Employee dismissal pay claim

Flugelhorn

amazing how some organisations just don't do DD. I was TUPEd in NHS - new organisation had signed all the contracts for the service before noticing that a dozen or so quite costly staff were actually employed and not sessional - they tried to back out but couldn't. cost them £££

[Deleted User]

hughie2020 said:

She is also claiming she is owed 13 days holiday pay, however I have not been given an annual leave record from the previous owner and she has not shared one with me. I am aware she went abroad for a week, but there may or may not have been other leave dates. 

I've never known an employee to be responsible for their own annual leave record.
The employer needs to have control so that they can monitor and plan effectively, as well as granting/declining the leave.
If you are disputing because you don't have records, that's not the employee's fault.
It will also cause concern for other employees, who might now be fearful that their annual leave entitlement won't be honoured either.
Does the business have an annual leave policy, are employees given an employee's handbook or at the minimum have easy access to a copy?

I would take this as a wake up call.
Procedures and policies need to be in place and need to be followed.
What else is in place or missing? Are the procedures regularly reviewed?

On your other thread, you mention that it's a construction business.
Are training records in place and up-to-date, are RAMS completed for every job and kept on file?
Do you have signed RAMS filed away for all previous jobs carried out by the business?

If you were to end up in a situation where an employee (or former employee) wanted to pursue an injury claim, even if malicious, without correct documentation you would find it hard to defend. RAMS are one of the first things your insurer would ask for.

Good record keeping is essential and at some point it will be invaluable, I would take the current situation as a lesson and learn from it....

saajan_12

hughie2020 said:

My partner has taken over a limited company and is in the process of dismissing an employee.  

What does in process mean? If you'll be serving the full contractual notice, then can you insist the accrued holiday is taken during this notice period? Presumably you don't want the employee to be working anyway if things are that acrimonious and incompetent. That way holiday pay doesn't need to be paid out separately to the normal pay during notice. 

If you're specifically firing for cause without the full notice then this may not help.