PA sacked from work without warning. Any recourse ???
Discussion
Not me but my daughter. She was asked to sit with HR and her boss who is the CFO of the company and told that her tasks were completed too slowly and she did not inform her boss every time she had completed tasks. Obviously the two points are slightly at odds. I think they were just looking for excuses as her boss did not like her. He is not liked by many other staff who used to say to my daughter they do not know how she works for him.
I think that she found him difficult but was willing to put up with his poor social skills, lack of appreciation and control freek /autistic traits. She is used to working for high rolling bankers and traders and is more used to them giving her tasks and trusting that by asking her she has completed them. She was happy to come in early almost every day (outside of contracted hours) and often worked at home at weekends when her boss sent demands/requests.
He did at one point ask her to make up a list of what she was going to do each day but said that apparently this took up a lot of her time. Time that she could be completing some of the tasks. She also worked as a PA for two other under managers who had no issue with her.
I was of the mind that if companies were unhappy with you they had to go through verbal and written procedures before sacking. To in effect give them/her a chance to rectify what they saw as her failures.
I have suggested she speak to ACAS or seek legal advice to at least try and get a three or six months pay off as no procedure seems to have been followed. Am I living in a Daily Mail world??
Any advice from experts or those who have been in a similar situation as her would be most appreciated.
I should finally add that she has not been found with porn on her computer, stealing money, fraud, sexual harassment, endangering herself or others, involved in paedophilia or any implied criminal activity which would presumably allow instant dismissal.
Pip
Ps she is being paid her months notice.
I think that she found him difficult but was willing to put up with his poor social skills, lack of appreciation and control freek /autistic traits. She is used to working for high rolling bankers and traders and is more used to them giving her tasks and trusting that by asking her she has completed them. She was happy to come in early almost every day (outside of contracted hours) and often worked at home at weekends when her boss sent demands/requests.
He did at one point ask her to make up a list of what she was going to do each day but said that apparently this took up a lot of her time. Time that she could be completing some of the tasks. She also worked as a PA for two other under managers who had no issue with her.
I was of the mind that if companies were unhappy with you they had to go through verbal and written procedures before sacking. To in effect give them/her a chance to rectify what they saw as her failures.
I have suggested she speak to ACAS or seek legal advice to at least try and get a three or six months pay off as no procedure seems to have been followed. Am I living in a Daily Mail world??
Any advice from experts or those who have been in a similar situation as her would be most appreciated.
I should finally add that she has not been found with porn on her computer, stealing money, fraud, sexual harassment, endangering herself or others, involved in paedophilia or any implied criminal activity which would presumably allow instant dismissal.
Pip
Ps she is being paid her months notice.
Unfortunately there’s not a lot you can do in that case.
By all means get her contract checked by an expert but when service time is under 2 years there is very limited recourse.
Best advice I can give is just to move on. If she is any good she shouldn’t struggle to get another job, especially if she’s worked at a high level in the recent past.
By all means get her contract checked by an expert but when service time is under 2 years there is very limited recourse.
Best advice I can give is just to move on. If she is any good she shouldn’t struggle to get another job, especially if she’s worked at a high level in the recent past.
What's been said above is correct, I'm afraid. With a small number of exceptions, an employee has very little protection in the first two years - they don't gain the right not to be unfairly dismissed until that point (or one week before, if they are given no notice).
Some of the main exceptions are shown on this page this .gov.uk page. If somebody can prove the real reason for their dismissal was one of those, the situation is different.
Assuming not, the employer only owes her the rights set out in her contract. If the contract is well drafted, the only relevant right will be to receive notice . Disciplinary procedures will usually be non-contractual, partly with this very situation in mind (so don't need to be followed in first two years).
Presumably the notice period in the contract is the one month that they're paying her for. If there's a clause permitting payment in lieu of notice then that's the end of it. If there isn't then technically there's been a breach by the employer but she wouldn't gain anything from pursuing that point because they've already paid up for the losses stemming from it.
Sorry!
Edited to correct - one week before two years is the magic date in the case where no notice is given (not two weeks).
Some of the main exceptions are shown on this page this .gov.uk page. If somebody can prove the real reason for their dismissal was one of those, the situation is different.
Assuming not, the employer only owes her the rights set out in her contract. If the contract is well drafted, the only relevant right will be to receive notice . Disciplinary procedures will usually be non-contractual, partly with this very situation in mind (so don't need to be followed in first two years).
Presumably the notice period in the contract is the one month that they're paying her for. If there's a clause permitting payment in lieu of notice then that's the end of it. If there isn't then technically there's been a breach by the employer but she wouldn't gain anything from pursuing that point because they've already paid up for the losses stemming from it.
Sorry!
Edited to correct - one week before two years is the magic date in the case where no notice is given (not two weeks).
Edited by bladebloke on Friday 10th November 11:22
Pip1968 said:
Thank you for the above. Yes I do not think that she will have a problem although she is worried that prospective emplyers will question her only a year in her last job. Possibly overthinking it.
Pip
A valid thought, but hopefully she can gloss over it - "it wasn't a good fit"... "a clash of personalities"... "my boss was a prick" Pip
ETA: Hopefully if she has some good length employments other than this one (and can ask them for a reference) then it won't cause her much of a problem
I am only posting here to say yay PH because almost all of the replies here are right, which must be a record in S,P&L. The one that says talk to ACAS is wrong. There is no point doing that because the OP's daughter has on the facts stated no viable claim against the employer.
The right to a fair procedure is, in most cases, an aspect of the right not to be unfairly dismissed, which right the OP's daughter does not have. In some rare instances a fair procedure is a contractual obligation, and some types of (public sector) offices are protected by procedural rules, but none of that is relevant here.
The right to a fair procedure is, in most cases, an aspect of the right not to be unfairly dismissed, which right the OP's daughter does not have. In some rare instances a fair procedure is a contractual obligation, and some types of (public sector) offices are protected by procedural rules, but none of that is relevant here.
From experience calling ACAS is pointless, they are as much use as a chocolate teapot, you phone them and they immediately take the employers side.
They're not their for the workers, they're there to protect bad employers.
They're not their for the workers, they're there to protect bad employers.
anothernameitist said:
Under 2 year rule.
Not pleasant, but within the law as it stands
I got screwed by this too, a lot of companies now take people on and ditch them before they hit the 2 years.Not pleasant, but within the law as it stands
SantaBarbara said:
Why couldn't they just move her to another job at the company?
Every job ive ever had i wanted to do that.Companies dont care about you, they definitely dont care enough to give you a leg up into a field you'd rather be in, instead of just doing whatever job you lucked into getting.
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