Unfair Dismissal ?

Geoff1963

Theft Act 1968
13 Abstracting of electricity.
A person who dishonestly uses without due authority, or dishonestly causes to be wasted or diverted, any electricity shall on conviction on indictment be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.

Guest101

Geoff1963 wrote: »

Theft Act 1968
13 Abstracting of electricity.
A person who dishonestly uses without due authority, or dishonestly causes to be wasted or diverted, any electricity shall on conviction on indictment be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.

Key word is 'dishonestly'

Hedgehog99

Bosses like him need a robot, not a human PA.

Mind you, just because he emailed you outside office hours doesn't mean you have to read or act on it. Your predecessors allowed him to get into these bad habits and now he just expects it from everyone.

Cut your losses and be glad to be rid of him.

Undervalued

Guest101 wrote: »

Key word is 'dishonestly'

Exactly!

The crazy argument Geoff1963 is making could just as easily be applied to anybody who rings your doorbell uninvited. Now that would be handy at election times.....
:rotfl:

benj111

Sorry if off topic.

I'm curious, I would have said this was (potentially) wrongful dismissal, and would have thought going the ACAS/ employment tribunal route would be best on that basis. Everyone else is suggesting small claims court, what am I missing?

Undervalued

benj111 wrote: »

Sorry if off topic.

I'm curious, I would have said this was (potentially) wrongful dismissal, and would have thought going the ACAS/ employment tribunal route would be best on that basis. Everyone else is suggesting small claims court, what am I missing?

Wrongful dismissal is simply breach of contract. As I explained in post 9 all they could potentially claim for is their contractual notice.

Given that there are now significant fees to pay to bring an employment tribunal claim it would almost certainly be cheaper to make this claim in the small claims court. Another advantage is that the strict three month time limit to bring an ET claim does not apply so they have up to six years (five in Scotland).

steampowered

The best thing to do would be to send the company a formal 'letter before action', setting what you feel you are owed.

The letter should ask the company for payment within 14 days, else you will have no choice but to bring court action or Employment Tribunal proceedings to recover the money owed.

This will reduce the chance of a good reference, but it doesn't sound like you'll be getting a good reference anyway.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

Geoff1963 wrote: »

Even though it was your personal e-mail account, you were using company equipment and internet access ; for an activity which is actually detrimental to their business. It probably has a rule against that, and which says they can check any content. Instant dismissal for Gross Misconduct does sound harsh, but I'm guessing you aren't in a union.

The fact that they logged into the personal email account at work in no way means that they wrote the job applications at work. They could well have written them at home in the evenings; they would still have been visible on the account wherever they logged into it from.

They may have logged into the personal account at work because they get work related message sent to the personal email account out of hours and needed to see them.

Profligate

Hi

If you're in a Union you could talk to them

Or, here's ACAS on notice and pay http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1650
ACAS also have a helpline -you could rung them for advice.

Geoff1963

Town Police Clauses Act 1847
28 Penalty on persons committing any of the offences herein named.
Every person who in any street, to the obstruction, annoyance, or danger of the residents or passengers, commits any of the following offences, shall be liable to a penalty . . .
[F35Every person who wilfully and wantonly disturbs any inhabitant, by pulling or ringing any door bell, or knocking at any door, or who wilfully and unlawfully extinguishes the light of any lamp:]

I don't make this stuff up.