Can notice pay be backdated to before dismissal date?

Heinz57Pedigree

My neighbour's adult son started a new job a few months ago and has just been dismissed.
He complained to the office about bullying behaviour from his supervisor and said he was finding it difficult to work with the supervisor who was regularly shouting at him and making comments about his wife and children.
The employer told him to come and discuss the issue of bullying but they couldn't see him for a week, during which he was told not to come into work.
He finally saw the employer's HR and they have dismissed him saying that they could not find any other place for him to work if he wasn't able to work with the bully (this is not true).
They then told him that the past week that they had told him to take off (which he was available to work) was his 1 week notice period.

Are they able to backdate the notice period to before he was actually told he had been dismissed? 
Should the 1 week's notice not start from the day you are told you have been dismissed?
He wasn't aware that he would be dismissed as he thought it was going to be a discussion about the bully.  There has been no written communication about any of this.

Mark_d

Yes the notice period has to start from the time a person is dismissed.  The period during which HR were investigating the bullying claim cannot be counted as the notice period.

I don't think there's a lot that can be done here because your neighbours son work for the employer for such a short period of time.  The best he can hope for is to recover one week's worth of wages but it might not be worth the effort.

However there may be a claim against the employer for something more serious depending on the angle the bullying came from.  Comments about wife and children suggest that the bullying is not simply a more experienced colleague vs a new colleague.

Undervalued

Mark_d said:

Yes the notice period has to start from the time a person is dismissed.  The period during which HR were investigating the bullying claim cannot be counted as the notice period.

I don't think there's a lot that can be done here because your neighbours son work for the employer for such a short period of time.  The best he can hope for is to recover one week's worth of wages but it might not be worth the effort.

However there may be a claim against the employer for something more serious depending on the angle the bullying came from.  Comments about wife and children suggest that the bullying is not simply a more experienced colleague vs a new colleague.

I largely agree although he is also entitled to be paid for any accrued but untaken holiday.

"May" is the crucial word! Sadly this could prove difficult at best. "Bullying" in itself is not unlawful, although obviously various related behaviour may be. He would need proper legal advice (i.e not ACAS) and remember that other employees are unlikely to testify against their employer. A few principled individuals might but in the real world most won't!

LightFlare

Heinz57Pedigree said:

My neighbour's adult son started a new job a few months ago and has just been dismissed.
He complained to the office about bullying behaviour from his supervisor and said he was finding it difficult to work with the supervisor who was regularly shouting at him and making comments about his wife and children.

Mark_d said:

Yes the notice period has to start from the time a person is dismissed.  The period during which HR were investigating the bullying claim cannot be counted as the notice period.

I don't think there's a lot that can be done here because your neighbours son work for the employer for such a short period of time.  The best he can hope for is to recover one week's worth of wages but it might not be worth the effort.

However there may be a claim against the employer for something more serious depending on the angle the bullying came from.  Comments about wife and children suggest that the bullying is not simply a more experienced colleague vs a new colleague.

with less than 2 years a claim against the employer would be difficult at best