My partner got dismissed (do not think fairly) Few questions and advice.

lruszczak

Hi All,

Got few questions as to what to do and what is your take on below.

Quick back story. My partner was dismissed Friday. She worked in company few days under a year (5th Feb is year). All was fine for 8 months of employment. No probation review as all good, no weekly or daily catch ups, no review at later stage and no complaints raised to her.
In October she was asked to come have a chat by her line manager. Line manager made meeting notes and raised some performance issue. Bear in mind company has no performance indicators at all setup for anyone, she is a head of department.
Issue were like she does not do enough bookings (expect same as res agent) , pickup up enough calls, she did not finish some tasks and that she does not know what team is doing. She was told this is informal catchup when she asked. So it continued like that. She was solving all that was thrown at her on those meetings or challenging saying its with other people in company. Suddenly in November after meeting she got notes back this time they had label on them performance improvement plan. She enquired why she was not informed so few days later she got official letter talking that those meetings were pip and asked to sign. She refused as notes were never accurate and she was never told its pip till then. There was no deadlines in it only weekly catch ups were planned. Then through out manager was skipping many weekly catch ups. In December it got worse. On 29th January even worse as meeting notes did not reflect at all what was said and many subjects were skipped plus new items not discussed were added. They were adding items from March or April 2018. She refused to sign this one as well until they add missing points and remove the extra ones. On 1st Feb she went for another catchup meeting as planned. But it turned out to be a dismissal. They went to senior manager office. Never discussed her performance but instead she was told it will not work and her employment is terminated with notice paid in liu.

There was no disciplinary, no official letters bar that one for pip which said if she does not perform they will start official route (never did), she was never offered to bring witness and was not aware last meeting was official one and dismissal.

In her contract they have the payment in liu paragraph so they did as per contract.
It also states disciplinary does not form part of contract and that management at any point at their discretion can ignore disciplinary rules under certain conditions (no conditions mentioned).

So to cubit short she was never allowed to defend her self and was never given time to resolve some of the points raised as they were pending with others during holiday period.

Any advice?

Her dismissal letter does not state employment was ended and stop there. They said it was terminated due to poor performance.

I think she has case for unlawful dismissal as even when they were doing the I formal pip it is covered in disciplinary rules and they did not follow that. They also did not say what those special reasons were to skip disciplinary steps. No evidence provided for her alleged performance issues (you made a mistake on this booking and no proof it was her while many other do same so could have done that).

That or bullying by her manager as she was constantly having new items added to pip when she solved current batch, items dragged out from start of her employment, literally rumours, she was told she does not stay overtime so is not committed and so on. Few others there as well.

Tom99

My understanding is that in the 1st two years your employment can be terminated without giving any reason.
Others may have a different view but I would suggest just accepting that, for whatever reason, her face did not fit.
She may well need a reference from this firm and kicking up a fuss may affect the tone of any reference given.

Ozzuk

She doesn't have 2 years employement so they can dismiss pretty easily. 'Bullying' by adding work to do, especially for a head of department will be difficult to maintain (IMO).

My non-professional advice would be move on, it sounds like she wasn't performaning as required, or maybe they just wanted her out, either way not much she can do.

If you want to pursue unlawful dismissal then get professional legal advice, though I'd put that enery into finding a new role.

Comms69

lruszczak wrote: »

Hi All,

Got few questions as to what to do and what is your take on below.

Quick back story. My partner was dismissed Friday. She worked in company few days under a year (5th Feb is year). All was fine for 8 months of employment. No probation review as all good, no weekly or daily catch ups, no review at later stage and no complaints raised to her. - Less than 2 years, her rights are very limited
In October she was asked to come have a chat by her line manager. Line manager made meeting notes and raised some performance issue. Bear in mind company has no performance indicators at all setup for anyone, she is a head of department.
Issue were like she does not do enough bookings (expect same as res agent) , pickup up enough calls, she did not finish some tasks and that she does not know what team is doing. - Well is it true? She was told this is informal catchup when she asked. So it continued like that. She was solving all that was thrown at her on those meetings or challenging saying its with other people in company. Suddenly in November after meeting she got notes back this time they had label on them performance improvement plan. She enquired why she was not informed so few days later she got official letter talking that those meetings were pip and asked to sign. She refused as notes were never accurate and she was never told its pip till then. There was no deadlines in it only weekly catch ups were planned. Then through out manager was skipping many weekly catch ups. In December it got worse. On 29th January even worse as meeting notes did not reflect at all what was said and many subjects were skipped plus new items not discussed were added. They were adding items from March or April 2018. She refused to sign this one as well until they add missing points and remove the extra ones. On 1st Feb she went for another catchup meeting as planned. But it turned out to be a dismissal. They went to senior manager office. Never discussed her performance but instead she was told it will not work and her employment is terminated with notice paid in liu. - Perfectly legal; especially since they tried to create an improvement plan which she clearly didn't engage with

There was no disciplinary, no official letters bar that one for pip which said if she does not perform they will start official route (never did), she was never offered to bring witness and was not aware last meeting was official one and dismissal. - all irrelevant

In her contract they have the payment in liu paragraph so they did as per contract.
It also states disciplinary does not form part of contract and that management at any point at their discretion can ignore disciplinary rules under certain conditions (no conditions mentioned).

So to cubit short she was never allowed to defend her self and was never given time to resolve some of the points raised as they were pending with others during holiday period.

Any advice? - move on, sorry its all legal

Her dismissal letter does not state employment was ended and stop there. They said it was terminated due to poor performance.

I think she has case for unlawful dismissal as even when they were doing the I formal pip it is covered in disciplinary rules and they did not follow that. They also did not say what those special reasons were to skip disciplinary steps. No evidence provided for her alleged performance issues (you made a mistake on this booking and no proof it was her while many other do same so could have done that). - irrelevant, she would only get a very small sum of money.

That or bullying by her manager as she was constantly having new items added to pip when she solved current batch, items dragged out from start of her employment, literally rumours, she was told she does not stay overtime so is not committed and so on. Few others there as well.

In the future, tell her to engage with her employers; they're paying her to do a job, arguing about signing improvement documents is the quickest way to be shown the door

nicechap

As others have said, there is very little employment protection with under 2 years service, and nothing you have written suggests there are grounds for bringing a claim for unfair dismissal.

There appears to be some confusion between performance improvement (sometimes called capablity) and disciplinary (wrong doing).

Its too late now but if similar circumstances occur in a future job, it might be worth taking the time to put the record straight with your partner's own notes of meetings, and if they continue to record inaccurate information, raise a grievance before it escalates too far. The red flag I see in the account above is the refusal to sign the notes without any counter argument - e.g. "signed under protest as these are not an accurate record" and asking for a union official to accompany them (not that there is a general right to representation in performance improvement meetings but a good employer will want to be seen to be fair as well as actually being fair.

Takmon

lruszczak wrote: »

In October she was asked to come have a chat by her line manager. Line manager made meeting notes and raised some performance issue.

.....

So to cubit short she was never allowed to defend her self and was never given time to resolve some of the points raised as they were pending with others during holiday period.

The issues were raised by her manager in October and by January she was still unable to address those issues to the holiday period?.

She had plenty of time to work on the issues but instead she spent her time disputing documents and still hadn't done anything months later. I'm not surprised she was let go!

shortcrust

I read stuff like this and wonder if some people actually want to get the sack on some level. From the OP's account - which is probably a kind account - she was being 'difficult'.

TBagpuss

In the first 2 years of employment she can be dismissed for any non-discriminatory reason. You haven't mentioned any discrimination - she was not dismissed because of her gender, race, sexuality, disability etc.

I think from what you describe, she would struggle to claim her dismissal was unfair even if she had worked there longer , it sounds as though her employers did follow a process of warnings, meetings etc, which she didn't engage with, and that she had performance issues which she wasn't able to address over a period of several months.

It's possible, of course, that her employer was unreasonable, but that doesn't make their actions unfair in the legal sense. It is also possible that they followed an entirely fair and appropriate process and that she was unable or unwilling to accept their assessment of her performance.

Undervalued

lruszczak wrote: »

Any advice?

Her dismissal letter does not state employment was ended and stop there. They said it was terminated due to poor performance.

I think she has case for unlawful dismissal as even when they were doing the I formal pip it is covered in disciplinary rules and they did not follow that. They also did not say what those special reasons were to skip disciplinary steps. No evidence provided for her alleged performance issues (you made a mistake on this booking and no proof it was her while many other do same so could have done that).

That or bullying by her manager as she was constantly having new items added to pip when she solved current batch, items dragged out from start of her employment, literally rumours, she was told she does not stay overtime so is not committed and so on. Few others there as well.

If (and it is a big if) the firms disciplinary procedure is a hard and fast contractual entitlement and was not followed then she could potentially make a claim for wrongful dismissal. That is not subject to a two year qualifying period.

However, it would be unusual for there to be an absolute right to a particular procedure being followed.

Even then all such a claim would yield is a few days pay to compensate for however long it would have taken the firm to do it properly.

lruszczak

OK a update (sorry was expecting a email notification of new posts ).

Each time a task was presented at job chat it was completed by next meeting with exception of those that were down to 3rd party (external company, other people in company). Maybe not made it clear.
So Meeting in October few points raised. By next meeting points were resolved so they added other point. They were resolved by next meeting and so on. By meeting in January they were adding things like you did not acknowledge an email you were CCed on in March 2018.

Not signing PIP is one thing she refused to sign 1st one initially (she did at the end) as it was not a PIP till they asked her to sign it. She was told those are just catch-up meetings, chats. Signatures were never requested before and even that one was requested 2 or 3 days later.
The not signed one on 29th was not signed as it was not a reflection of the discussion. Things were left out or changed. Why would anyone sign that.

Anyhu our main goal was never to go to court for a fight but rather to just change dismissal not.

On it it states she was dismissed for poor performance as per procedure. Procedure they did not follow. Performance for which they had no KPI anyhow yet she still delivered each time asked.

Comms69

lruszczak wrote: »

OK a update (sorry was expecting a email notification of new posts ).

Each time a task was presented at job chat it was completed by next meeting with exception of those that were down to 3rd party (external company, other people in company). Maybe not made it clear. - largely irrelevant. sorry.
So Meeting in October few points raised. By next meeting points were resolved so they added other point. They were resolved by next meeting and so on. By meeting in January they were adding things like you did not acknowledge an email you were CCed on in March 2018. - They were managing her out. It's an unpleasant process; but its legal.

Not signing PIP is one thing she refused to sign 1st one initially (she did at the end) as it was not a PIP till they asked her to sign it. She was told those are just catch-up meetings, chats. Signatures were never requested before and even that one was requested 2 or 3 days later. - again not relevant.
The not signed one on 29th was not signed as it was not a reflection of the discussion. Things were left out or changed. Why would anyone sign that. - conversely why would she continue working there?

Anyhu our main goal was never to go to court for a fight but rather to just change dismissal not. - you cannot change the dismissal. Courts very rarely make such orders; in many cases it's compensation for lost money.

On it it states she was dismissed for poor performance as per procedure. Procedure they did not follow. Performance for which they had no KPI anyhow yet she still delivered each time asked.

It doesn't matter. I know you want to be vindicated. But with less than two years the absolute very best case scenario is about a weeks pay for them to get the procedure right.