OH made jobless, help with benefits (?) required please

dooby

My partner was made jobless on Friday. It seems to be a mixture of being sacked and redundancy. His job isn't redundant but the company are struggling and have made other people redundant so basically they made an excuse to sack him but still paid him a week in hand plus 3 weeks pay (a week for every year he's worked for them). Anyway's whatever they've done he's now jobless and has his P45.

I work 21 hours a week and my salary is £13,700

We have a 14 year old son.

We own our own house so no rent or mortgage. No vast amount of savings - perhaps about £2,000 which is an ISA intended for further ed for our son, and £3000 in premium bonds.

I've already spoke to FWTC people and they are re-assessing us on our change of circumstances. I did receive the £40 or so a month from them already but am hoping we'll get an increase. I've no idea what we might receive though?

Would my partner qualify for JSA as well? And also, would it be possible for us to get a reduction on our council tax with him now being out of work?

I'm grateful for any help you can give, we're completely lost as to what to do.

borders_dude

First thing monday get down CAB.

dooby

borders_dude wrote: »

First thing monday get down CAB.

Is this because of the way they let him go?

The thing with that is, it's not quite cut and dry.

My OH is/was a maintenance engineer so worked all over the country on call fixing and servicing machines in factories. Since the 'credit crunch' the places he's been going to are wanting more for their money and in some cases trying to get out of paying at all - they do this by complaining about work that's been done. My OH is experienced and knows his stuff, his work can't be faulted and hasn't been but they have complained about other things, such as: where he's parked his van, him not wearing a high vis jacket whilst walking through the factory, going straight to fix the machine without applying for a temp site work pass, him rushing through the health and safety questions he's been given when he's attended a certain site and another complained that he wasn't using their walk way to walk to the machine despite him being shown to get to it that way on a previous call out there.

He received a letter from his employer in the spring, when they were first struggling, saying that he was on a written warning for things such as not wearing the company polo shirt and taking his dog to work with him, even though previously the boss had loved him doing that. He has also been pulled up for telling one company that the machines they were supplied were not suitable to do the job. He was only telling the truth!

The company have been letting people go since spring time and there's only a third of the workforce left and they're mostly on a three day week. We think that it is only a matter of time before they go completely under.

If possible we'd rather not take them to court as there is a possibility that they could offer him his job back if things do pick up and also, he's applied to their rivals for a job and would rather not been known as a 'trouble maker' as the 2 rivals do keep a close eye over what's going on with each other. The other company are doing well, no guarantee that he'll get a job with them but we'd rather not scupper his chances if we can help it.

Oldernotwiser

If your partner was sacked he may be sanctioned from receiving JSA for some weeks although it sounds more like redundancy as they're paying him this money. Anyhow, the JCP will look at the whole situation before giving any sanction and if they do decide to do so it will start from the day he first signs on., which means that he should do so straight away.

dooby

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

If your partner was sacked he may be sanctioned from receiving JSA for some weeks although it sounds more like redundancy as they're paying him this money. Anyhow, the JCP will look at the whole situation before giving any sanction and if they do decide to do so it will start from the day he first signs on., which means that he should do so straight away.

Thank you.

The letter he has received is contradictory. It says he was dismissed due to his attitude (complaints) yet it mentions paying him a week in lieu and 3 weeks pay plus 6 days annual leave. It also says... as I only have 2 service engineers at my disposal I have no choice for the benefit of the company to let you go.

The letter makes him out to be really bad, he's not got a bad attitude, he just wants to get on with his work and do a good job and his boss as always been pleased with his work. We are only summising but we think, that because there is plenty of work for the service engineers, that what they will do is send one of the guys from the factory out on the road to cover what my OH would have done. There's no work in the actual factory as they're not getting new orders but the guys that are left are either indispensible or expensive to make redundant - ie there's only one electrician left so they can't get rid of him and there's a few guys there that have worked there for 30 years.

We think that it's all an excuse to get rid of my OH as she couldn't make him redundant as his job isn't redundant. We think it's an excuse as she bumbled her way through his dismissal on Friday when she spoke to him and now we've received the letter it mentions different things to what she mentioned when she spoke to him, one of which was something that happened in May 2008.

alwaysonthego_2

How long as he worked for the company?

It does not sound like he was given redundancy pay but was paid any monies owing such as his notice period and any holidays owing.

property.advert

It reads as though the company is struggling and there was not enough work. Now the JC people will perhaps make a mess of the interpretation due to the wording of the letter and you don't want that.

Now years ago, the benefits people never wanted to see anything from former employers but perhaps they do now. So is there a chance of you getting a better worded letter from the employer ?

I understand that in a small industry like yours you may not want to upset the apple cart and to be honest, he has been paid out rightly anyway.

The first thing he has to do is phone the JC to make an application for JSA. This is over the phone now on an 0800 number. It is important to do this ASAP as all claims stem from this date.

I guess you'll get some more money from WTC but everything will probably depend upon your husband's benefits and whether he gets contribution based JSA etc.

Oldernotwiser

If, as you say, he's been dismissed, what sort of process did they go through? You can't just send someone with 3 years' service a letter saying they're sacked and expect it to end there - workers have right!

The CAB is sounding a good option but I'd also suggest you copy your post to the MSE Employment Board where there are several specialists in Employment Law.

alwaysonthego_2

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

If, as you say, he's been dismissed, what sort of process did they go through? You can't just send someone with 3 years' service a letter saying they're sacked and expect it to end there - workers have right!

The CAB is sounding a good option but I'd also suggest you copy your post to the MSE Employment Board where there are several specialists in Employment Law.

I did not pick the three years thing up, you are on the ball this morning ONW

As ONW said they should have gone through a set of procedures before they could dismiss him. Make sure he keeps the letter for evidence.

He should contact ACAS who can talk trough his options, they offer a mediation service where they will mediate with the employer to see if they can get the job back. Otherwise they can help with sort out the tribunal if it is a unlawful dismissal. You have a three month time limit to take it to a tribunal.

zzzLazyDaisy

I understand what you say about not wanting to take this further. But if your OH is unsuccessful in finding alternative employment and/or his benefits are sanctioned, you may need to think again as it is better to have a decision of unfair dismissal, than a sacking on your CV (and possibly no reference?).

From what you say this was an unfair dismissal. Your OH was with the company over 12 months and therefore has a certain amount of protection under the law. If the company wanted to dismiss him with only one verbal warning on his record, then they would have to follow a proper procedure which includes informing him in writing that he is required to attend a disciplinary meeting to discuss ......... [insert here whatever he was being accused of], and warning him that the allegations might be viewed as gross misconduct and this could result in his dismissal. He should also have been told that he was entitled to be accompanied at the meeting, and the dismissal letter should have told him about his right of appeal. If any of these steps are missing, then this would be an unfair dismissal.

If it is a redundancy then he is entitled to ine week's notice pay for each year of service PLUS one week's redundancy pay for each year of service, plus any outstanding wages and holiday pay. But it doesn't sound like a redundancy to me, and even if it was, the employer did not go through a fair selection procedure, so this would still be considered an unfair dismissal.

Do speak to ACAS, you will find their number in the phone book or online, and they will give you free impartial information on OH's employment rights.

But do remember there is a very strict 3 month time limit for making a claim to an employment tribunal (start with the last date of employment, go forward 3 calendar months and back one day) but I always say lodge the claim 2 weeks early to allow for unforseen events such as illness or family crisis etc.

Good luck!

EDIT cross posted with above

dooby

Thank you very much, all of you, you've made it much clearer for us to understand.

You're right though, they didn't follow the rules and I believe that this is what is looked at at a tribunal.

I think that it may be worth a phonecall to the boss tomorrow, asking her to change it from a sacking to perhaps redundancy, that way he'll get an extra 3 weeks pay plus it will read better on his CV and he'll get a good reference as they had no problems with him until Friday.

If she agrees it'll be cheaper for her than a tribunal would and less stressful and of course quicker. He's pretty much resigned to the fact now that sooner or later he would have lost his job there and he's have had to seek employment elsewhere at some point, he really doesn't want to fight to get his job back at a company that is about to go bust.

He's always had a good working relationship with his boss and he said that she had tears in her eyes when she was letting him go on Friday, i'm hoping he'll now be able to talk her into retracting his 'sacking' on the understanding that if she does he'll accept redundancy and not take it to tribunal.

Do you think it's worth making this call ourselves, bearing all that in mind, or should we get a professional to try?