Can Coronavirus be used as "some other substantial reason" for dismissing me?

Semple

Ooof, do companies like these not have any HR representation that understands even the basics of UK employment law. They're just opening themselves up to lots of legal trouble. 

SA4848

Semple said:

Ooof, do companies like these not have any HR representation that understands even the basics of UK employment law. They're just opening themselves up to lots of legal trouble. 

It makes it worse that it is actually a firm of solicitors who are doing this!

justwhat

There are some really shady strokes being pulled by some companies out there .

Thrugelmir

SA4848 said:

Semple said:

Ooof, do companies like these not have any HR representation that understands even the basics of UK employment law. They're just opening themselves up to lots of legal trouble. 

It makes it worse that it is actually a firm of solicitors who are doing this!

Must be desperate. 

sharpe106

Or are trying to pull a fast one, knowing that until it goes to court the cost to them will not be much.

Semple

SA4848 said:

Semple said:

Ooof, do companies like these not have any HR representation that understands even the basics of UK employment law. They're just opening themselves up to lots of legal trouble. 

It makes it worse that it is actually a firm of solicitors who are doing this!

Knowing the number of cash-grab/NWNF type solicitors out there, that doesn't actually surprise me.

I suspect it's more of a bullying tactic, as you'll have gone on the assumption that they know the law etc, and they probably wouldn't have expected you to reach out to a public entity like acas for help.

SA4848

sharpe106 said:

Or are trying to pull a fast one, knowing that until it goes to court the cost to them will not be much.

Further to your advice and to the advice of others on this site I have now contacted a solicitor who will take on my case on a no win no fee basis and will claim unfair dismissal which will include my statutory redundancy payment as a basic award together with a compensatory payment due to the fact that not only was a fair process not followed, in fact no process at all took place and I was not given the right to appeal.  Thank you all so much, without your advice I probably would have accepted it.  I appreciate that in these times employers are finding it difficult but it is incredibly unfair to pass off their financial problems onto me.

Thrugelmir

They are probably expecting to have to pay you. However have made a calculated decision to stretch matters out. 
12 weeks notice plus 20 years redundancy pay, plus any unused holiday entitlement adds up to a sizable sum. 

p00hsticks

SA4848 said:

sharpe106 said:

Or are trying to pull a fast one, knowing that until it goes to court the cost to them will not be much.

Further to your advice and to the advice of others on this site I have now contacted a solicitor who will take on my case on a no win no fee basis and will claim unfair dismissal which will include my statutory redundancy payment as a basic award together with a compensatory payment due to the fact that not only was a fair process not followed, in fact no process at all took place and I was not given the right to appeal.  Thank you all so much, without your advice I probably would have accepted it.  I appreciate that in these times employers are finding it difficult but it is incredibly unfair to pass off their financial problems onto me.

I'm glad you are pursuing it, but in my opinion you may have been better off initially contacting them yourself. Once they realised that you were aware of your rights they might have paid up without you having to hand over a hefty proportion of any payout to another solicitor.

SA4848

p00hsticks said:

SA4848 said:

sharpe106 said:

Or are trying to pull a fast one, knowing that until it goes to court the cost to them will not be much.

Further to your advice and to the advice of others on this site I have now contacted a solicitor who will take on my case on a no win no fee basis and will claim unfair dismissal which will include my statutory redundancy payment as a basic award together with a compensatory payment due to the fact that not only was a fair process not followed, in fact no process at all took place and I was not given the right to appeal.  Thank you all so much, without your advice I probably would have accepted it.  I appreciate that in these times employers are finding it difficult but it is incredibly unfair to pass off their financial problems onto me.

I'm glad you are pursuing it, but in my opinion you may have been better off initially contacting them yourself. Once they realised that you were aware of your rights they might have paid up without you having to hand over a hefty proportion of any payout to another solicitor.

I did contact a Mediation Service who spoke to my employers yesterday and the mediator pointed out my rights but they were still holding firm despite what she said.  It is beyond belief that they are acting the way they are but I decided that if I pursued it myself then they could possibly get away with it and 100% of nothing is nothing so I thought it best to speak to an expert employment lawyer who have told me that if they did not think I had a good case they wouldn't take it on.  At least now I can not only claim for my statutory redundancy pay I have someone in my corner fighting for compensation over and above what I originally asked for. Since I was notified of my dismissal I have researched SOSR which is quite a scary prospect and I just did not feel confident enough to pursue this myself due to the intricacies of the law.  Fingers crossed.