is this unfair dismissal?

ChewChew

Hi all. My friend was working in a large retail store for 8 years, but the kind of job she was doing ment she worked for individual company within the retail store, and not the store itself. So for the last 3 years she has been working for a particular company. on monday she was called into the office for a meeting and told that her job was gone and that if she finished at the end of the month she would get some sort of package but if she left by the end of the week she would get a bigger package. So she asked her boss to get the exact figures and come back to her, which she did.

She was told that either way she is gone at the end of the month but they would give her a bigger payout at the end of the week if she left. so she obviously took that option, because as far as she was concerned, her job was gone!

However.. she is now out of the job, awaiting payment from her employee and her job is being advertised!!

Anyone got any advice as to whether she has grounds for unfair dismissal or is it a case of c'est la vie

Pineapple stu

By the sound of the post she has been made redundant as her job is no longer available therefore they can not advertise her postition and she has a claim for unfair dismisal.
They can advertise the postition if she was let go if it was performance related but she would have been told about it.
If she goes at the end of the week she should make sure she got paid to the end of the month plus 3 years worth of redundancy. Basically around 6 weeks pay if she was full time.

wmpdd3

How long has she been working for the company that let her go ie how many years payslips has she got from that company?

Is it a concession in a dept store?

As long as the person doing the new job will be doing what she used to do, the company are in breach of employment law.

Just by putting in details of working full time for 8 years her redundancy is coming in at €7750, for 3 years its about €3267. Did she get anything like this?

Did she receive any written details of the payment or a payslip, if so what way is this worded.

From the dept of trade and enterprise:

An employer who has paid his/her employee their correct statutory redundancy lump sum can apply to the Department for a 60% rebate within six months of payment.
In the first instance, the employer must give the employee at least two weeks notice. The Form RP50 may be used.
The employer should give the employee a Redundancy Form RP50 on the date of payment, showing the basis on which the sum was calculated, and confirming receipt of payment. Copy containing an original signature of both employee and employer and “Amount Recd by Employee” box completed in blue ink, should also be sent to the Department. There should be no tippexed entries in Form RP50. Where the RP50 is completed manually, BLOCK CAPITALS should be used.

If this has not been done and basically the employer has just offered a lump sum to the emloyee to leave her job, you may have a bigger problem as the employee agreed to it. But is the money hasn't been received by the employee she may still have time to refuse.

Try get a hard copy of the add for her job too as you will need to prove this.

ChewChew

thanks for the replies!
she was working for the concession for 3 years, and was in the dept store for 9 years.

she was offered a lump sum of around 3k if she waited till the ended of month but if she finished at the end of the week she would get 6k. So she took that option! They did say they were going to pay her for the full month also!

she hasn't received payment yet, and she hasn't received anything is writing. tbh, she was in a bit of shock and didn't know what to be asking! :rolleyes: so I drafted an e-mail to her (ex)boss, on her behalf, asking for written clarification that it was complulsary redundancy and for an RP50 form to be forward to her immediately. Also another funny thing is that she missed a call from the boss and she was left a voicemail saying that they would give her 500euro towards solicitors fee's if she wanted it? so I also asked to have that in writing, should she need it at a future date.

this is all the info I have! My mate doesn't really get what being said to her so i'm just trying to go on the bits and piece's she can give me.. and that's all I have really!

wmpdd3

I heard of something like this happening in a store I didn't work in. In the end the person found out this was the case.

Her manager was employed as area manager by a bloke that had bought the franchise of a British high street store.

Long story in short version, the owner of the concession in Ireland had the staff registered as self-employed.

The department store cancelled their space in store and the staff were left go. It was only when they got NERA involved that it all came to light.

Again, all you can do is get everything in writing until you think you may have a case.

The €500 thing is mad!

ChewChew

Thanks a mill!! there's not a whole lot else I can do for her until she gets everything in writing! her main concern at the moment is getting state benefits and mortgage protection sorted! It's a bit of a mess because she's just so unsure as to what has happened and now her job is being advertised!!

wmpdd3

Also 6k may seem very generous but the employee is supposed to get 4 weeks notice so the extra 3k she got is really only the 4 weeks paid in lieu and possibly holiday hours owed.

Doom

Get down to citizens advice place, they normally have a legal advice evening

Mrs OBumble

+1 to the Citizens Information advice.

TBH, this has the feel of a case where there's more going on than meets the eye. How were sales in the concession - meeting target? Did you friend know something that she shouldn't? Had she been doing anything that she shouldn't be doing? Has she made any new enemies in the company lately? (Or friends / bedfellows, for that matter!) What's her pay rate compared to the average staff member in the store?

I don't know what's going on, and I realise that you don't ... and we don't need the details. But those are some of the sorts of scenarios that might be at play here.

You are right in helping her to get it in writing - the company should have done that already.

As to whether it's unfair dismissal, I suspect it hinges on whether the job being advertised has exactly the same terms and conditions as her job.

LiutenantDan

Doom wrote: »

Get down to citizens advice place, they normally have a legal advice evening

X2

juke

JustMary wrote: »

TBH, this has the feel of a case where there's more going on than meets the eye.

You are right in helping her to get it in writing - the company should have done that already.

Agree with this. It's unclear who the employer is, the terms of employment and the circumstances under which your friend is being let go.

The €500.00 - well it's common these days for an employer to get an employee to sign an agreement that they will not in the future bring a claim for e.g. unfair dismissal, in exchange for a lump sum severance package.

In order to prevent a scenario where the employee tries to bring a claim anyway, claiming they didn't understand what they were signing, the employer offers a contribution towards legal expenses to allow the employee get advice before signing the agreement.

I suspect that's what they meant.

ChewChew

juke wrote: »

Agree with this. It's unclear who the employer is, the terms of employment and the circumstances under which your friend is being let go.

The €500.00 - well it's common these days for an employer to get an employee to sign an agreement that they will not in the future bring a claim for e.g. unfair dismissal, in exchange for a lump sum severance package.

In order to prevent a scenario where the employee tries to bring a claim anyway, claiming they didn't understand what they were signing, the employer offers a contribution towards legal expenses to allow the employee get advice before signing the agreement.

I suspect that's what they meant.

yeah I'm finding it hard to get my head around what exactly she has been told. I think to send her to citizens info is the way forward.