Disciplinary after Dismissal?

rjm2k1

I'm pretty sure I know the answers to this anyway but wanted to see what others thought as it all seems pretty incredible to me.

Friend of a friend working public sector had handed in notice and is going to a similar service but in the private sector, some of the colleagues are non-to impressed (ie jealous) .

During the notice period of 2 months, said person was ill (not a great record of good health anyway) and off for a week (I think). On arranging a return and wanting to discuss how to handle the attitude of colleagues with manager, said person found themselves in with HR and the manager. Was told to either agree to contract termination there and then, or persons "clients" would suffer and there would be a disciplinary to follow.

Apparently the termination went ahead and said person was out of work for a couple of weeks before starting new role.

Now, as if that wasn't bad enough, apparently the former employer have now decided to continue with the disciplinary (note the person no longer has a contract) so that it can go on the persons record and affect future employment opportunities with the same authority.

How many laws does this break? How can they discipline someone who doesn't work for them? How can they force someone to leave with no disciplinary or severance (that I know of) agreement?

Unfortunately said person doesn't want to take it further, but that was before they decided to continue disciplinary action!

Past experience of this same organisation has included retrospective notice (different person) in which a person on 2 months notice was only given a couple of weeks by the manager back dating the date on the notice letter by several weeks!

Unbelievable that this is large a public sector body and they seem to have opened themselves up to action against them time and time again!

TIA

Malkin157

I'd just keep your head down, concentrate on your new job and try to progress your career with the new company.

In future don't put references from your time at the local authority and get some good ones from your new employment.

uknick

OP, I am also intrigued as to how an organisation can start disciplinary action after an employee has left. Unless, of course, it relates to fraud. In which case, the police have to be involved.

I think there must be more to this than either meets the eye, or we are being told.

I have some very real experience of malicious behaviour from managers in the public sector, but none that took place after I left.

keyser666

uknick wrote: »

OP, I am also intrigued as to how an organisation can start disciplinary action after an employee has left. Unless, of course, it relates to fraud. In which case, the police have to be involved.

Eh?

If it is fraud the police dont have to be involved, that is a matter for the company to involve them. Why single out that one offence as well? Also you can have one after you have left the company

jacques_chirac

You refer to clients - does your 'friend' work with vulnerable people?

BitterAndTwisted

What was the reason for their employment being terminated while serving their notice-period?

marybelle01

It doesn't break any laws. The employer can have any meetings they want and do as they like. They just can't dismiss someone they don't employ. And they cannot force someone who isn't an employee to turn up. What they can do is append personnel records to reflect any such investigations or decisions, and if the person hasn't defended themselves then that would also be in the record. If this is a career breaker, it would be foolish to ignore it - and by that I mean financial mismanagement, fraud, theft, or protection of vulnerable people. If any of these are the case then it could affect a lot more than any possible future employment with this employer (not being an idiot, whilst "blacklists" are illegal I know damned well that local authorities keep notes on file about people they will not re-employ in case they apply for another job, and this can be done without all the rigmarole of a hearing - I have seen the files!) - it could involve a report to the authorities, or even contact with the new employer. Since your friend has less than two years employment, any questions may result in their dismissal, and there wouldn't be anything they could do about it.

All that said, as I have pointed out it is very easy to ensure someone doesn't work for you again, even in a local authority, so I have to wonder about why any employer would want to go through all this mess to achieve something they can achieve without it. Which makes me wonder about what the whole story is.