Lay Off HELP

mum2-2girls

Hi, I am hoping someone can help answer my questions - I will explain the situation first.

My DH is a plasterer for a small construction company - He was temporarily laid off 3 weeks ago.

Fri 25th Feb - Phone call telling DH & rest of staff not to come to work on Monday as they are all temporarily laid off for a week. Short notice, but hey, its just a week we can cope on my part-time wages.
Fri 4th Mar - No contact all week but 2 others return to work, boss not answering mobiles etc. DH went into the yard & spoke to boss who confirms no work that week but ALL staff will be back by 21/03. So DH applies for Job Seekers, Council Tax reduction etc & contacts an agency to see if he can get some temporary work.
Fri 11th - All other staff (inc. apprecnices) except DH & another who has new job, have returned to work during this week. Again, DH chases boss to see if any work the following week. Boss is annoyed that DH applied for jobseekers & had a call for a reference from the agency. No work for DH the following week.
Fri 18th -DH has not contacted his boss checking for work & has had no call.

I feel his is being treated unfairly due to him looking for other work.

I have searched for some answers and cannot find answers to the following questions:

1. Do the company have an obligation to share work between employees? Is it fair to give work to 1 over another or should they put all on short-time?

2. Can DH work for himself or another company while being laid off? He doesnt think he has a contract.

Any help or advice is much appriciated.
Thank you.

getmore4less

He doesnt think he has a contract

He does but it will be a bit difficult to establish the full terms.

normal layoff rules
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Understandingyourworkstatus/Temporarylayoff/DG_10026693

There are probaly implied term specfic to the building industry that allow lay offs.

I think there should have been guarantee pay se link in above.


Without explicit terms stopping work elsewhere then I think he can.

DVardysShadow

Of course he has a contract if he is employed. If he is laid off, he can work for himself or another company. His difficulty is that it could be construed as misconduct to work for a competitor, but equally, it is misconduct on the part of the employer to lay off an employee. Worth having a browse of the ACAS site.

mum2-2girls

So it doesnt matter if he has a signed written contract or not?

I just cant find anything on the ACAS (or any other) site to say if the employer can just pick & choose who to return to work if the are in the same role.

KiKi

mum2-2girls wrote: »

So it doesnt matter if he has a signed written contract or not?

No, by attending work his contract is implied. The employer should have provided a written statement of particulars, though, when he first started working. But the contract is still in place whether the employer did that or not.

I just cant find anything on the ACAS (or any other) site to say if the employer can just pick & choose who to return to work if the are in the same role.

Tricky one, and here's why. When an employer has x employees doing exactly the same job and needs to make one redundant, they should undertake a fair process to establish which person that is. But proving what's fair and what isn't, and the actual criteria employers have used is a whole other thing.

Has your OH worked there for more than a year? If not he has no rights regarding this anyway. If he has more than 12 months' service then he could speak to the boss to understand how people were selected for redundancy.

However, this applies if he has been made permanently redundant and it sounds to me like your OH isn't really sure whether or not he is actually employed right now.

I think he needs to establish whether or not he's still employed, or if he has been made permanently redundant. If it's the latter, then he could request to understand how people were selected for redundancy and challenge it if he thinks it's unfair.

TBH, my gut feeling is that he's unlikely to get anywhere with that, would find unfairness difficult to prove and the boss doesn't sound like he's particularly amiable. So unless he's very principled on this sort of thing, moving on to another job might be better. Plastering is a very skilled job - he's bound to find work elsewhere.

HTH you a little bit.
KiKi