Hi guys! This is my first ever post on here and I'm in desperate need of help. I was employed as an apprentice from June 2015 working towards my NVQ Level 2 in Customer Service. Originally, my NVQ was supposed to end in October 2016 but as my employer refused to let me work towards it (I was told that absolutely everything else in the office took priority over my NVQ work) the end date was extended by my NVQ assessor to October 2017. When my end date was extended, my NVQ assessor informed me that the minimum wage I was entitled to would have increased in June 2016 (after completing my first year of employment) and that my employer had been paying me below this amount for the past 4 months. My assessor told me that they would pass this information on to my manager and confirmed that they had done so via email. Four weeks passed with no mention of this at work at all. My NVQ assessor came into the office to help me get started on the next part of my course. At the end of the day, they asked me if anything had been said about my wage increasing and the money that I was owed. I confirmed that nothing had been mentioned. She went and had a word with my manager and came back and told me that my employer knows that they need to back pay me and that they were going to deal with it shortly. Two days later, my manager asked me to go to a one-to-one meeting where they confirmed that I was going to be back paid the amount of money that I was owed but that, due to a move-around in our department, my position no longer existed and that I would be out of a job this time next week. I was told that there were no problems with my performance, only that my role didn't exist anymore. A reshaping of our department had never been discussed, nor was I ever told that my role might not be there in the future. I was also only given 6 days notice when my contract said that I was entitled to a minimum of 3 weeks. Also, no-one else in the company has lost their job as a result of the reshuffle: I am the only person to have been negatively affected by this. I called ACAS and they told me to write down everything that I think my employer did wrong in a letter and then send it to my employer. The lady on the phone then said to wait 14 days and try to begin the early conciliation process. She told me that it sounded like what my employer did to me was illegal and I've gone through loads of other articles online posted by Law Firms which all seem to suggest that this I have been made redundant unfairly. I was just wondering what other people make of this? Has my employer acted wrongly and am I right in looking to escalate this? I'm really distressed due to the time of year where this has happened and I just want to make sure that I'm doing the right thing. Thank you all so much! Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi My 19 year old son was sacked for poor performance 16 months into his 3 year apprenticeship. He was given 15 minutes warning of his disciplinary hearing and no evidence in advance. No notes were taken and his companion in the hearing was told to make no comment. No notes were taken and when i asked for a copy of the notes they should have recorded they cobbled together a 9 sentence document (spread over 3 A4 pages) as a supposed record of a 20 minute meeting. It takes 1 minute to read. My son was stunned as he had received no verbal warnings and thought things were ok. 2 days later when his wages were due the company paid half his wages. When i called up they said the money was just not there and everyone had received half their wage. He received the balance a week later. In the following week 5 other members of staff were made redundant. It became quite clear that he was removed because they thought he'd be easy to get out because hes just an apprentice. Obviously the company is having financial problems and reducing the wage bill. We wrote and asked for evidence of his poor performance as the phrase itself is ambiguous and the MD wrote back saying they had no more evidence and disagreed the dismissal reason was ambiguous. 4 days later the same MD chaired my sons appeal and will decide if his dismissal is fair. We have appealed because they did not follow ACAS procedure in the initial hearing and he had no warnings before instant dismissal. Awaiting decision. Any help please, we are desperate. Can he go to a tribunal with only 16 months service if not are any other avenues open to us

BBC apprentice started again last night and I have stopped watching. I find myself shouting at the TV, due to the rubbish they are saying. These are not normal people. They have been selected for having irritating personalities, capable of having an argument in an empty room. And I think the programme makers stitch the people up, by making them try to navigate a very busy London, with each team having access to only two cars. They always split each team up, so they have four sub teams to film. Then they often make sure that the companies they do business with are as spread out as possible. The TV company often select the businesses the teams can deal with, as the TV company need to make sure it is a suitable business to deal with and they are happy to be filmed. So it is all a bit of a made up programme and not really what it presents itself to be. Rant over. Not watching again.

Please can anyone help or point me in the right direction?- in a nutshell: 19 year old son gets apprenticeship following student of the year award at college. He has never been late or had a day off 2 weeks ago he tells training provider that he feels that he is not learning while at work, he is just a labourer and is n't taught anything at all and is concerned that he may be just cheap labour and may never be able to do the job as he has n't been taught except by training provider He has almost completed first year having got a distinction from skills solutions. He gets a text today saying that he ( and the other apprentice) has been warned several times about mobile phone use- He has never been spoken to. says he has been given several verbal warnings- he has not Mobile phone us is a sack able offence and there will be a disciplinary hearing with their legal advisor. I suspect that they never keep an apprentice more than a year due to costs its cheaper to keep them for a year then get rid. To the best of our knowledge he does n't keep them longer than a year) There may be some retaliation by employer for the disclosure that my son made to his training provider He feels he is about to be sacked ( he's been there almost a year ) I have spent most of the afternoon on the phone being passed from pillar to post-acas, legal aid, the bottom line is he can't get any legal advice, my local law centre now charge £168. Is there anywhere that he could get any pro bona legal advice or can any of you help? Thanks

Hi all I'm hoping someone out there can help out with a little advice. I am an employer of a fabrication company and we took on an apprentice 10months ago. In that time this apprentice has been off for 12 weeks with abroken arm. During this time he was supposed to be at college. During this timewe received a report from the college stating that he was not handing coursework in and it looked as though he would fail his final exams. He returned towork and finished his first year at college and failed one the of the coursesbut he can re-sit later. The broken arm did not prevent him from writing or attending college. My main concern is though that this apprentice will never by classed as atradesman after 4 years no matter how much training / instruction we give him.His work is of very poor quality and 9 times out of 10 has to be remade by oneof the tradesmen and it's costing me a fortune doing this. Taking the above into consideration do I have to keep this apprentice employedfor the next 3 years costing me around £40k in the process or can we part wayson the grounds of unsuitability. I am aware of the protection that apprentices have but surely I must be ableto part ways as this will have a major impact financially for the business. Many thanks

Hi all, I am gathering information on behalf of my 17 year old son. He is 9 ½ months into an apprenticeship. As part of his apprenticeship he is on college day release. He has just received his second quarterly review and has been told that he will be dismissed if his performance at his work place does not improve. His quarterly pay increase was held back. Through out his apprenticeship, and as parents, we quiz him on his day at work, and what he has been doing and taught. It is hard to get information out of a teenager at the best of times. He has said that he is been doing the same task day in day out, but with little training or supervision. He has asked for more training and to shadow another in the work place, but it never happened. The alarm bells never rang as being an apprentice you always carry out repetitive tasks. When he went into the meeting last week he was on his own, and with no representation. Present at the meeting was the manager and a secretary. There is no question of his time keeping or attitude. He was told he was not up to scratch and if thing did not improve, he would be dismissed in five weeks time. Whilst my son was on holiday recently, his manager contacted the college and asked was it possible for my son to continue on level 3 at college with no apprenticeship training at work. My son college tutor made this clear to us. We feel the manager has been planning this dismissal for some time. We feel that the manager does not want an apprentice at the company, so why was he taken on in the first place? From the contract of employment, if we can call it a contract, nothing is mentioned about dismissal. The contract is based on pay increases and term of the apprenticeship. The day after the meeting the manager spent two hours training my son. We will monitor this training as it seems to be unusual. What we feel is the manager is covering his back and trying to prove the point of dismissal. What protection rights are there for apprentices, should my son have received something in writing, and should my son have representation at the final meeting? Sorry for such a long message. Thank you for any advice you can provide. Raycas

Hi there, I am looking for some help on my impending redundancy. I am a trainee, and work in the Civil Engineering private sector. I was advised last week that I am at risk of redundancy along with the rest of the team as they want to close the close the office. Others in the office have been relocated to another local(ish) office but we did not have that option. I am a trainee, and am referred to as such in all correspondence and even on my confirmation of redundancy risk letter. I wonder if it is actually legal to make a trainee redundant? I don't think it is morally, or ethically, right to do so but I guess it's down to what the law says - and that's where I'm stuck. The law seems quite murky on this subject and am struggling to get my head around it. If I am made redundant I will effectively be left on the scrap pile in the immediate future as I haven't finished my college training/qualifications. I am more than capable of doing the job, and in fact lead others (but that's a different story I guess), it's just the fact that I don't have the qualifications to put down on paper in my CV that puts prospective employers off so I don't know what I am going to do. Any help with this will be greatly appreciated! Thanks