Dismissal - Advice needed

Undervalued

hutman wrote: »

@Undervalued -Thanks for your reply.

Does this mean, i have hope for getting the misconduct charge removed?

Have you been dismissed with no notice (i.e gross misconduct) or have you been given notice (or pay in lieu)?

If it is the former you could potentially challenge the "gross" aspect as part of a wrongful dismissal claim. However all that would get you is your notice pay, it wouldn't get you any compensation for the loss of your job.

As I said, as far as disciplinary procedures are concerned, it is rare for there to be a hard and fast contractual entitlement to them being followed.

If you are in a regulated profession then there are special rules regarding references.

Given that it was "well paid" I suggest you take proper legal advice.

robatwork

Just for a second put yourself in your employer's position.

They have a senior well-paid employee that they have invested 20 months of salary and (on the job) training in. So this employee is now paying back some of the investment.

Why would you summarily dismiss this great employee and have to go through the expense of recruiting and training someone new?
Tell us why you think they sacked you.

Doesn't make sense and small companies go bust quickly if they make a few stupid business decisions. I expect they think they've got this one right.

Diamandis

If you honestly can't understand why it's unprofessional to contact the client directly after they complained about you and your employer had to have a meeting with you about it then that's worrying.

How do you think doing this affects your employers relationship with their client?

LilElvis

hutman wrote: »

Thanks for your detailed response!

Undoubtedly it was, you're right. But poor performance according to a client's standards is rarely a reason for dismissal, especially considering the same behaviours and ethics have been shown to gain positive client reviews at another site. Normally under such circumstances you'd be asking the employee for any training they might need. The client is paying your employer for the work you are providing so they are fully entitled to set whatever standard they believe to be warranted. Why should someone who has been employed in the industry for a considerable time and on a high salary require further training in order to meet either the employer's or client's expectations?



creating/ storing/ deleting - performing such actions on a shared drive is part of everyday working life. I, and other colleagues must have deleted hundreds of documents off Shared drives and SharePoint and the like. it is extremely elementary for this to be considered an act of misconduct unless the deletion was one of sensitive and private property of the client which could not be retrieved.But it wasn't client information you stored and deleted on the drive - it was personal documents. Check your employer's policy (and those provided to you by the client) to see whether your actions constitute misconduct. In any case an employer would be justified in calling it misconduct if any personal files were created or accessed during working hours - a point you haven't answered.



Little confused on this one. Why is this unprofessional? After all if its a document which they are looking for, all I'm doing is offering to hand it back to them IF i have deleted it in the first place. My intentions were benign and trying to clear up a misunderstanding - not wriggle out of an allegation.I would have thought this point was self-explanatory. The client contacted your employer regarding the service you supplied - it would not have been intended as a three way conversation. You shouldn't have contacted the client regarding the review without your employer's express consent.

Secondly, i'm beginning to doubt this was a reason at all, and actually something which has been fabricated by employer to legislate a misconduct charge.If you've breached policy then it is misconduct.



The process of dismissing an employee was not afforded to me. No investigation took place. That doesn't make it discrimination - look it up before bandying that phrase around.I'm happy to take ownership of the fact things didn't work out and mutually step aside. But not for misconduct.

See above.

Crazy_Jamie

hutman wrote: »

To be clear, i want to challenge the misconduct charge and do not wish for any money or other extras from taking a legal route.

In which case you need to use the company's internal appeal or grievance procedure. But, as with the dismissal itself, there is nothing to compel them to follow that process if they choose not to.

Whilst I appreciate that you feel aggrieved by this, the unfortunate fact that you don't quite seem to be grasping is that without two years' service they can dismiss you for any reason that is not discriminatory or falls within an automatically unfair reason (there is no suggestion that either applies here) and they do not need to follow any process at all, let alone a fair one. That is the beginning and end of any issue relating to the fairness of this dismissal from a rights perspective.

Wrongful dismissal is a little different, because that is an allegation of breach of contract. So if they dismissed you without notice, they must prove that you committed a fundamental breach of contract and, if they do not, you are entitled to your notice pay. If they did not summarily dismiss you (i.e. without notice) and have paid you your notice pay, then this also falls away.

Undervalued's point about the disciplinary process being contractual is right, but disciplinary and grievance processes are very rarely contractual and, even if it is, you would recover very limited damages, which in practice would not make this a claim worth pursuing.

Masomnia

I think it's still worth checking if your disciplinary policies and procedures are contractual as a successful wrongful dismissal claim will free you from restrictive covenants, which I imagine are in your contract.

FBaby

The likely situation is that the client mattered more to them than you. They were left very unhappy, complained, told their side that you deleted a shared folder without their agreement because you were hiding something and maybe said that they were very disappointed with the company and were thinking of transferring their business or worse suing them.

They opted for the grovelling approach, agreed, said they were sorry and reassured them that you would be dismissed and therefore would beer have to deal with you again. Maybe it was totally unfair, maybe the complaint was justify but either way, they did what they thought was best for the company and did so legally.