Sacked for raising a grievance?

[santamonica]

Hi,

 

My daughter has been working for a relatively small firm for 8 months.

 

In all this time she has felt as if she was being bullied by one of the managers. It got so bad that she raised a grievance against him. In her letter documenting this she included examples of bullying and she also got statements from other members of staff which showed she was being treated differently/unfairly.

 

She received a letter on Tuesday saying the grievance wasn't being upheld. No surprise there, the manager doing the bullying has been there a long time and is friendly with the owner. She was advised she had 7 days to appeal the decision which she was going to do.

 

She went to work this morning and was told 5 minutes before her finishing time that she was sacked. She has to wait on the official letter stating this but was told it was because of absences and arriving late. She was spoken to about the lateness in December and was told if it didn't improve she would be disciplined, she hasn't been late since then.

 

Another reason given was the sending of joke emails to her co-workers but everyone in the office did this. They were all spoken to about it and nothing has been sent since.

 

Can she just be sacked on the spot or should they have to go through a disciplinary process? Is it a case of her only working there a short period of time so they can do what they want?

 

Any advice welcome.

Edited March 17, 2016 by honeybee13
Paras.

[renegadeimp]

under 24 months employment, they can dismiss for whatever reason they like unless its discriminatory

[Sidewinder]

Sadly, as stated above there is no real hope of taking this anywhere. Yes she is entitled to a disciplinary process, but without two years' service she has no redress to an employment tribunal. An employer can let an employee go for the flimsiest of reasons but without that right to take action for unfair dismissal, they are pretty much free to do so.

 

The exception would be if it could be proven that the employer's actions were motivated by your daughter's age, race, religion, sex, disability etc, but not if the motivation was that she was marked out as a troublemaker - which seems to be the case here.

 

Your daughter is entitled to a week's notice pay (unless the contract allows for greater) and pay for any untaken holiday. Make sure that she receives this with any wages owed to the date of dismissal.

[santamonica]

OK thanks for the advice. I was hoping because she was sacked immediately after raising a grievance this would give her some recourse. Employment laws are definitely sided towards the employer

[renegadeimp]

Nope. No recourse, and yes, they are very biased. Blame the current people in power for that.