Part-time workers rights, help please?

Monife

Hi. My best friend works for a clothes shop (well known but not as big as the likes of Penney's etc) once a week (on sunday for 8 hours) and has done for the last 19 months.

She is going abroad for 5 weeks in September to do some voluntary work. She was informed that she can apply for unpaid leave to the head office while giving 4 weeks notice, which she did. Today the manager phoned her and said that the head office said that she cannot have the time off and "with the times we are living in now" they asked her to resign.

Is this right? When I heard that I thought that it sounded very dodgy, asking her to resign, surely they would just let her go, but then, would there be a case for unfair dismissal?

What are part-time workers leave entitlements and rights? I have looked at NERA and Citizens Information but I can't find any solid evidence or advice.

Any advice much appreciated.

Nody

Why would they let her go? She's the one asking to be off and they would need to consider the redundancy laws etc.

Any way; she has the right to 8% in holiday allowance. Since she's asking for unpaid leave I'll assume it was either paid or she has no hoildays's left to use; hence she has no rights to take the time off.

She could of course go any way but 5 weeks of would likely leave anyway with out resigning but this would likely lead to a disciplinary hearing and most likely get her fired (gross misconduct basis but this would be down to local policies to say exactly).

vikingdub

Monife wrote: »

Hi. My best friend works for a clothes shop (well known but not as big as the likes of Penney's etc) once a week (on sunday for 8 hours) and has done for the last 19 months.

She is going abroad for 5 weeks in September to do some voluntary work. She was informed that she can apply for unpaid leave to the head office while giving 4 weeks notice, which she did. Today the manager phoned her and said that the head office said that she cannot have the time off and "with the times we are living in now" they asked her to resign.

Is this right? When I heard that I thought that it sounded very dodgy, asking her to resign, surely they would just let her go, but then, would there be a case for unfair dismissal?

What are part-time workers leave entitlements and rights? I have looked at NERA and Citizens Information but I can't find any solid evidence or advice.

Any advice much appreciated.

An employer is not obliged to extend unpaid leave to an employee unless there is provision for this in the contract of employment. However, in my experience, even in cases where unpaid leave is mentioned in the contract of employment, it is not guaranteed and is conditional on the needs of the company. Clearly in this case the company have decided that it does not suit operational requirements to grant the unpaid leave request. It would appear that the manager has simply stated that she cannot have the unpaid leave and should she decide to take up her five week voluntary programme she will have to resign. Nothing illegal about that, however, if she decides not to take the voluntary assignment and is told that she must resign becuase she requested unpaid leave, something I very much doubt has or will happen, then there would be a clear case unfair dismissal.

Ms. Chanandler Bong

Has she been told she can have her job back when she gets back? If so, this would explain being asked to resign-kinda hard to re-hire someone if you've fired them a month previously!!!

Monife

catreyn wrote: »

Has she been told she can have her job back when she gets back? If so, this would explain being asked to resign-kinda hard to re-hire someone if you've fired them a month previously!!!

No they didnt. They did however have the cheek to ask does she know anyone that could replace her.

Ms. Chanandler Bong

I've seen this happen in the past in a small shop I used to work in during college. The situation at the time was that the shop was simply unable to hold a job for someone for 6 weeks or so (fellow student wanted study time plus time off for exams) as they would be too stretched staff-numbers-wise to cope. She was basically told that the shop would have to hire someone to work the hours she would have been offered had she been available to work.
In your friend's case, the employer is pretty much doing the same thing. Has she used all her holidays or are they saying she can't take 5 weeks at once? In any case, I wouldn't quit if I were her. If she's worked in a clothes shop for 19 months, & is going to be looking for work again by the end of September, chances are she'll get in somewhere for Christmas.