Unfair Dismissal in the Family (Any help, please)

[Timbo84]

My Father has recently been put through the unpleasantness of being put up for disciplinary...

 

Bare in mind this is a guy who has been working in the banking industry for nigh on 43 years. I do not know the specifics... But here is my issue.

 

A deal he was working on went bad... They took him into the office and suspended him with no reason whatsoever told to leave his laptop and leave. Also he was informed he could not contact a single member of staff in his absence.

 

So he left and made no contact with any staff. A week later he gets a phonecall telling him to turn upto a hearing the next day. He spoke to his solicitor who advised him they would have to send him something in writing first with an outline of the questions he could expect.

 

So he recieves a letter on Saturday telling him to attend a meeting on Monday with an outline of 3-4 questions and to say he can bring a member of staff of the company with him. Nobody else, he can not take a solicitor or another unbiased person. However when he told HR he could not speak to anyone who works for the company they told him to give them the name and they would arrange it. After much cajoling he managed to get the person he wanted there on said date. But neither he nor the person could talk beforehand. Handy.

 

Now the next part the person who he reports too who should have been clearing all these things was also suspended and then he resigned during this period so there is now nobody who can cooberate his story.

 

He attended the meeting today and went through the questions. This is when they started asking other questions. My father flatly stated that he could not answer these questions due to the fact he did not have time to prepare information for them or have the relevant figures with him and did not want to give out the wrong answers, could they reajourn another time and they send him these questions again. They flatly refused and said if he did not answer them this was an admission of guilt on his behalf! He refused to answer them because he did not want to give incorrect details.

 

They then said the meeting will be ajourned for an hour. He went off had a coffee and rang the family, as you do. He then went back in there and they fired him on the spot for gross misconduct.

 

Not only am I absolutely disgusted by this I also feel that they have abused some of the HR/legal practises for this matter. I could be wrong...?

 

My Dad is not a young man (Sorry dad if you read this) and him and my mother are deeply distressed by this whole encounter. As it is something neither has been on the recieving end of before.

 

I was just wondering if what they did was wrong, and something to add it was sped along very quickly because he had only been there 8 Months, and he had a 3 month notice. This stinks of pushing him out the door quickly to stop him getting 12 months of service so he recieved all the rights he deserves...

 

Any ideas would be most welcome and if it is worth appealing against.

 

Thankyou.

[Lula]

Hi, with my limited knowledge of employment law it sounds like your father has many grounds to claim unfair dismissal, is he in a union? if not then he should contact ACAS and speak to them urgently (I am pretty sure that it is ACAS, but I could be wrong, hopefully someone will come along and correct it if I am wrong

[advisee]

Definitely, I would advise speaking to a solicitor immediately - try to make an appointment (now) for some point in very early January. He should receive a letter from the company setting out in writing what has happened - the solicitor will need to see this and the contract.

 

It seems that there is a very good case for an unfair dismissal claim, and a solicitor should be able to negotiate the best resolution (probably a compromise agreement).

 

In the meantime, assure your family that NOTHING can happen that affects his accrued pension rights, and help him get back on the job market as much as possible (get a CV together, find appropriate specialist agencies, etc).