Unfair dismissal/Discrimination

vrl

Hi All
I am not sure where exactly I have to post this.
One of my friends is sick after joining a firm on permanent basis. After one week of work, he was admitted in the hospital and discharged after one week.
Due to new job, he resumed his work immediately after discharging from the hospital. However after one week he got sick again and doctors advised him to take rest for couple of weeks. So he took off accordingly. Most of the time, he is in contact with the employer and updating his health condition.
He got employment offer withdrawal letter from the employer saying due to uncertainties on health grounds they want to terminate with immediate effect and may consider him for suitable position once he is fit to work.
Immediately he has given the fit to work letter and requested to reinstate the offer. However even after 3 weeks, he could not receive any positive response from the employer.
There is 2 months notice period from either side mentioned in the employment offer. Whether it is considered as unfair dismissal or discrimination on health grounds.
Employment rights is not clear on this subject? Could anyone suggest where to approach and how?
Thanks in advance.
VRL

qz

Wow.

Flamed Diving

What is that?

MIN2511

vrl wrote: »

Hi All
I am not sure where exactly I have to post this.
One of my friends is sick after joining a firm on permanent basis. After one week of work, he was admitted in the hospital and discharged after one week.
Due to new job, he resumed his work immediately after discharging from the hospital. However after one week he got sick again and doctors advised him to take rest for couple of weeks. So he took off accordingly. Most of the time, he is in contact with the employer and updating his health condition.
He got employment offer withdrawal letter from the employer saying due to uncertainties on health grounds they want to terminate with immediate effect and may consider him for suitable position once he is fit to work.
Immediately he has given the fit to work letter and requested to reinstate the offer. However even after 3 weeks, he could not receive any positive response from the employer.
There is 2 months notice period from either side mentioned in the employment offer. Whether it is considered as unfair dismissal or discrimination on health grounds.
Employment rights is not clear on this subject? Could anyone suggest where to approach and how?
Thanks in advance.
VRL

Edited that for you;)

Mr. Presentable

vrl wrote: »

Hi All
I am not sure where exactly I have to post this.
One of my friends is sick after joining a firm on permanent basis. After one week of work, he was admitted in the hospital and discharged after one week.
Due to new job, he resumed his work immediately after discharging from the hospital. However after one week he got sick again and doctors advised him to take rest for couple of weeks. So he took off accordingly. Most of the time, he is in contact with the employer and updating his health condition.
He got employment offer withdrawal letter from the employer saying due to uncertainties on health grounds they want to terminate with immediate effect and may consider him for suitable position once he is fit to work.
Immediately he has given the fit to work letter and requested to reinstate the offer. However even after 3 weeks, he could not receive any positive response from the employer.
There is 2 months notice period from either side mentioned in the employment offer. Whether it is considered as unfair dismissal or discrimination on health grounds.
Employment rights is not clear on this subject? Could anyone suggest where to approach and how?
Thanks in advance.
VRL

Was he there long enough to sign a contract of employment? In any case, I think he is not there long enough to be in a position to claim unfair dismissal. Reading what you posted he has done two weeks work in the five since he was employed. You can't expect a company to go to the trouble of finding an employee and then not having one.

mikemac

I fail to see how discrimination comes into this at all
Is this just a term people throw into every argument to help their cause?

CreepingDeath

vrl wrote:

After one week of work,

Companies usually have at least a 3 month probation period written into the terms of employment. I'd say they were well within the rights to let him go.

chris85

CreepingDeath wrote: »

Companies usually have at least a 3 month probation period written into the terms of employment. I'd say they were well within the rights to let him go.

+1

Its unfortunate but there is probably a probationary period in place.

Wishbone Ash

Except in certain exceptional circumstances, any employer is legally entitled to dismiss an employee without reason who has less than 365 days service.

MagicMarker

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Except in certain exceptional circumstances, any employer is legally entitled to dismiss an employee without reason who has less than 365 days service.

Care to provide links to back this up? There is always a probationary period but usually after a 3 or 6 month time frame you are up for review and if all is good you are officially a permanent employee. You can't fire a permanent employee for no reason.

cronos

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Except in certain exceptional circumstances, any employer is legally entitled to dismiss an employee without reason who has less than 365 days service.

Is that true even if you have a probation period in your contract that says that you have to be given one weeks notice if your not their longer than 6 months then a months notice after 6 months.

Eoin

cronos wrote: »

Is that true even if you have a probation period in your contract that says that you have to be given one weeks notice if your not their longer than 6 months then a months notice after 6 months.

I'm not sure it's entirely true. The law says that a probationary period can't exceed a year, but if the contract says a shorter period, then this may take affect.

If the notice period in the contract is longer than the statutory notice period, then the contract takes precedence.

vrl wrote:

Employment rights is not clear on this subject? Could anyone suggest where to approach and how?

It doesn't seem unclear to me. Your friend is currently on probation, and the company can let him go for any reason. He doesn't qualify for unfair dismissal because of the time frame.

There also doesn't appear to be any discrimination whatsoever. As micmclo says, it's a term that is thrown around way too quickly, and I think it cheapens the case of those who actually are being discriminated against.

Wishbone Ash

MagicMarker wrote: »

You can't fire a permanent employee for no reason.

The OP queries if the dismissal was "unfair". presumably, he/she means in a legal sense.

There are exceptions to the following but I don't think they are relevant in this case. The exceptions include dismissal for being pregnant, joining a union, religion, race, political beliefs etc.

Unfair Dismissals Act 1977

2. —(1) This Act shall not apply in relation to any of the following persons:

( a ) an employee (other then a person referred to in section 4 of this Act) who is dismissed, who, at the date of his dismissal, had less than one year's continuous service with the employer who dismissed him and whose dismissal does not result wholly or mainly from the matters referred to in section 6 (2) (f) of this Act,

( b ) an employee who is dismissed and who, on or before the date of his dismissal, had reached the normal retiring age for employees of the same employer in similar employment or who on that date was a person to whom by reason of his age the Redundancy Payments Acts, 1967 to 1973, did not apply,

( c ) a person who is employed by his spouse, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, step-father, step-mother, son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, step-son, stepdaughter, brother, sister, half-brother or half-sister, is a member of his employer's household and whose place of employment is a private dwellinghouse or a farm in or on which both the employee and the employer reside,

( d ) a person in employment as a member of the Defence Forces, the Judge Advocate-General, the chairman of the Army Pensions Board or the ordinary member thereof who is not an officer of the Medical Corps of the Defence Forces,

( e ) a member of the Garda Síochána,

( f ) a person (other than a person employed under a contract of employment) who is receiving a training allowance from or undergoing instruction by An Chomhairle Oiliúna or is receiving a training allowance from and undergoing instruction by that body,

( g ) a person who is employed by An Chomhairle Oiliúna under a contract of apprenticeship,

( h ) a person employed by or under the State other than persons standing designated for the time being under section 17 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969 ,

( i ) officers of a local authority for the purposes of the Local Government Act, 1941 ,

( j ) officers of a health board, a vocational education committee established by the Vocational Education Act, 1930 , or a committee of agriculture established by the Agriculture Act, 1931 .

vrl

nipplenuts wrote: »

Was he there long enough to sign a contract of employment? In any case, I think he is not there long enough to be in a position to claim unfair dismissal. Reading what you posted he has done two weeks work in the five since he was employed. You can't expect a company to go to the trouble of finding an employee and then not having one.

I am not aware of contract, but genrally most of the companies are giving offer letters and employee signs and sends to employer. After that no contract.

Could you tell me little bit about Irish contract or your own experience.

Thanks,
VRL

vrl

Hi All

Thanks for your replies.


I just want to know termination (2 months from either side) mentioned in the offer letter is not applicable during probation period?

Generally i have seen people writing different notice period during probation and permanent in the offer/contract.

My friend offer letter says 6 months probation period.

VRL

Eoin

It is normal to have a shorter notice period during your probationary period. However, if the contract says that there is a 2 month notice period during the probationary period as well (which would be rare, I think), then I think all your friend would be entitled to is 2 months pay.