Unfair dismissal from a family member?

antrobus

Bee008 wrote: »

...What would you do?? Just walk away?

You're going to have to walk away from the job. I mean, you don't want your job back to do you?

Calling a fellow worker a "w**re" probably counts as gross misconduct, so there is certainly an argument that the business was perfectly entitled to dismiss you for that reason. After all, it is a criminal offence to send an offensive text message.

If the business now refuses to pay you the commission that you believed you are owed, you will just have to take them to court.

sangie595

antrobus wrote: »

You're going to have to walk away from the job. I mean, you don't want your job back to do you?

Calling a fellow worker a "w**re" probably counts as gross misconduct, so there is certainly an argument that the business was perfectly entitled to dismiss you for that reason. After all, it is a criminal offence to send an offensive text message.

If the business now refuses to pay you the commission that you believed you are owed, you will just have to take them to court.

I agree. Regardless of the niceties of due process, and taking a completely objective view, it is six of one and half a dozen of the other. They shouldn't have dismissed without due process; you shouldn't have committed gross misconduct. I'd suggest that you chalk this up as rule #22 of working life "working for family seldom works out well". It's often ranked alongside rule #3 of everyday life - "Never get involved in other peoples relationships, because sooner or later you will probably end up being the one they both blame!"

As for the money, if you can prove they owe it to you, then you have to decide whether you are willing to go to court or not. There's no way that it won't get messy, and there seems to be a lot of messiness to go around at the moment.

I am not condoning your brother-in-laws behaviour, but people do stupid things for all sorts of reasons (and sometimes for no reasons at all), and there are generally several versions of every story. It is natural you wanted to protect your sister, and even more natural that you think there is only one version of right and wrong here. Life is generally a lot more grey though. Take a step back, and decide what to do when you are calm about it. Relationships can recover from affairs. Sometimes an affair is the spark that sets people back to thinking about what is important. When you have been married for 15 years, you will probably understand that it isn't all a happy-ever-after story, but it also isn't a Greek tragedy. Life is messy enough all on its own.

Make sure that if you decide to go to court over this, you aren't doing it out of some misplaced sense of revenge against your brother-in-law. You should only do it if you would have done it had you never known about the affair. And maybe, just maybe, not even then. Family is complicated!

ShaneUK

I think this is a more a Judge Rinder (to get the money owed to you!) than Jeremy Kyle......

Guest101

Bee008 wrote: »

Hello all!

I just wanted to get other people's opinions on whether they would bother pursuing an employment tribunal, or not.

It all sounds like a bit of a Jeremy Kyle case, which is why I'm not rushing round to my local CABs for advice (sheer embarrassment, I think!). :rotfl:

For the past 5 years (whilst I was undertaking a couple of degrees) I was employed by my brother-in-law. My hours varied a lot, from a minimum of 16 hours up to 48 hours a week (at the absolute most). I also earn commission (as I had got involved with the sales side of the business).

Recently, we found my brother-in-law cheating on my sister (together for 15 years) with my very young work colleague.

Following this, I was sacked immediately, due to his marriage breakdown with my sister.

I was, however, slightly involved. On a day, when not working, I popped into the workplace and asked to borrow his mobile phone, which he agreed to (followed by me handing it over to my sister, to check the incriminating evidence of his dirty little affair). Well that's gross misconduct there.

I also sent a text message to my young colleague saying I hope she was happy that she had ruined the lives of 4 very young children (baby just 8 weeks old) and what a home wrecking w**re she is. - Lets hope she doesn't call the police.
Not my finest of moments. But I was acting as a sister, not as an employee, when I was expressing my absolute heartache at this girl for breaking up my sister's marriage.

Anyway, I sent my brother-in-laws business partner a very nice civil email asking to at least be paid 9 days wages. And I gave them the breakdown of my commission earnt in that past month/2 months (over £1,000).

Finally got a reply, and they agreed to pay me 6 days wages (that I hadn't worked) and REFUSED to pay the commission I had rightfully earnt. Along with a string of excuses as to why I could not have the omission (a load of rubbish about certain customers being unhappy- which, even if true, does not affect the gross profit anyway. I still made the company £23,000 gross profit in those few weeks).


What would you do?? Just walk away?

I don't think you have a case. But That's based upon it being gross misconduct for taking your bosses phone