Terminated during probation for no reason

Wowiee

My partner has been in his job over 5 months, probation is 6 months. He has done really well and has only ever had great feedback. He has not had any probation meetings and there has been no concerns raised.

suddenly today, he was given a probation review letter by a subordinate member of staff which said FAIL on it and was told he was being terminated. His manager has not spoken to him and he doesnt even know if he is to attend work this week to work notice - the person who gave him the letter today didn't know anything about it.

There is nothing in his contract to say that the employer can terminate for any reason and clause I can see that will protect them.

My partner has not been discriminated against that we are aware of, it seems to be cost cutting. I will note that he was also told and pressured into not taking paternity leave for our newborn during his paternity leave as was made to feel he would be terminated if he did (so he didn't actually take any leave).

I know he cannot claim unfair dismissal as he has not been there more than 2 years.

My question is can his employer actually get away with this and give no reason what so ever and not even follow their own process for probation as outlined in their own contract?

Undervalued

Wowiee wrote: »

My partner has been in his job over 5 months, probation is 6 months. He has done really well and has only ever had great feedback. He has not had any probation meetings and there has been no concerns raised.

suddenly today, he was given a probation review letter by a subordinate member of staff which said FAIL on it and was told he was being terminated. His manager has not spoken to him and he doesnt even know if he is to attend work this week to work notice - the person who gave him the letter today didn't know anything about it.

There is nothing in his contract to say that the employer can terminate for any reason and clause I can see that will protect them.

My partner has not been discriminated against that we are aware of, it seems to be cost cutting. I will note that he was also told and pressured into not taking paternity leave for our newborn during his paternity leave as was made to feel he would be terminated if he did (so he didn't actually take any leave).

I know he cannot claim unfair dismissal as he has not been there more than 2 years.

My question is can his employer actually get away with this and give no reason what so ever and not even follow their own process for probation as outlined in their own contract?

Basically yes I'm afraid.

If there is a contractual entitlement to a particular process being followed and the employer has failed to do so then, in theory at least, he could make a claim for wrongful dismissal (i.e breach of contract). However the very most that would get him is a few days pay to compensate for however long it would have taken the employer to do it properly.

It wouldn't get him his job back or any other compensation for losing it.

My partner has not been discriminated against that we are aware of, it seems to be cost cutting. I will note that he was also told and pressured into not taking paternity leave for our newborn during his paternity leave as was made to feel he would be terminated if he did (so he didn't actually take any leave).

If he could prove this (which is likely to be very difficult) there might be the potential for a claim in this respect but given that he didn't take the paternity leave it will be hard to argue that is why he was dismissed!

Probably best to move on.....

Wowiee

Thank you for your reply.

We have just saw that the company have advertised his job and posted it 17 days ago on a job site yet it was just today he was given the FAIL on a probation review. So it seems that this was pre mediated over 2 weeks ago but no discussion regarding his performance was completed and my partner felt very confident in the job and has been doing very well.

The fact they have been looking to replace him for a few weeks, does that change things?

Undervalued

Wowiee wrote: »

Thank you for your reply.

We have just saw that the company have advertised his job and posted it 17 days ago on a job site yet it was just today he was given the FAIL on a probation review. So it seems that this was pre mediated over 2 weeks ago but no discussion regarding his performance was completed and my partner felt very confident in the job and has been doing very well.

The fact they have been looking to replace him for a few weeks, does that change things?

No, not at all I'm afraid. Within the first two years he can be dismissed for no reason at all. The only exception would be if he could show that the real reason was one of a handful of types of unlawful discrimination (sex, religion, race etc) or simply because he was trying to insist on a statutory right.

[Deleted User]

Wowiee wrote: »

We have just saw that the company have advertised his job and posted it 17 days ago on a job site yet it was just today he was given the FAIL on a probation review.

Not all job postings are up to the minute live as one of the famous job sites pulls data to it's site and this could be out of date info.
It relates to the sometimes mystery of why on a popular job site, some vacancies are expired very quickly.

Don't take my word but here was one reply when I queried a job posting that definitely couldn't have existed when it appeared last year:

"Indeed.com includes all the job listings from major job boards, newspapers, associations and company career pages - the jobs contained in I's search results, or linked from these results, have been created by people over whom I exercises no control. I's job search results are indexed in an automated manner and I is not able to screen all of the jobs on the site"

Lomast

The whole probation thing is a bit pointless these days as has been pointed out an employer can terminate an employees contract with no reason given within the first two years as long as it's not due to discrimination against a protected characteristic and contractual notice is given

TELLIT01

Lomast wrote: »

The whole probation thing is a bit pointless these days as has been pointed out an employer can terminate an employees contract with no reason given within the first two years as long as it's not due to discrimination against a protected characteristic and contractual notice is given

I wouldn't say the probation period is pointless. New staff will realise that they are under greater scrutiny during the probation period and that may encourage them to concentrate on the job in hand and to 'keep their nose clean'. Once through the probationary period there will have been a degree of investment in the employee by the employer and they are likely to less keen to get rid.
I do accept that being through probation doesn't give the employee any more rights or protection in law.

Exodi

Just to clear up something that has been glossed over;

Wowiee wrote: »

he doesnt even know if he is to attend work this week to work notice

Whilst it depends on the terms of his specific contract, they are usually similar (though I'd encourage he checks his!). Mine, for example, is "There will be a probationary period of 6 months within which the notice period for both you and the company will be one month. After the successful completion of your probation period the notice period will extend to three months on either side."

So despite his unfortunate termination, he will still be expected to work this period. GENERALLY, however, employers would be sympathetic and may offer PILON or gardening leave but this is at their discretion.

Lomast wrote: »

The whole probation thing is a bit pointless these days as has been pointed out an employer can terminate an employees contract with no reason given within the first two years as long as it's not due to discrimination against a protected characteristic and contractual notice is given

As above, the difference in notice can make a lot of difference (I would have trouble starting a new job in a couple of weeks but shouldn't have many issues in a couple of months).

getmore4less

What did the letter say and what was verbal from this post person?


turn up for work is the default unles it says in writing not to or you get told by someone with the authority to do so and even then you follow up before leaving work with that in writing or an email to the person CC to their boss outlining the conversation and asking for confirmation that you no longer required to turn up.

Liberal123

I know of someone who maybe in a similar situation. Just out of curiosity, how would this situation be tackled in terms of references? Would you request a reference? Would you even put the job down on your CV?

Exodi

Liberal123 wrote: »

I know of someone who maybe in a similar situation. Just out of curiosity, how would this situation be tackled in terms of references? Would you request a reference? Would you even put the job down on your CV?

Depends on circumstance, I'd like to think there would be some conversation with your manager about why you're being terminated... If you were terminated because of the company finances, then by all means use as a reference, they'll like give an extremely positive one out of sympathy. If you were terminated because they didn't think you were suitable for the job, I'd try to omit. You'd have had an interview before an employer would consult references anyway and if the job was on your CV, expect the first question to be "what made you leave?" "redundancy" "why was you made redundant?" so the references wouldn't come as a shock.

That said, if an employer asks for a reference, you don't have much choice.

Would I put it on a CV? Again, depends on circumstance, if I was employed for around or less than a month, certainly not. If I was there for a couple of months, then it certainly looks better than what the employer would assume was long term unemployment.