Fired for asking to volunteer, illegal??

lincroft1710

Most major employers will have a "no 2nd job or with prior approval only" clause, especially for senior positions

SharpShooter

Agree with Masomnia that regular forum posters appear to be stating "employer can sack you for no reason" and that "they dont even need a reason to sack you" very often which is misleading advice. The goverments website on dismisal contradicts that theory.

Anyway, the OP states she was given the reason they could not afford her/ financial troubles. This can be a valid reason.

epm-84

TELLIT01 said:

EmmaM92 said:

Hello
I apologise if I am posting this in the wrong place but I am looking for some advice or just opinions. 
I was recently fired during my probation period for no reason (positive & brilliant reviews/feedback, got along with everyone well, went the extra mile every day and did a lot more than ask, very proactive etc). 
I worked part time (3 days a week) and when the government asked for NHS volunteers, out of common courtesy I asked my CEO (small company of 40) if it would be ok for me to volunteer on my non working days. Her response was unbelievable. Not only was she rude, unprofessional and out of order, but she refused me volunteering and told me I should be grateful for being in a paid job and should focus my efforts on that rather than volunteering (not that it’s anything to do with her what I do on my days off). 
A few days later I was fired without notice, real reason and all they said was they couldn’t afford to pay me (an absolute lie). A few emails were exchanged but they asked me to stop contacting them and therefore I’ll never find out exactly why. 
I did some research and saw someone had said being told you can’t volunteer is illegal - and without a good reason to be fired during probation is also quite dodgy although not illegal. Does anyone have any advice here? I asked for Furlough then redundancy but they refused that too. 
Thank you
Emma

Actually you are wrong there.  Many companies have it in their contract of employment that permission must be obtained before taking on a second job. 

Volunteering doesn't count as a second job though and as long as the hours you propose to volunteer are reasonable I don't see why permission would be needed, even if your contract mentioned not being able to work for another employer without permission.

epm-84

Pajaro said:

Lomast said:

Pajaro said:

There should be no reason for the employer to know about any kind of work that the OP is doing on day that she is not working, provided it is not in the same/similar industry with her current role. I doubt volunteering for the NHS likely falls within this.

OP - can you explain why you felt  the need to tell your former employer this?

Many employment contracts have clauses stating employee may not have a second job without permission from the employer.

I have worked in many jobs and never had this clause.
I suspect very few have this as it is not necessary.

As long as it does not cause a conflict with your full-time job it is none  of your employers business anyway.

I've only had one job which hasn't and that was for a temporary role at an event.

Saying that my other roles have been full time and roles where I have had access to commercially sensitive information but not managerial roles.  I can completely understand an employer not wanting you to work normal office hours for them and then do work in the evening or at the weekend for a competitor, or for an employer not wanting someone who does 9-5 in the office, then doing 8pm-midnight in a pub and turning up tired for work the next day.

Undervalued

epm-84 said:

Pajaro said:

Lomast said:

Pajaro said:

There should be no reason for the employer to know about any kind of work that the OP is doing on day that she is not working, provided it is not in the same/similar industry with her current role. I doubt volunteering for the NHS likely falls within this.

OP - can you explain why you felt  the need to tell your former employer this?

Many employment contracts have clauses stating employee may not have a second job without permission from the employer.

I have worked in many jobs and never had this clause.
I suspect very few have this as it is not necessary.

As long as it does not cause a conflict with your full-time job it is none  of your employers business anyway.

I've only had one job which hasn't and that was for a temporary role at an event.

Saying that my other roles have been full time and roles where I have had access to commercially sensitive information but not managerial roles.  I can completely understand an employer not wanting you to work normal office hours for them and then do work in the evening or at the weekend for a competitor, or for an employer not wanting someone who does 9-5 in the office, then doing 8pm-midnight in a pub and turning up tired for work the next day.

Quite. 

Even if it is not specifically spelt out there is still an implied duty to act in good faith and to present yourself at work in a fit and proper state to do your job.

Many years ago an organisation I was involved with had a difficult problem with a very keen and talented sports person. They had realistic ambitions of national team and possibly Olympic level in their chosen sport. However it was a field where there were few if any professional opportunities and sponsorship was more or less non existent. To get to that sort of level they would train from first light in summer and again in the evening after work every day plus the weekends. Predictably their work suffered badly plus of course they wanted / needed first choice of holiday dates etc. Ultimately it was unsustainable.

Masomnia

Alternative work can be problem if there's a conflict of interest, even volunteering if your volunteer work is for a rival organisation, or as above if it impacts on your main job. 

There's also the issue of working time regulations and the 48 hour working limit, which applies to both jobs added together. So if you take a second role and it takes you over the limit your main employer may want to reserve the right to at least know about it to ensure that they're fulfilling the duty of care to you to make sure you're not working over the 48 hours, or you've opted out.

The exception being zero hours contracts where exclusivity clauses are not enforcable.

Undervalued

Masomnia said:

Alternative work can be problem if there's a conflict of interest, even volunteering if your volunteer work is for a rival organisation, or as above if it impacts on your main job. 

There's also the issue of working time regulations and the 48 hour working limit, which applies to both jobs added together. So if you take a second role and it takes you over the limit your main employer may want to reserve the right to at least know about it to ensure that they're fulfilling the duty of care to you to make sure you're not working over the 48 hours, or you've opted out.

The exception being zero hours contracts where exclusivity clauses are not enforcable.

Correct - in theory at least. The trouble is that with a zero hour contract, the number of hours being offered tend to dry up if you do things that the employer doesn't like......

General_Grant

Masomnia said:

Alternative work can be problem if there's a conflict of interest, even volunteering if your volunteer work is for a rival organisation, or as above if it impacts on your main job. 

There's also the issue of working time regulations and the 48 hour working limit, which applies to both jobs added together. So if you take a second role and it takes you over the limit your main employer may want to reserve the right to at least know about it to ensure that they're fulfilling the duty of care to you to make sure you're not working over the 48 hours, or you've opted out.

The exception being zero hours contracts where exclusivity clauses are not enforcable.

I thought that almost every employer invited its workforce to opt out in order that they don't have to monitor all the hours that their staff work.