Dad fell at work, had stroke later in week, didn't return to work verbal resignation accepted advice

MalMonroe

sammyjammy said:

I would hope so but they are running a business, your dad resigned, they took it at face value and have moved on, I suggest you do the same and concentrate on taking care of your Dad

What a patronising comment. 

The OP's Dad's employer has not acted correctly in this instance and needs to take responsibility for what happened to their employee, rather than just fob him off and accept a 'verbal resignation'.

MalMonroe

Your dad's employer will hopefully accept responsibility for their part in his fall and subsequent illness. And he should be entitled to some compensation.

Acas may be able to offer some advice :  https://www.acas.org.uk/contact

I don't think they've handled this at all well and hope they recorded the incident in an accident record log. 

likearubberball

MalMonroe said:

Your dad's employer will hopefully accept responsibility for their part in his fall and subsequent illness. And he should be entitled to some compensation.

Acas may be able to offer some advice :  

I don't think they've handled this at all well and hope they recorded the incident in an accident record log. 

There's no "should" about it. It is not possible to ascertain from the facts as given that the employer has any responsibility for the fall, or that there is a causal relationship between the fall and his stroke.
There may be, there may not. Sometimes accidents happen because the employer is negligent, sometimes it's because the employee isn't paying attention or has disregarded safety procedures. Sometimes accidents just happen - I've been known to fall over my own feel before now. 
I understand where the OP is coming from with regards to Dad having more time to consider his options, and the employer has potentially jumped the gun. But it's a tad early to be allocating blame. 

Undervalued

MalMonroe said:

Your dad's employer will hopefully accept responsibility for their part in his fall and subsequent illness. And he should be entitled to some compensation.

Acas may be able to offer some advice :  https://www.acas.org.uk/contact

I don't think they've handled this at all well and hope they recorded the incident in an accident record log. 

Only in as far as making a truthful report of their side of the story to their insurers. They will be prevented from admitting anything.

Just because an accident happened at work it doesn't meant the employer was in any way responsible. They may have been, in which case some compensation may be due.

Also, unless the daughter has power of attorney or her father has specifically advised his employer that he has given permission, the employer needs to be very careful indeed about engaging with her.

Gavin83

I agree with some of the other comments in here. There’s no evidence that the fall was the fault of the employer and the OP likely can’t clarify this as they weren’t there. There’s also certainly no evidence the stroke was due to the results of the fall. It may well have been but legally proving that is another matter.

In regards to the other points raised the employer is not obligated to speak to you about your fathers employment and in fact currently won’t be able to. They are also entitled to accept your fathers resignation.

The real issue I see with this is that they don’t appear to have followed their own procedures in regards to requiring a notification of resignation in writing. You might be able to use this to get the resignation removed but it depends on what your father wants.

If you were to take this to court I’m not entirely convinced he’d win his case and even if he did whether he’d actually receive much.

What outcome does your father actually want from this?

eamon

IMHO the employers have acted disgracefully and I suspect there is now lots of handwringing etc. Yes they are not a charity and all that, but could have done a lot better. Sounds like a right shower to work for.

sammyjammy

eamon said:

IMHO the employers have acted disgracefully and I suspect there is now lots of handwringing etc. Yes they are not a charity and all that, but could have done a lot better. Sounds like a right shower to work for.

I don't think anyone would disagree that it seems that they have acted poorly, if only from a humane point of view, we don't know the facts, we don't know what actions were taken from reporting an accident point of view, we don't even have the Dads version of events no matter the employers.

thebrexitunicorn

The accident and the acceptance of resignation are two separate matters.  The first relates to personal injury (or not) and the second comes under employment law.   I don’t know about the personal injury question, but the employer appears to be on shaky ground regarding employment law. 

Undervalued

thebrexitunicorn said:

The accident and the acceptance of resignation are two separate matters.  The first relates to personal injury (or not) and the second comes under employment law.   I don’t know about the personal injury question, but the employer appears to be on shaky ground regarding employment law. 

I wouldn't put it as strongly as that!

Legally a verbal job offer, "contract" or resignation is just as binding as a written one (although obviously far harder to prove if there is a dispute).

So the only point that remains is that his contract supposedly states that a resignation must be in writing but I wonder how definitive that is? It is not uncommon for an employment contract to state that it is not valid unless signed by both parties, yet time and time again employment tribunals have taken the opposite view. He does not dispute that he resigned verbally and that the employer acknowledged and accepted that resignation. Arguably he was the one at fault in not following the contractual procedure. Also arguably he and the employer agreed to a variation in the contractual procedure. So he may struggle now to claim that he didn't really mean it and has not resigned at all.