should i sack him!!

getmore4less

Is he driving to work?

The police might be interested in do a breath test.

MissSarah1972

You could see the loss of the drill as gross miscounduct and just issue him with a final written warning

donnajunkie

jc808 wrote: »

Absolute nonsense

The guy is an apprentice - he is available when his on-the-job tutors are available... thats the WHOLE POINT of an apprenticeship.
The guy is an electrician, so isnt Mon-Fri 9-5...

like it or not people generally should have the right to refuse overtime. you say its not 9 to 5 but i bet they have fixed hours of something like 8 to 4.30 monday to friday. if they do out of hours work then i suspect they have some sort of rota for who is on call for any period outside of normal hours. i doubt a customer who is paying over the odds for out of hours work will want to see an apprentice turning up anyway.
the fact that hes still an apprentice means there should be an even lesser requirement of him to do overtime.

KiKi

donnajunkie wrote: »

like it or not people generally should have the right to refuse overtime.

The OP doesn't say that Saturdays are overtime.

Like it or not, there is no 'right' to weekends off in law. As long as the hours don't breach statutory requirements, he can be expected to work any day that meets the needs of the business.

Stan_Here

If he is hung over then you have reasonable grounds to assume that he still has alcohol in his system, whether or not he is over the legal driving limit. As an employer, or as his manager, you (and your company) have responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act and a duty of care to ensure that your employees do not put themselves, you, other staff, your customers and property at risk, and as you are in the electrical business, this in itself implies a level of implicit danger, which does not mix with poor judgement caused by alcohol.

If he is hung over he should be immediately sent home, with a warning that he should take public transport. This should then be followed up with a formal warning that is part of a documented disciplinary process, with verbal/written warnings/suspension/dismissal.

Similarly, the use of the phone/facebook, which it seems that many young people cannot be disconnected from for even 5 minutes, should be covered by a code of conduct that requires him to switch off his personal mobile during working hours (excluding breaks). If this is too harsh, then agree that it can be on for incoming calls only and no connection to facebook etc is permitted and also no texts to be viewed or replied to during the working day. He is there to work not run his social life and it sounds like he needs to grow up and realise that the working life means work, not chatting with his mates.

As for the drill, report it to the police, as it may be covered by insurance, who will require a crime number. That may make him think again if has been involved in its disappearance. If it was really not stolen, and is missing due to his carelessness, then again, the disciplinary process should be used, for something like misconduct.

At this stage, this could just be an immature young person with lots to learn. Alternatively, he could be lazy good-for-nothing scally who's already had you over for a drill. This requires personal contact to assess so I would not make this judgement.

Your employment contract should have laid out expectations on out of hours work as you are in a service industry. It should have said that you regularly have a need to service clients on a Saturday and that there will be an expectation that he will have to perform overtime on occasions. You should have been able to define what "occasions" means based on the company experience, ie. one in 4 Saturdays for 4 hours etc. Although it is not possible to demand overtime, this would have laid down the criteria against which the job was offered, and there may always be an occasion where someone is not available, but if there was continual refusal to do overtime for several months, you could reasonably say that he was not meeting the requirements of the job and again go through the disciplinary process.

Others have mentioned the formal apprentiship issues and who you could also bring into this issue so I offer no further input on this.

Tiddlywinks

You asked 'should I sack him'....

Sorry but I think you need to look closer to home on that front.

If you are holding a position in your family business that requires you to hire and fire then you need to ensure you develop the necessary skills to complete this function efficiently, fairly and legally.

Get yourself some training......

Edited to add: you should also create company processes to support the development and performance management of staff in your employment so you don't have to make it up as you stumble along.

Person_one

KiKi wrote: »

The OP doesn't say that Saturdays are overtime.

Like it or not, there is no 'right' to weekends off in law. As long as the hours don't breach statutory requirements, he can be expected to work any day that meets the needs of the business.

If the apprenticeship is arranged through a college with a formal arrangement then it might be that the college don't want him working weekends.

KiKi

Person_one wrote: »

If the apprenticeship is arranged through a college with a formal arrangement then it might be that the college don't want him working weekends.

?? I was responding to a poster who stated that this apprentice had the right to refuse overtime as she knows for a fact that Saturday is overtime working. She doesn't, because the OP hasn't said that. I merely pointed that out, and said that in law, there's no right to Saturdays off - no matter what the college says or whether it's overtime or not.

Savvy_Sue

elsien wrote: »

I'm with Emmzi on this one.
Sit him down, spell out your expectations in words of one syllable, and tell him you'll be showing him the door if he fails to meet them. And I'd be tempted to say if he "loses" anything else he'll have to pay for it.

You can only do that if it's written into his contract, and there are limitations.

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

You asked 'should I sack him'....

Sorry but I think you need to look closer to home on that front.

If you are holding a position in your family business that requires you to hire and fire then you need to ensure you develop the necessary skills to complete this function efficiently, fairly and legally.

Get yourself some training......

Edited to add: you should also create company processes to support the development and performance management of staff in your employment so you don't have to make it up as you stumble along.

Absolutely agree with this: you can't just sack someone these days, there are processes to follow!

Stan here makes excellent points as well.

Pricivius

DING DING DING!!!

That's the apprenticeship alarm going off.

IF you took this lad on as a genuine apprentice on an apprenticeship contract then you need to be very careful how you handle any dismissal. There is case law regarding apprenticeship contracts which means that a wrongful dismissal can be far more expensive than any "normal" dismissal as the company would be liable for the loss of opportunity in terms of future losses in the qualified role. So not just a few weeks' wages, but potentially the loss of salary in the fully qualified role for the time it would take the lad to find another apprenticeship and qualify elsewhere.

So... check what contract he is under as to whether it is an apprenticeship contract or a contract of employment. And be very wary if you had any obligation to provide on the job training whilst he completed his college course, for example...

Otherwise, do as the others have suggested. Follow a poor performance process so that he is aware of his under performance and has a chance to improve.