Discriminination in the workplace - By speaking as my colleagues put it "posh"

poet123

You are protected against dismissal on discrimination grounds even within the first 12 months.

http://www.hrmanager.co.uk/index.html taken from the link;-

1. Newly employed staff
For the first 12 months employees are not protected by unfair dismissal legislation (but see discrimination section for exceptions). Newly employed staff should be reviewed over first six months of their employment to determine if they are suitable. We suggest as a minimum an informal review after two months and a formal review after five months.

Employers need to be mindful of discrimination legislation whenever capability is an issue. Bear in mind if discrimination is proven protection from unfair dismissal occurs from the first day of employment and the financial penalties from tribunals can be very large. If in doubt contact us or seek other professional advice.

zzzLazyDaisy

I suggest you read my post again. What I actually said was:

'More to the point, as you are within the first 12 months of service, your employer can terminate your contract without giving a reason, as long as they don't fall foul of the anti-discrimination laws.'

Reggie_Rebel

Now you are in the ascendency get them all together and tell them to start pulling their f&*^ing heads out of their !!!!!!, staring working their gonads off or you'll be chopping them off and feeding them to the pigeons.

They'll get your drift

Pete111

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

If you had quoted my post fully instead of editing out the reference to discrimination, you would have realised that what I actually said was:

'More to the point, as you are within the first 12 months of service, your employer can terminate your contract without giving a reason, as long as they don't fall foul of the anti-discrimination laws.'

To be fair, most employers usually pay lip service to some form of performance/disciplinary/redundancy process too - even in the first 12 months. This is even more important where policies on performance etc state a defined process to be followed.

Simply saying 'Clear your desk' is not a realistic risk free option - even in the 1st year

zzzLazyDaisy

The point I was making was that OP has only been there 7 weeks, and this means that she has little job security.

Frankly, I wish I hadn't bothered!:rolleyes:

Vader123

bendix wrote: »

Nonsense.

That is simply not true.

It is true.

Please don't give false hope to someone.

Inside the first 12 months you can be sacked for any reason and no reason as long as its not discriminatory.

Vader

cooky43

Thanks once again for all the advice......I am at present writing my resignation letter.....not because I have been intimidated to do so but because today I have recieved the news after an 8 week wait that I have the job I really wanted. What happened was that I had been made redundant last year and had 2 interviews the same week, I knew the one would take 6 weeks for me to be notified so when I heard from the first one, I decided to take it. After the 6 weeks and I had heard nothing, I believed that I had done the correct thing but today I had a call that I have the position I wanted. I did ask what the delay had been and apparently the director who interviewed me had been in hospital and hence the delay....needless to say I was one happy "posh Welsh dragon" today so after writing a letter that I really wanted to give in, I now feel better and will keep it to remind myself of the easy escape I have had and to give myself a laugh. So I now am set to write a formal letter .....pity.......

Thanks to all
:T:T:T:T:T:T

cooky43

Just one more thing, I wrote to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) about the "posh" thing and this is what I got back today >

"Thank you for your e-mail to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

The Commission advises individuals who have been subjected to discrimination in the area of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion or belief as well as human rights.

In regard to the situation that you described it would be difficult to use any of the equality legislation.

Under the Race Relations Act is it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against someone because of their ethnic origin. This is defined by the House of Lords as a group that regards itself or is regarded by other as a distinct community by virtue of certain characteristics that will help to distinguish the group from the surrounding community.

1. To argue that an individual comes from an ethnic group an individual would need to show a ling shared history, of which the group is conscious as distinguishing it from other groups and the memory of which it keeps alive;

2. a cultural tradition of its own, including family and social customs and manners, often but not necessarily with religious observance.
As you can see it would be considerably difficult to argue this.

I would advise you to contact an organisation such as ACAS for information about bullying under employment law. You can contact them at 08457 47 47 47.

Yours Sincerely"

Cheers all

paulwf

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Whilst I agree that they're being unreasonable (after all, they must have heard you speak at your interview!) it might be worthwhile developing a slightly different type of speech when dealing with your staff. It's often useful to speak to different people appropriately and many people do this; I wouldn't speak to shop floor workers in the same way that I would speak to senior management or customers.

A very wise post. I don't think the legal or the HR route is the right route to take here as it won't earn you the respect of your staff. You might have to "dumb down" a bit and use shorter words, and although I wouldn't try and impersonate another accent try and be a bit less clipped (I have the same problem coming from far down south).

If you aren't into trashy ITV stuff like X factor and I'm A Celebrity it might be worth forcing yourself to watch so you have something to chat about with your colleagues...as a bloke who is not into football or boxing I do sometimes find it hard to find common ground to talk to colleagues at work. They were taking the mickey last week because I like to shop at Waitrose not Lidl *sigh*

Savvy_Sue

cooky43 wrote: »

Under the Race Relations Act is it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against someone because of their ethnic origin. This is defined by the House of Lords as a group that regards itself or is regarded by other as a distinct community by virtue of certain characteristics that will help to distinguish the group from the surrounding community.

So those of us what talk proper aren't a distinct community by virtue of that characteristic? Fascinating ...

However I think their advice about ACAS and bullying would probably have been the way to pursue it, and I hope you get an exit interview.