Sacked Apprentice

Undervalued

It is a pity he didn't refuse to use his own car, explaining that the insurance did not cover such use. Had they sacked him for that he would have had a claim, regardless of not having two years service, as they were asking him to do something unlawful.

It may still be worth taking advice as, depending on exactly what happened in that respect, there may be the possibility of a claim (or at least a grey enough area to make the firm consider some kind of settlement).

Savvy_Sue

machine_head wrote: »

His stickability is now over 10 yrs at rugby but I'm gonna have to google playing rugby less robustly lol.

It is probably a lost cause, I know. I just remember my older brother carried on playing after university, picking up injuries on a regular basis. Mum was NOT impressed ... Of course while he was away at school and Uni she'd no idea what he was getting up to!

ViolaLass

Les79 wrote: »

Do you think that it is acceptable to call up an employer on the day to request a "holiday" (or "day off") when, in actual fact, it would be more suited to record it as "sick"?

Unless he had a crystal ball RE: Rugby injuries (and so booked "holidays" in advance), I suspect that your son has been doing this trick regularly.

I don't often say this, but I would also have sacked him after quite a few instances of this.

Genuine question - what's the 'trick'?

ViolaLass

Les79 wrote: »

Calling up on the day to book holidays when they are arguably sick.

Thought that was a bit clear in my post like? It isn't a trick trick :rotfl:

Why would the employer care? The employee isn't coming in either way and they'll have to pay that holiday pay at some point.

Crazy_Jamie

Whilst those who have replied bringing up length of service and making their own assessment of the decision to dismiss are no doubt well meaning, in this particular case the apprenticeship issue is significant and makes a big difference to the advice that would normally be given in conduct dismissal cases. That's because this is not a statutory unfair dismissal situation; this is about breach of contract.

As much as I am reiterating what has already been said, you need to seek specialist advice on this. Apprenticeships are a specialist subject even for employment lawyers. From what you've said it does sound like your son was an apprentice, but then it makes a difference whether he was employed under a statutory apprenticeship (in accordance with the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009), or whether he was employed as a common law apprentice.

If your son was a common law apprentice, the employer has to reach a much higher bar to justify early termination of the contract. Clearly there may be more to this than what you've said in the thread so far, but from what you have said it sounds like the employer may struggle to justify the termination if the apprenticeship was common law. If the apprenticeship was statutory then termination can be more straightforward, but then statutory apprenticeships have very strict requirements, and if the framework has not been fully complied with your son may still be a common law apprentice even if the intention was for him to be a statutory apprentice.

If the termination was unlawful then your son would also be entitled to damages that are broader than a standard unfair dismissal claim, and could include damages for loss of training and loss of status as well as the wages your son would have been due for the remainder of the apprenticeship. That again is a complicated and specialist area that requires advice from someone with relevant expertise. It is not at all unusual for awards in apprenticeship termination cases to hit the ET's jurisdictional limit of £25,000 for breach of contract claims given the range of heads of loss that can be claimed, but you will need someone with experience in the area to quantify that.

So yes, seek specialist advice on this. Your son should of course be looking for alternative employment in the mean time, but the case is one that at the very least needs to be looked into further.

machine_head

Once again, thank you for all the replies. Son is now settled into a placement with a gas heating company and looking forward to year 3 and finishing his apprenticeship. We are looking at legal action against his former employer, as for his rugby playing....................

DCFC79

Good luck with the legal action.