Job offer withdrawn

Meka3256

I'm interested in any thoughts or comments about my situation:

• I am British and live in Ireland.  
• I was offered a home based role by a UK not for profit.  The role was for a year and was always designed to be remote ie not just because of Covid.
• They knew from application stage where I lived, and I also raised it at job interview - they confirmed it wasn't an issue.
• The job offer was conditional, based on providing evidence of the right to work, and satisfactory work references (I satisfied these conditions)
• 24 hours before I was due to start, the job offer was retracted because of my irish residency 
• I had already resigned from my previous role, and not applied for others as I had a job offer.
• I have raised a complaint via the organization's formal process to understand why my residency is an issue, and why it only became an issue 5 weeks after I was offered the role. 

Do I have any legal basis for breach of contract?  I am waiting to see the outcome of the formal complaint - my main issue is the way it was handled rather than the actual financial loss.  I would though be interested in thoughts about any possible next steps.

TBagpuss

They would be entitled to dismiss you for any non-discriminatory reason in any event so I think any claim would be limited to any pay you would be entitled to for any notice period. Had your signed a contract, and if so, what did it say about notice on each side? 

Meka3256

TBagpuss said:

They would be entitled to dismiss you for any non-discriminatory reason in any event so I think any claim would be limited to any pay you would be entitled to for any notice period. Had your signed a contract, and if so, what did it say about notice on each side? 

No job contract was issued or signed.  I just had an emailed job offer, with the conditions mentioned, but nothing more than this.

No protected characteristic is relevant - unless I happen to find out they employ a man in Ireland but didn't employ me as a female!

Undervalued

Meka3256 said:

TBagpuss said:

They would be entitled to dismiss you for any non-discriminatory reason in any event so I think any claim would be limited to any pay you would be entitled to for any notice period. Had your signed a contract, and if so, what did it say about notice on each side? 

No job contract was issued or signed.  I just had an emailed job offer, with the conditions mentioned, but nothing more than this.

No protected characteristic is relevant - unless I happen to find out they employ a man in Ireland but didn't employ me as a female!

That can amount to a "contract" (it is not limited to a sheet of paper with the word contract on it)!

As other have said, it is unlikely you would have a right to anything beyond any agreed notice period. Unless the exchange of email establishes a notice period then I am afraid the legal default applies, which is zero during the first month of employment.

If however it specifies a month (or even three months notice) then it would be worth pursuing that. Technically you would acrue holiday during the notice period (roughly one day per two weeks) so you could chase for that too.