrication and they have cited things that either never happened and mentioned issues he was totally unaware of. They are also blaming him for an incident he had no control over and his head of PE was teaching next to him at the time. They are in the process of reducing the PE staff from 4 to 3 and it seems they are using him as a scapegoat to reduce the staff numbers. There is also another letter saying he will recieve full pay until Aug, obviously he still has to work but as you can imagine dosen't want to but, if he seeks legal advice they will terminate his employment as soon as he starts any legal procedures. Annoyingly, one of the issues mentioned in the letter is his lack of supervisory skills with the children and commitment to pastoral duties. Yet, this Weekend he has to take the kids rugby team away by himself, something he does not get paid for. It all seems to have started after he refused to step in for the head of PE on a Weekend football duty.
Sorry for the long boring whinge but, I have all the information (to long winded to write about here) and really feel for him. He's not sleeping, struggling to eat properly and is panicking about returning on Monday. Any advice for an avenue he can turn to (no Union for British tutors) where he could recieve free advice to see if it's worth perusing?
That's what I've told him. They are living in Germany, will need to up sticks (my Daughters wage will not cover their bills she is also a teacher at the school) move back to the UK, possibly without employment, all a few months after they get married. This was supposed to be their best year
Fingers crossed something will turn up.
I actually told him to go and see a Dr and mention stress. Probably get signed off for a few weeks and allow him time to sort things out but, to his credit he said he couldn't do that. With my daughter and future husband leaving at the end of term this will now total 12 teachers in all leaving this year, so I suppose it says a lot about the school.
I actually told him to go and see a Dr and mention stress. Probably get signed off for a few weeks and allow him time to sort things out but, to his credit he said he couldn't do that. With my daughter and future husband leaving at the end of term this will now total 12 teachers in all leaving this year, so I suppose it says a lot about the school.
Apparently his contract is a bit weird, he is a self employed British teacher working in an Iternational school in Germany. My Daughter is different as she is on a German contract, as previously mentioned it may all be down to trying to get rid of her as apparently it's very difficult to do and I think her contract costs the school more.
Not much chance of either of them remaining in Germany as they are not very good with the language. There was never an need for them to speak fluent German as the children must speak English at all times and most of the teachers(90%) are English. The incident I mentioned earlier is down to him not understanding the language. He was reprimanded for not doing anything about a bullying problem, two of the kids made a dangerous tackle on the football field and started arguing. He broke it up and asked what was going on but, both said nothing. He later found out that the bully (who made the bad tackle) then abused the other kid, calling him a Jew and talking about the past (you can imagine what he said). Obviously Son in law had no idea what had been said as both kids refused to talk. Worst of all the school were aware of the bullying problem but, had neglected to inform the teachers. This is why he received a written warning as the parents complained, so they used him as a scapegoat.
Not much chance of either of them remaining in Germany as they are not very good with the language. There was never an need for them to speak fluent German as the children must speak English at all times and most of the teachers(90%) are English. The incident I mentioned earlier is down to him not understanding the language. He was reprimanded for not doing anything about a bullying problem, two of the kids made a dangerous tackle on the football field and started arguing. He broke it up and asked what was going on but, both said nothing. He later found out that the bully (who made the bad tackle) then abused the other kid, calling him a Jew and talking about the past (you can imagine what he said). Obviously Son in law had no idea what had been said as both kids refused to talk. Worst of all the school were aware of the bullying problem but, had neglected to inform the teachers. This is why he received a written warning as the parents complained, so they used him as a scapegoat.
The offer of pay till the end of term is not a one off payment, he has to remain there and teach as normal until end the end of July.
He would of done something about the situation at the time if he had understood what the kid had said. The other issue is, his boss (head of PE) was teaching his class, football on the other half of the astro turf at the same time and did nothing about it or understood the problem.
He would of done something about the situation at the time if he had understood what the kid had said. The other issue is, his boss (head of PE) was teaching his class, football on the other half of the astro turf at the same time and did nothing about it or understood the problem.
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