Advice please 16 year old dismissed gross misconduct

bristol_pilot

Well I think we will have to agree to disagree, Undervalued. If I were the Company I'd be far more concerned about publicity kicked up by a sob story from the parents of the injured child kicking up a fuss because the employee concerned had not been disciplined and maybe suing the Company.

The OP has received several views and can now make their choice.

jobbingmusician

bristol_pilot wrote: »

So the argument as to why he should not have been dismissed is, in part, that they should not have employed him in the first place?

Well, let me put it this way.

Should the company have employed an untrained 16 year old to perform a safety-critical function? I really don't think any court in the country would say 'yes'. The fact that they have dismissed him for not performing this function suggests that he was, in fact, the one responsible for performing it. And we are told that he had not been trained to perform it (a fact which I have no reason to doubt. I am simply stressing that it is important in deciding how far to fight this case.) If the absence of training is true, I would expect the company to start behaving in quite a conciliatory way once they have taken legal advice......

Nicki

You are all assuming, with nothing having been said by the OP who may not even know yet, that the young man hasn't been paid in lieu of notice. Given his length of service and the few hours per week he works this isn't going to be a lot though.

If his final wage packet has a weeks pay in lieu of notice (less any pay for holiday taken but not accrued) he has no claim for wrongful dismissal whether or not the circumstances of the disciplinary were fair or not provided there was no unlawful discrimination which isn't alleged here. So suggestions that the employer would "settle out of court to avoid publicity" are premature and hugely inflating OPs expectations as the most her son can recover is one weeks wages.

jobbingmusician

A glowing reference, and the removal of GM from his record, is worth FAR more than this, is worth pursuing! (And I wouldn't be surprised if they came up with a small sweetener to keep the matter out of the press, personally.)

ohreally

^^^^^^

An agreed reference!

The money is secondary.

ohreally

Nicki wrote: »

hugely inflating OPs expectations

How do you know what the op's expectations are?

Nicki

When people start talking about a company paying her son off to avoid being exposed in the press it's fairly safe to assume the OP will be reading that to mean more than just a week's part time pay at the 16 year old's minimum pay rate

Does a reference and GM make a huge difference to a schoolboy looking for a Saturday job ? He'd just not mention it surely?

vodkafrog

The emotional impact on my son has been huge. He is a kind caring young man and is distraught that anything he may have done may have hurt a child ( the written record of his interview records that they got him to agree that his actions did caused injury to a child, ) this was the 2 hour interview.


I am not seeking money, nor him being reinstating in his job. I do feel that the organisation has not trained or supervised him appropriately. I also doubt that the parent of the child who fell from the bike had been advise that the lad who built it was not appropriately trained or supervised. I suspect they have just been told they have dismissed who (the organisation had decided ) is responsible.


I would like him to have the gross misconduct rescinded and a fair reference that reflects the large amount of positive customer feedback that he had achieved prior to this event.

bristol_pilot

Nicki wrote: »

Does a reference and GM make a huge difference to a schoolboy looking for a Saturday job ? He'd just not mention it surely?

This. Just leave the job off the CV.

It might be worth checking what kind of reference he might get anyway. Some employers just state dates and job title as a matter of policy. They can't give him a falsely positive (if you see what I mean) reference.

He might be asked during future job applications whether he has ever been dismissed and he would have to answer Yes. However as he is only 16 and there was no dishonesty involved I don't think it would count against him.

whitewing

Speak to ACAS as there may be additional rights that a 16 year old (being a young worker) in terms of investigations, supervision and disciplinary meetings.