Partner potentially dismissed from his job!

shaargj1998

My partner was suspended with pay from his job (he has been there for a year and a half ish) on 3 June 2020 due to "anomalies in timings", "leaving early" and "un-cooperative and inflexible attitude". We only found out it was these things on 10 June, a week later, when he received a letter to attend a disciplinary meeting. These allegations they are making are untrue and my partner has proven this by going through timings and before the meeting, he wrote all of the timings and evidence up to prove they were wrong. My partner's employer has been subcontracted by a very large company, my partner has been working for the large company through his employer for 6 months or so (never had any complaints so far) and they said they had to suspend him otherwise they will lose the contract (difficult to explain without naming the companies, which I cannot do!). My partner works out and about on his own and not in one place. The only thing he can really think of he has done wrong is leave 5 - 10 minutes late on a couple of occasions. My partner's van has a tracker on it also. 

During the meeting, my partner's employer did not listen to anything he had to say and just accused him of more things as soon as my partner shut them down on other things. When my partner started at this job he signed a contract stating his contracted working hours are 7:30AM to 4PM. At the meeting, his employer said whilst he has been working for the larger company mentioned above, he should have been working till 4:30PM and therefore has been leaving early. My partner has not ever been told this or ever signed anything stating this. His employer tried telling him that is was on certain documents which detailed my partner's jobs for the day which is false. At the end of the meeting, my partner asked his employer if he could get dismissed and his employer said "it is a possibility". My partner's employer now has to go back to the larger company they have a contract with and speak with them (even though it's their member of staff?!?!)!! They will get back to my partner next week with what's happening, so another week of worry....

Worst part of this is, we are currently within the 28 day period of putting a deposit down on a house. We are extremely worried as we have reserved the house and no way did we think we could be in this situation as my partner has done nothing wrong, this has made things 100x more stressful especially as we are first time buyers!!

Could somebody please give me some advice if the company can dismiss my partner?! I just do not feel like they have any grounds too. I really do not know what to do as they are being so unreasonable and my partner does his job well. 

Thrugelmir

shaargj1998 said:

The only thing he can really think of he has done wrong is leave 5 - 10 minutes late on a couple of occasions. My partner's van has a tracker on it also. 

Then the employer will have a clear record of his daily activity. Perhaps ask for a copy of this evidence. 

Andy_L

shaargj1998 said:

My partner was suspended with pay from his job (he has been there for a year and a half ish) 

Could somebody please give me some advice if the company can dismiss my partner?! I just do not feel like they have any grounds too. I really do not know what to do as they are being so unreasonable and my partner does his job well. 

Under 2 years service they can dismiss him for pretty much any non-discriminatory reason they like

sharpe106

Even if he has been leaving early, why have they not warned him before?  Although there must be a lot more to this story as I can't believe a large company would terminate a contract with another company just because a employer left early a few times.

shaargj1998

sharpe106 said:

Even if he has been leaving early, why have they not warned him before?  Although there must be a lot more to this story as I can't believe a large company would terminate a contract with another company just because a employer left early a few times.

That’s the thing, they haven’t. That’s why we are so shocked and frustrated. Nothing has even come up about my partner’s quality of his work, just the timing issues. 

sharpe106

Must be something else, as it would cost the large company to replace them in time and effort. They would need to find some other company to do the work, how will  need showing how they work etc all of which will cost money. So for a little bit of time keeping I doubt they would go to that expense, at worse demand a refund for the hours they claim he has not worked. 

General_Grant

sharpe106 said:

Even if he has been leaving early, why have they not warned him before?  Although there must be a lot more to this story as I can't believe a large company would terminate a contract with another company just because a employer left early a few times.

The OP said "The only thing he can really think of he has done wrong is leave 5 - 10 minutes late on a couple of occasions".  Or do you think they meant to write "leave 5 - 10 minutes early"

General_Grant

sharpe106 said:

Must be something else, as it would cost the large company to replace them in time and effort. They would need to find some other company to do the work, how will  need showing how they work etc all of which will cost money. So for a little bit of time keeping I doubt they would go to that expense, at worse demand a refund for the hours they claim he has not worked. 

If the man left late then where are the hours not worked?

sharpe106

That must have been a typo how many managers fire somebody for not having let the building on time?  Most managers would be quite happy. Yes in some places you can't stay as it is unsafe but surely if this was the case somebody would have said something before it got to that stage.

oh_really

Get sight of the policy for monitoring the van tracking data and also who has authority to access it and what the data can be used for 

Marcon

shaargj1998 said:

My partner's employer has been subcontracted by a very large company, my partner has been working for the large company through his employer for 6 months or so (never had any complaints so far) and they said they had to suspend him otherwise they will lose the contract (difficult to explain without naming the companies, which I cannot do!). 

So your partner, who has been there for about 18 months, is so vitally influential that a large company would walk away from the negotiating table and look elsewhere for a subcontractor unless your partner's company suspends him? Really? Of course not. Makes no sense at all. Even if you could name the companies, I don't see how one individual who appears to be relatively low down the food chain in terms of seniority could scupper the deal by simply staying in post.