Job offer received, contract signed now offer removed.

Irn-Bru-Kid

Uncertain wrote: »

Name and shame??

Would love to, but mouths to feed etc

Uncertain

Irn-Bru-Kid wrote: »

As for knowing it goes on, its nothing to do with me and if they have a problem in the future they will need to deal with it. Do I think its right? No, but I choose not to get involved

Ah, the Nuremberg defence !!

Uncertain

Irn-Bru-Kid wrote: »

And I am sure there are employers out there who wont take on someone because of their race, religion or disabaility.

I think it would be foolish to think that all employers adhere to the law religiously.

Sadly true....

Irn-Bru-Kid

Uncertain wrote: »

Ah, the Nuremberg defence !!

Yes indeed

Uncertain

Irn-Bru-Kid wrote: »

Yes indeed

Quite a few of those who relied on it ended up on a rope!

zzzLazyDaisy

OP, you might want to give the EHRC a ring. They have specialise in discrimination cases and will give advice. Occasionally they will take on a case and fund it, although that is exceptional.

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/ (phone numbers top right of the page).

Remember you don't have to prove they withdrew the contract on the grounds of pregnancy - you just need to have reasonable grounds to make the allegation, and then the burden passes to them to persuade the tribunal that they had good reason to withdraw the contract which was not related to your OH's pregnancy.

Having said that - I agree with the others about not underestimating the stress involved and the potential effect on the baby. I am a qualified employment solicitor and in my early days as an employment lawyer I had occasion to take my employer to tribunal for disability discrimination. I was dismissed while recovering from surgery - verbally the reason given was that they felt it would be better for my health if I did not return to work, but of course this was not the reason given in the dismissal letter. In those days the qualifying period for unfair dismissal was two years and they ended my contract 6 weeks before the 2 year period was up. The DDA was very new at the time and mine was one of the first cases through the ET. It was a small firm and I was the only employment lawyer, and the only solicitor with any specialist experience in discrimination law. They just didn't have a clue.

The main reason I pursued the case was that if I didn't have the guts to take on my employer, and see it through, then how could I ever expect my clients to go through this process.

I was pleased I did it, and obviously pleased I won. But the stress of the procedure and the hearing itself was awful - and I was a specialist advocate, I did all my own hearings and often took referrals from other firms who did not have the expertise to deal with tribunal cases. In other words I was on familiar ground. But still, I wouldn't want to go through that again - I would much rather be on the advocate's side of the table!

Like SarEl - I detest discrimination in any form, and I would never try to dissuade anyone from pursuing a claim - but do please be aware of what you are taking on, and if you do decide to make a claim, make sure that you have a competent representative who will at least shield you both from some of the stress and aggravation.

On the time limit point - you have 3 months. Start with the date that she was verbally informed, go forward three calendar months and then one day back. That is your cut-off point. But to be on the safe side, I always advise working on getting the claim in one week before that - to allow for a margin of error as the cut-off is very strictly applied.

Bolt1977

Hi everyone, just a quick update for anybody that is interested.
We took legal advice over the weekend and was told that we should not attend the meeting that was scheduled for tomorrow, and to send a letter stating that we are awaiting the confirmation of the removal of the job offer from themselves, and to state that we will rearrange a meeting when we have taken legal advice and our solicitor is available to attend said meeting.
This afternoon my wife has received an phone call from the MD apologizing for the phone call he made last week, in which he retracting the job offer, and after taking advice from his HR people the company have basically retracted the companies intention to retract the job offer! so as it stands the job offer is still valid!
We are due to meet with them tomorrow to discuss it further, so now we need to figure out if my wife could work at the company after they have tried this trick!!
Again we are so grateful for all the advice everyone has given, hopefully one day I will be able to return the favor. L

Uncertain

Bolt1977 wrote: »

Hi everyone, just a quick update for anybody that is interested.
We took legal advice over the weekend and was told that we should not attend the meeting that was scheduled for tomorrow, and to send a letter stating that we are awaiting the confirmation of the removal of the job offer from themselves, and to state that we will rearrange a meeting when we have taken legal advice and our solicitor is available to attend said meeting.
This afternoon my wife has received an phone call from the MD apologizing for the phone call he made last week, in which he retracting the job offer, and after taking advice from his HR people the company have basically retracted the companies intention to retract the job offer! so as it stands the job offer is still valid!
We are due to meet with them tomorrow to discuss it further, so now we need to figure out if my wife could work at the company after they have tried this trick!!
Again we are so grateful for all the advice everyone has given, hopefully one day I will be able to return the favor. L

That is possibly very good news.

I would be tempted to slip a recorder into your pocket! (This is not illegal but the law may restrict what you can do with the recording. However, in certain circumstances employment tribunals have allowed such recordings as evidence).

an9i77

Let us know how your meeting tomorrow goes. Sounds promising. If the offer still stands, and they apologise for retracting it, I'd be tempted to take it. People / companies can make mistakes, but if they try to rectify this maybe they deserve a second chance. And sounds like your wife needs the job!

zzzLazyDaisy

Sounds like good news. It really rather depends on whether the MD is a big enough man to realise that he made a mistake and is willing to learn the lesson and put this episode to one side. However if he is a 'hands on' MD with a grudge, he could make life difficult. Let's hope that's not the case.

Good luck!