P45 sent with no explanation

Hardupguy

Have received my P45 in post with no explanation as to reason..
Some background...lost my wife few months back after fighting cancer for a year...went back to work more or less immediatly but found it was to soon..so wrote to head office explaining that i needed time off to come to terms with my loss etc...they responded saying they understood my situation and respected my openess ( i also offered to resign if they felt it was in the companies interest, in the same letter should they not be willing to give me time off) it is now approx two months since i took this unpaid leave and to be honest still dont feel any better within myself to return to work...was advised to go to doctors and be signed of but didnt feel that was correct thing to do... worked for company for appox 3 years tho was tupe'd twice during this period...
Are they within there rights to just send me P45 with no contact or explanation or am i being unreasonable..
( my job was in management with relative small company )

JC_Derby

had you been in contact with them at all during this unpaid leave?....has your line manager been in contact with you at any stage? were you in contact with him/her?.... what does your contract say with regards to taking leave, what process should be followed....have you followed it?

Hardupguy

had no contact whatsoever with them either direction...still awaiting a formal contract of employment... not produced one to date..
at outset of this unpaid leave they asked how long did i expect to be absent, which i advised it was impossible to put any time to it..which is why i made the offer of resigning at the start..

Jarndyce

Firstly my sympathies on your loss. I'm sure it must have been very hard to deal with.

Whilst nobody would blame you for not prioritising your work situation at the time, the advice you were given to be signed off sick was good advice. Equally, you should have clarified in writing exactly what the status of your unpaid leave was, how long it would last and what the arrangements would be for bringing it to an end. If this did not happen, then it seems very harsh (if not unfair) for the employer to now dismiss you (if indeed they have done) presumably on the basis that you are unavailable to fulfil your contract.

That said, it would not really be reasonable to expect an empoyer to accommodate your absence indefinitely, but they should have at least opened a dialogue with you before dismissing you (if that is what they have done).

You need to write back to the employer immediately and clarify the position. State that you wish to continue in employment, that there may have been a misunderstanding due to your grief, and hope that they will be sympathetic and withdraw any dismissal. Then go and get yourself signed of sick until you are ready to return.

Good luck.

Judith_W

Could it possibly be an error? Someone in HR has seen that you've not been paid for a couple of months and rather than checking if you are on unpaid leave has assumed you have left and just sent your P45? I would certainly get them to clarify, it could all be a big misunderstanding.

JC_Derby

the best thing is to open communications immediately.then go from there

Hardupguy

silly me thinking people would act in an honourable fashion...

didn't want to be taking money from the state on ssp nor from my employer...

felt it wasn''t right to accept money from anyone when i was trying to come to terms with my grief...

its appears its backfired and had i took the money just for the sake of it...perhaps i wouldn't be writing this post..

does it pay to have morals...?

Jarndyce

Your priority should not be questionning peoples' morals and honour, but to clarify your employment situation urgently.

Whilst you have been going through a sad and traumatic time, for others life has had to go on, so you cannot expect everyone to act purely in your interests.

Sorry to be frank in the circumstances, but if you want to keep your job you need to act fast and assertively.

Hardupguy

Jarndyce wrote: »

Your priority should not be questionning peoples' morals and honour, but to clarify your employment situation urgently.

Whilst you have been going through a sad and traumatic time, for others life has had to go on, so you cannot expect everyone to act purely in your interests.

Sorry to be frank in the circumstances, but if you want to keep your job you need to act fast and assertively.

Many thanks for your responses, perhaps you misunderstand my concerns... not the fact that iv'e been sent a P45 which is bad enough.

I seriously doubt if i would wish to continue working for a company that can disregard any employee as thoughtlessly as they appeared to have.

What i will continue to pursue is the principle of the injustice that in my opinion they have committed.

My understanding is they have unfairly dismissed my position without any discussion, communication nor warning that they were even considering going down this avenue.
All that was sent was a P45 and that was it, nothing else, even that appears to be incorrect with wrong figures and a new Tax code which i know nothing about.

SarEl

To be fair, I have to agree with Jarndyce. You were not asked if they had had contact with you - you were asked if you had had contact with them. I do understand the grief that you are going through because my husband died very suddenly and unexpectedly a few years back. But you haven't been doing your wife or yourself any favours by withdrawing from the world. From their perpective you asked for "some" unpaid leave to help you cope with the loss - then disappeared into the ether. You really did have some responsibility here to keep them informed of your intentions. Even now, you are making a whole series of assumptions which you cannot be sure of. How do you know they didn't write to you a month ago asking you to get in contact or what your intentions were? Letters can get lost. Or ignored. If that was the case, maybe they didn't know what to do other than you assume you were not coming back. Maybe it was a mistake, as somebody else has suggested. A lot of things could have happened to get to this situation, but you don't know what they are. You have had all afternoon to phone them - did you?

Hardupguy

SarEl wrote: »

To be fair, I have to agree with Jarndyce. You were not asked if they had had contact with you - you were asked if you had had contact with them. I do understand the grief that you are going through because my husband died very suddenly and unexpectedly a few years back. But you haven't been doing your wife or yourself any favours by withdrawing from the world. From their perpective you asked for "some" unpaid leave to help you cope with the loss - then disappeared into the ether. You really did have some responsibility here to keep them informed of your intentions. Even now, you are making a whole series of assumptions which you cannot be sure of. How do you know they didn't write to you a month ago asking you to get in contact or what your intentions were? Letters can get lost. Or ignored. If that was the case, maybe they didn't know what to do other than you assume you were not coming back. Maybe it was a mistake, as somebody else has suggested. A lot of things could have happened to get to this situation, but you don't know what they are. You have had all afternoon to phone them - did you?

At the outset i suggested that in a probability it would be a few months at least, but no time scale was agreed, both parties were happy with that arrangement.

Most of communications are done by text or email and receive payslips each week through this method.

And yes i have tried to contact the people concerned today by telephone ( the two directors concerned are married to each other with one of them responsible for payroll ) have also sent emails to them asking to clarify position but no response from either methods.

I also have a company mobile phone which is always switched on in the event that contact is needed.

Both of them are acutely aware of the situation and find it extremely unlikely that a mistake has been made.

I accept that i have a responsibility to my employers, but the timescale is not exactly excessive, given the initial agreement.