boss continually threatening to sack workers

tracey97

Hello
After a period of unemployment earlier this year my friend finally gor a job. Its with a small local business and they have about seven employees.
All seemed well at first - friends wife had given birth to their baby just two weeks earlier and the proprietor of the business was considerate enough to arrange his days off as two consecutve days. After a few months, my friend was told that they were happy with his work and created a new 'supervisor' role for him as business was very busy.

Over the last few months, the proprietor is starting to show his true colours - the lads dont normally work sundays but occasionally if there is a big delivery expected on a monday morning they will be asked to go in on sunday to clear the warehouse. One of them refused to do it last time as they were asked/told on saturday afternoon they had to come in on sunday, regardless of what plans they had made. The lad who refused was sacked.
Since then, my friend has been threatened with the sack countless times. Once, at 6.15 pm the boss said 'i need you to go to a customers house to deliver this item'... A 50 MILE ROUND TRIP! Normal work hours are 8 til 6. If it had been a local address, he would have done it .. the day after the boss said he was lucky not to lose his job. Things like this happen regularly. The most recent one was 'either you or **** will be getting sacked today. You dont get on and I cant have a team that cant work together' My friend and this other person see each other for about half an hour in the morning when everyone is at the warehouse collecting the deliveries. There was a bit if tension the other week when my friend, as the supervisor, asked the other lad what was taking so long to do a few deliveries. But thats about it,
I dont think my friend has any rights here as he has only worked there since June. He hasnt got a contract. He was told at the beginning it was a zero hours contract but regularly works in excess of 50 hours a week.
Asking for a contract would probably just antagonise the boss . Also, asking for holiday leave would be an issue - what is he entitled to if anything?
This is an awful situation - he is only just getting things sorted after being off work for so long and the continual uncertainty about his job is very stressful

whitewing

His boss is being unprofessional (and presumably has stresses of his own). Your friend just needs to detach from the situation and rise above it. Ignore the threats. If it doesn't happen, then he hasn't got stressed about it. Meanwhile, look for another job and don't allow the current situation to erode his self-worth, but also detach from colleagues who are possibly fuelling the stress of it.

ohreally

There has to be an element of trust and confidence in the relationship, I'd say this was on the way to breaking down.

rtho782

He can't sue for unfair dismissal for 2 years, so he has basically no rights until then.

He is legally entitled to a minimum amount, see here:
https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/entitlement

If the boss won't let him take it he perhaps has a case for non-payment of wages, but obviously that's not something he wants to do until he has left or worked there 2 years.

dcouponzzzz

Follow Dale Carnegie's advice. Tell him to arrange a meeting with the boss, walk in and be as friendly as he's able. Start the conversation by asking about something the boss cares about (his own family? Car? Hobby?). Keep asking questions and don't talk about yourself, or relate his own story to your own experiences. 3
When he's in a good mood, state that you're happy to make sacrifices to enable to company to progress but morale has been declining recently. Ask if there's anything you can do to help and he'll most likely share the cause of his stress and involve you in a resolution.

Sncjw

Is he not entitled to two week paternity leave not two days

whitewing

Wouldn't he have had to have been there by a particular qualifying date to get paternity leave of 2 weeks?