What should she do?

knightstyle

So our grand daughter is in final year at uni. She works part time and has never had any problems. Suddenly her boss told her there would be on more shifts for her as her dad who she fell out with years ago and not had any contact with, had told him she was untrustworthy and a liar.
Can she do anything about this?

Andy_L

How long has she worked there & under what terms?

<2 years they can fire her for almost any reason, just have to give notice & any redundancy payment
>2 years they would have to go through a disciplinary process to fire her

Zero hours contract they can just not offer her any more hours

She could try and sue her estranged father for defamation but unlikely to be a realistic prospect or achieve anything

lincroft1710

Why does the employer believe her father? Has she given the employer cause to believe she is a liar and untrustworthy?

pjcox2005

Unless it is a fantastic job then does she really want to work with a boss who holds that view after a just a conversation with an estranged dad. I'd be pretty annoyed if I'd been a diligent employee and then that occurred unless there is more to the story.

From what i can see there appears to be a shortage of staff in a lot of the typical part time/student roles so I'd be moving personally. Wouldn't do it long term and may be too late but I'd be looking at the likes of Amazon with Xmas sign on bonuses.

elsien

Her work should speak for itself, if she's been there any length of time.
I find it odd that with no issues with her work at all, her boss is going to take the word over someone else rather than on her performance so far.
A bit more than this to the full picture, I suspect. Either way, she's probably better off just letting it go and looking for another job. 

Marcon

knightstyle said:

So our grand daughter is in final year at uni. She works part time and has never had any problems. Suddenly her boss told her there would be on more shifts for her as her dad who she fell out with years ago and not had any contact with, had told him she was untrustworthy and a liar.
Can she do anything about this?

What does she want to do? Confront her father and rake up the past? Ask her boss to explain why someone she's not been in contact with for years has suddenly become such an authority on a daughter he's not seen since she was in primary school (or whenever it was)?

It must be incredibly upsetting and hurtful for her, but realistically anything she 'does' is only likely to result in more upset for her. Looking for a new job sounds the best idea - but presumably there will now be a problem with the reference?

knightstyle

thanks for replies.  She was there for 8 months and has an appointment with their HR so will see what that brings.  She does not want a big fuss and just feels her boss should be punished in some way.  Other than this he was a good manager and she loved the job.

TELLIT01

knightstyle said:

thanks for replies.  She was there for 8 months and has an appointment with their HR so will see what that brings.  She does not want a big fuss and just feels her boss should be punished in some way.  Other than this he was a good manager and she loved the job.

There must be more to this than a conversation between the manager and the girl's father.  The manager may be questioned about why he believed the father and his actions but even if action is taken against him the girl will never know.

Undervalued

knightstyle said:

thanks for replies.  She was there for 8 months and has an appointment with their HR so will see what that brings.  She does not want a big fuss and just feels her boss should be punished in some way.  Other than this he was a good manager and she loved the job.

I think she is misunderstanding the purpose of HR! They are not an neutral arbitrator but are there to do the company's bidding.

Given that she has only been there eight months she can lawfully be dismissed for this reason (or indeed for no reason at all).

Whilst they should follow proper procedure, realistically she has no useful redress if they don't.

She is however entitled to a week's notice or pay in lieu plus payment for any untaken holiday. Should they fail to do this then she would have an easy claim for the money.

SiliconChip

Is she going to need a reference from this employment for her next one (which may be a full time job after she graduates)? If so then I'd say her main focus should be on convincing HR to give her a positive, or at least neutral, reference and not worry about any of the other concerns. What she doesn't want is a reference saying she was dismissed because of trust issues.

General_Grant

Undervalued said:

knightstyle said:

thanks for replies.  She was there for 8 months and has an appointment with their HR so will see what that brings.  She does not want a big fuss and just feels her boss should be punished in some way.  Other than this he was a good manager and she loved the job.

I think she is misunderstanding the purpose of HR! They are not an neutral arbitrator but are there to do the company's bidding.

Given that she has only been there eight months she can lawfully be dismissed for this reason (or indeed for no reason at all).

Whilst they should follow proper procedure, realistically she has no useful redress if they don't.

She is however entitled to a week's notice or pay in lieu plus payment for any untaken holiday. Should they fail to do this then she would have an easy claim for the money.

Entitled to notice pay if she was not on zero hours contract.
Entitled to holiday pay if it was not paid each week/month along with regular pay.