Worried my daughter might lose her job.

pingu123

My daughter began working in a privately owned nursery in july this year.She successfully completed her 3 month trial period but has been given no further contract to say her employment is permanent.She has asked for this on several occasions.She is now looking for another job and the owner has got wind of this.Yesterday the owner told my daughter she is going to find a replacement.My daughter is now worried that she will find a replacement and let my daughter "go" before she has found another job.Can she do this?

Thanks for your help on this matter.
Worried mum.

saintjammyswine

Why is she looking for a new job so soon? If it is that bad and she is looking then the owner cannot be blamed for wanting a replacement found as soon as possible. If she has completed a trial period and there has been nothing to the contrary then her trial period has finished. She has no extra legal rights until 12 months employment though.

agrinnall

I'm afraid she can, as she's been there less than 12 months (likely to become 2 years soon) your daughter can be fired for no reason and in the absence of any contractual notice period will only be entitled to statutory notice (probably 1 week, which she can be required to work). She will be entitled to accrued holidays, she can be required to take them or the employer can pay them when she leaves.

From the employer's perspective it's probably a good move, it gives her more time to get someone in to ensure the nursery has adequate staffing levels; if your daughter finds another job and gives her 1 week notice that doesn't leave much time to find a replacement. Of course, your daughter could speak to the employer again to see if there is any way she could be given the job properly but if that doesn't happen then she should increase her efforts to find another job.

SarEl

I am sure this won't be entirely welcome as a comment, but I am afraid this is a case of lack of knowledge having brought the situation on herself. The fact is that the probationary period is almost entirely irrelevant to anything, and the idea of a "permanant" contract has no meaning at all in law. If she has passed the period for probationary, then she has passed her probation and is on a "permanant contract" for whatever that is worth, in the absence of anything to the contrary. In reality, what you call a contract has little meaning. What matters is continuity of service - has she enough service to claim unfair dismissal, redundancy payments, or whatever. These are the only things (aside from contractual conditions - but even those can be detaremined without a written document) that matter in law.

So in looking for another job after such a short period of time - and in being foolish enough to let the employer find out about this - she has simply invited the employer to see her as flaky and likely to leave as soon as she can. Since, for whatever meaning it has, she has a "permanant contract" in so far as anyone has one, if this is the only reason why she has been looking for another job, she might be well advised to have an honest conversation with the owner and explain that she thought the employer wasn't keeping her on and that was the only reason that she was looking. It doesn't make her any safer necessarily - but few employees are "safe" - and changing jobs certainly doesn't make her safer, it just restarts the clock as to how long it will be before she obtains any employment rights.

DCFC79

pingu123 wrote: »

My daughter began working in a privately owned nursery in july this year.She successfully completed her 3 month trial period but has been given no further contract to say her employment is permanent.She has asked for this on several occasions.She is now looking for another job and the owner has got wind of this.Yesterday the owner told my daughter she is going to find a replacement.My daughter is now worried that she will find a replacement and let my daughter "go" before she has found another job.Can she do this?

Thanks for your help on this matter.
Worried mum.

Yes the employer can do this, well if your daughter wasnt to be without a job then she should find 1 or find 1 to tide her over until she finds 1 shes interested in.