Fired on a sick line

[bella86]

I work for a recruitment agency who placed me in a perm to temp position in a bank back in August 07.

I recently took ill and was signed off work for 14 days. The employer fired me due to absence and refused to pay my SSP. They stated i took 3 days off AWOL. However my sickline covered this timeframe. I was only aware contract had ended when i contacted them to say i will definatly be returning to work on said date.

I did not recieve SSP. I have emails which show clearly that this is the reason for dismissal.

Can they do this? Fire me for showing i really was ill??

I appreciate i am an agency worker but i was advised i have basic rights within the workplace. I called everyday when self certifyed and even maintained excessive communication when on sick line to keep everyone updated on my health. I followed all t+c to best of my knowledge and tried to be as helpfull as possible

Also my employer awarded me a £60 for winning a competition in Oct - i still havent recieved the money and they have made no comment after several enquiries. I dont think i will reiceve this - are they obliged to pay?

Thanks for your time

[shywazz]

Have you recieved the letter of dismissal, this should show the reason for dismissal and from which date.... Have you kept copies of all the medical certificates sent to the company, during the sicknes period..
during the sickness period were you sent payslips during the said period? this will show if company sickpay was paid or SSP....Since you worked for the agency for less than 12 weeks which might fall under the probation period, the agency might just say your services were unacceptable to there requirements...but i will double check that for you, or someone might correct me if i'm wrong..
As for the competiton you entered while in there employ, this has to be honored by the agency, hopefully you have a copy of the letter stating you won such, failing that, you can only write to them, and appeal to there better side to honor such...

[bella86]

Thank you for your reply.

The first thing i noticed is that no, i did not recieve pay slips during the period of absence. I recieve weekly pay and as such weekly pay slips. I have no proof of earnings or in this case proof of 'no' earnings during this time.

My bank statement however will show no money was paid into the account.

Also i did not recieve a letter of dismissal! Should i have? I only have an email stating my contract had ended due to absence and that the company expected me back to work on the monday however my sick line was untill the Thursday.

I have checked all my pay slips that I have and was actualy emlpoyed by the company for 20 weeks.

I have all records of my sick line and self cert during this time, yes.

[advisee]

Bella, if you have the tenacity to fight it, agency worker cases work for interesting reading. Look up Dacas v Brook Street and Bushaway v RNLI. I am assuming that during your "temp to perm" period you were paid by the agency (on the basis of timesheets)?

If you haven't already, I suggest you issue grievance letters to both companies (I would be happy to help with these) stating that you will be filing a tribunal claim for wrongful dismissal if no response within 28 days.

There is however a forthcoming court of appeal decision in the case of James v Greenwich which may reverse the Dacas judgment - so the sooner you get your employment tribunal form in, the better.

Unless you can prove a discriminatory factor (hard, but sex or disability would be possible, depending what was wrong with you) you will be limited to a wrongful dismissal claim for your notice (min one week, but could be one month or whatever your contract states).

You will also have a claim for unlawful deduction of wages, to cover the SSP.

However, if you can successfully prove that in reality you were a direct employee of the company (by virtue of an implied contract of employment) then under the Fixed Term Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002 you could (possibly) claim the same notice and the same sick-pay conditions as equivalent permanent employees - this would be very hard though.