People afraid to speak out at work

Jebelious

Hi All - I am a regular reader of the site and the forum even thoguh i may not post on a regular basis however a recent list of events has left me wondering what i can do to help a family member. For obvious reasons i am not going to name people or companies as i would like to just get some general help from the wonderful community of MSE.
(Apologies it seems it is quite long ..)

So the background - The family member works has worked for this company for a long while now. During this time the family member has been collating information about the company they work for in case the time came where the management decide that they want to maybe sack them for some reason or other. Now you may think well maybe they have done something wrong to think like this however please bare with me.

The family member has also decided to align themselves with a union (no one else in the workplace does this) again for what can only be described as protection for what it would seem may be the inevitible. This employer that they work for do not do anything special and the family member is a delivery driver for this company just to add some scope to this.

Now this behaviour has been fine, you want to make sure that if you suspect companies are not treating employees correctly that you are protected if they decide one day that you are their next target.

The final straw for me is when i found out that the family member has been advised by their employer that "We have paid for you to go on a compulsory course, because we are paying for the course you must either take holiday or go on the course as unpaid leave". Immediately i advised the family member that the employer can not expect this and they would have to pay you for the time as a working day, however regardless of the legeslation we have mentioned the family member will not take this further or question anything with the management as they fears if they do this then they will do everything in their power to remove them from employment.

In short they believe that they will return to work and just be "sacked". I am hoping after a few weeks of pestering by bringing up the fact that they have legal representation with their union subscription and the fact that they are fully protected by employment law/unfair decuctions from salary etc they may actually look to do something however it has got me thinking. Is this what it has come to? people are petrified to question anything that their employer are doing as they believe their job will be at risk? The law is there to protect employees more so than the employer especially if you have been employed for over 2 years now? but people just do not seem to understand what so ever. Now please do not asume that i am an expert at this as i can guarantee you i am clearly not however i would not personally be scared to speak up to the management about poor practacies.

I apologies if it seems as waffaling but i just wanted to know if others were affected by this at all (Scared to speak out at work).

Tomcatsmum

In the organisation I work for we are expected to do mandatory training essential for the job in our own time. I don't think it is right but it is difficult to attend training in works time due to staffing and work pressures.

patman99

How long has your friend worked at the firm?. This is important as if they have been employed for more than 2 years then they cannot just be sacked.
The company would have to follow proper procedures with 2 verbal & 1 final written warning in order to avoid dropping themselves in it.

Scrootum

OP
It sounds like you are using your friend to carry out some sort of crusade on your behalf.

Many places actually charge for training.

You could actually get your friend sacked by following your advice.

Bella73

Can't they just read their contract or the work handbook to find out how their company works for things like this, it should be in there somewhere.

moneyistooshorttomention

Does your friend live far enough away from the workplace that they could pretend to be sick then without bumping into colleagues when they went out? If they do, are they paid in full as normal when sick?

Maybe that would be one way to make sure they actually get their holiday AS holiday iyswim.

If those things don't apply, then don't really know what to suggest other than your friend looking up the law re minimum amount of holiday time employers have to give by law these days. That still doesn't answer the question of them making your friend take unpaid leave if he refused to lose any of his holiday entitlement this way.

Hope he finds a way to ensure he keeps both his holiday time and his job.