Sacked advice needed ASAP

Sarah69

Hi,

This post is regarding my son. He has worked for the same company since February this year, although his acceptance letter is dated 1st March. The company was taken over on 1st November. My son went in for a meeting today only to be told not to come back after Christmas. He has had a few times of sick, he was diagnosedlast year with something called Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome. It causes him to be sick or to feel sick. He was hospitalised last December and almost had to go in about 3 weeks ago. He has sent in Drs notes when it's been needed. He has never had any verbal or written warnings. Can he just be sacked in this way with no actual reason given?

Undervalued

Sarah69 wrote: »

Hi,

This post is regarding my son. He has worked for the same company since February this year, although his acceptance letter is dated 1st March. The company was taken over on 1st November. My son went in for a meeting today only to be told not to come back after Christmas. He has had a few times of sick, he was diagnosedlast year with something called Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome. It causes him to be sick or to feel sick. He was hospitalised last December and almost had to go in about 3 weeks ago. He has sent in Drs notes when it's been needed. He has never had any verbal or written warnings. Can he just be sacked in this way with no actual reason given?

Sadly yes. With less than two years service he can be dismissed for any reason or no reason at all. The only exception would be certain types of unlawful discrimination (race, gender, sexual orientation etc) which I assume don't apply?

He is entitled to a week's notice plus any accrued holiday pay.

McKneff

A week's notice at least, tell him to check his contract.
Not nice for him, hope he finds employment soon.
Can they do anything about his illness ?

Sarah69

He has now told me it was his attendance. Surely they have to give verbal warnings or written warnings he hasn't had any!

kazwookie

Sadly he has been there under 2 years.

So they can just pay him off.

Get his CV up to date and get him round the agencies in your area asap

I hope his illness can be treated.

xapprenticex

Sarah69 wrote: »

He has now told me it was his attendance. Surely they have to give verbal warnings or written warnings he hasn't had any!

if they wanted to be nice, but they dont have to. worst time formit to happen, good luck to him for the future.

Undervalued

Sarah69 wrote: »

He has now told me it was his attendance. Surely they have to give verbal warnings or written warnings he hasn't had any!

No, they are under no legal obligation to follow any process at all.

If his contract spells out a formal process and they have failed to follow that then he might, in theory at least, have a claim in that respect. However the absolute maximum he would get from that would be a few days pay to compensate for the time it would have taken to do it properly. It wouldn't change the end result.

Hopefully they will give him a decent reference based on the quality of his work. If you or he rock the boat it will scupper any chance of even that.

jobbingmusician

I stress, as usual, that I am not an expert. However, it may be worth considering that if your son
- is told in writing that he has been dismissed for attendance record
- has told his employers that he has been diagnosed with a medical condition such as you describe
- the employers have not met with him about this, or asked him about any reasonable adaptations to help him accommodate his illness in the workplace

he *may* have a case against them for disability discrimination. Worth asking advice from ACAS, maybe?

Undervalued

jobbingmusician wrote: »

I stress, as usual, that I am not an expert. However, it may be worth considering that if your son
- is told in writing that he has been dismissed for attendance record
- has told his employers that he has been diagnosed with a medical condition such as you describe
- the employers have not met with him about this, or asked him about any reasonable adaptations to help him accommodate his illness in the workplace

he *may* have a case against them for disability discrimination. Worth asking advice from ACAS, maybe?

That would only apply if the illness amounted to a disability for employment law purposes. It does not apply if he was "only" ill.

Even if it did and the employer had been made aware it would only entitle him to "reasonable adjustments".

However, a quick Google shows that there was an online petition trying to get this illness classed as a disability which rather suggests it isn't one at the moment. Equally a quick look at a support group website hasn't helped.

https://www.change.org/p/government-equalities-office-help-get-cyclic-vomiting-syndrome-recognized-as-a-disability

ohreally

Does he work in the food industry?

jobbingmusician

Undervalued wrote: »

That would only apply if the illness amounted to a disability for employment law purposes. It does not apply if he was "only" ill.

Even if it did and the employer had been made aware it would only entitle him to "reasonable adjustments".

However, a quick Google shows that there was an online petition trying to get this illness classed as a disability which rather suggests it isn't one at the moment. Equally a quick look at a support group website hasn't helped.

https://www.change.org/p/government-equalities-office-help-get-cyclic-vomiting-syndrome-recognized-as-a-disability

Whilst I'm sure all the above is accurate (and interesting link about the disability) if the employer has dismissed for a recurrent illness without making any enquiries and/or adjustments, they are not exactly in a strong position......