Sacked from Temp contract - can anything be done?

Unity

DS who is a student, got a temporary Christmas job via Reed, working as a data input clerk with Royal Mail.

On the application form was a question "Are there any dates when you will be unavailable for work?" DS answered that he would be unavailable on Friday 28th November, until Monday 1st December, however he was still given a contract which he started on Monday 24th November.

We went away for a family weekend to celebrate two birthdays - the one time when we could all be together, but when he arrived at work tonight he was told he'd been sacked for not being in on Friday! He explained that Reed knew he was unavailable for work, but they said he had missed too much training and sent him home.

I know it is a 'buyer's market' with so many unemployed - but surely since it is a short term contract and they were aware of the dates he couldn't work - it should be honoured?

Thanks for any advice.

LittleVoice

Temporaries can be asked to stop working at any time. I don't suppose the piece of paper he received said anything about the likely length of the contract, only that he started on a particular day.

By the way, he will be due a little holiday pay for the time he worked. He can ask for that to be paid

scubaangel

Whenever Ive been temping before it has been up to me to tell the employer when I have time booked off not the agency, although the agency have always stated this in my contracts and most of the time have informed the employer before I've started that there are dates I am likely to be unavaliable. But in general I would imagine it to be at the very least good manners for your DS to have requested the time off on the first day at the job as it was known that he wasnt going to be there.

chuckley

2bf they really shoulda told the employer. i had a holiday prebooked and my agency knew but asked the place i was going anyway and they said 'should alright'. when i got there i told them straight away and they said it was fine. they even let me back afterwards for a couple days.

Unity

chuckley wrote: »

2bf they really shoulda told the employer. i had a holiday prebooked and my agency knew but asked the place i was going anyway and they said 'should alright'. when i got there i told them straight away and they said it was fine. they even let me back afterwards for a couple days.

Thanks everyone:T. When he was offered the contract he was told they would tell the employer, so he took them at their word. Unfortunately he is still young and hasn't yet realised that more things are wrecked by the c*ck-up than the conspiracy theory :rolleyes:.

cazziebo

This is pretty poor on the part of Reed (who I have to say are usually a good credible agency). I would complain to them (help him draft a letter/email). If nothing else, they may be spurred on to find him something else very quickly.

pandora205

I think temporary workers have very little job protection. My daughter was working for Abbey through Reed and became ill. She had a doctor's certificate to cover her time off. However, on return she was sacked and it appeared that there was nothing she could do.

Conor_3

In my field, it might as well be a daily contract. It's common to be booked for a week then get half of it cancelled.

Unity

Conor wrote: »

In my field, it might as well be a daily contract. It's common to be booked for a week then get half of it cancelled.

That must be a pretty stressful situation to be in, good luck with it. In my son's case it was a month's contract and what really p**s me off is that the details were all submitted both verbally and in writing. What more do they need - smoke signals?

I know it's an old expression "You just can't get the staff" - but perhaps it's compounded by the permanent staff they do have - making such a c*ck up of these situations :rolleyes:.

Unity

LittleVoice wrote: »

Temporaries can be asked to stop working at any time. I don't suppose the piece of paper he received said anything about the likely length of the contract, only that he started on a particular day.

By the way, he will be due a little holiday pay for the time he worked. He can ask for that to be paid

Yes - it stated he would be employed for a month, from 24th November until 24th December. I took Cazziebo's advice (thanks :T) and helped him draft an e-mail, so we'll see what happens. I think what makes it worse is that it is a 22 mile round trip for him to get there so even that was wasted resources that he could ill afford.