Major help needed!

Jemmeh

Hi Guys,

I really need your help - I am being treated really badly by the company i work for and i don’t know what to do. Whether to fight or just shut up and get on with a new life. Or even if i have any rights to fight.

I'll try to explain the very long winded situation as shortly as possible.

Company - a business utility broker

1) Worked there for 6 months, very busy and business steadily increasing the whole time.

2) 1/June - Laid off for 2 weeks - reason given there was a problem with their Google advertising account and they were not getting enough customers directed to their site.

3)2 weeks became 2 months and i was given a start date back as 1/Aug

4) In the meantime they employed some new field sales staff

5) Went in for a meeting week before due to start back and was told due to restructuring my job no longer existed

6) They offered my an alternate job - sales - (i am a data processor) in an undisclosed location that i would have to move to

7) I was not allowed to know the location as yet as it hadn’t been announced.

8) Spoke to some other colleagues and they have been offered the same job but in the same location not the 'office in the middle of nowhere'

9) Some other colleagues have been told their jobs are moving to 'the office in the middle of nowhere' also but it seems inconsistent what is moving and where.

10) Finally have noticed there is a job advertised on a well-known jobsite with a job i have partial training for at the same money I’m on in the same location i live. This was not offered to me.

I have spoken to ACAS - they were helpful but want to mediate and suggest i should try and get the advertised job. To be honest though this company are affecting my mental health and i really would not like to work for them again even if i could back them into a corner.

If like ACAS want i start asking question regarding the advertised job, ask for a copy of my contract, ask my rights to redundancy etc. - they will know immediately that i am looking into complaining about them - Bang goes any goodwill - i.e. no reference, have to pay back holiday pay and have to work months’ notice (which will be hellish)

I think that the way they have treated us is appalling but i think i may have to shut up and go quietly or they will make things hellish for me.

If anyone has any advice it would be gratefully appreciated...

Thanks for reading if you got this far!!!

Jemmeh

11) They now say they never offered me the job in "the middle of nowhere" it was offered in the current location, and that i got confused/lied

Jarndyce

It does look like you have been treated poorly but as you have been there less than 12 months you have no employment protection (ie right to claim unfair dismissal - 12 months) and no rights to a redundancy payment (2 years).

I think that narrows down your options even further, I'm afraid.

SarEl

I am afraid that I have to agree - you actually haven't got any rights here! As far as I can see you were not "laid off" (because unless your contract allowed for this you should have been paid), and your only real right here either way would be to go back to work if there is work, or not. I can't see what ACAS would hope to achieve given that the employer has all the power here - you either work where and when you are told or you are let go (and that's assuming you haven't already been - this "lay off" thing is highly suspect! ACAS can't do anything for you - but I agree that if your employer gets a call from them then any good will is likely to disappear.

Jemmeh

SarEl wrote: »

I am afraid that I have to agree - you actually haven't got any rights here! As far as I can see you were not "laid off" (because unless your contract allowed for this you should have been paid), and your only real right here either way would be to go back to work if there is work, or not. I can't see what ACAS would hope to achieve given that the employer has all the power here - you either work where and when you are told or you are let go (and that's assuming you haven't already been - this "lay off" thing is highly suspect! ACAS can't do anything for you - but I agree that if your employer gets a call from them then any good will is likely to disappear.

Hi There,

I was deffo laid off.

We were all called into a meeting and told we were being laid off for 2 weeks. We were provided with a letter stating we had been laid off until they had rectified the situation with google. I was paid 1 weeks statitry gurantee pay as is allowed. Ofcourse it is in the contract they can lay us off if there is a reasonable dip in work.

Pee

Two things stick out at me here. You were employed for less than a year which is the magic period for obtaining rights.

You don't want to work for the company any longer, which I can completely understand.

Also, if you go quietly, you get a reference and some holiday pay.

If I was you, I'd go quietly.