Being sacked for recovering from illness

mamdmrmi

I have an ongoing case of Unfair Dismissal against former employer. I had a temporary illness back in 2011 and he was approached by Employability Services to hire me so he could be entitled to the Wage Subsidy Scheme. I grew within my role and achieved outstanding results in marketing and business development. My part-time position soon became full-time covering marketing, PR, wholesale, stock control and operation management beside the original focus on e-commerce. After 2 years I successfully negotiated better terms of my employment; though my hours were reduced back to 3 days per week, I was offered a payrise + commission (!), duties reduced to e-commerce and marketing, and as requested to be re-located to the town their new shop opened and badly needed a boost in sales.
A month later my employer finished a casual chat over the phone with "by the way, I terminated your contract backdated (to date I had my last day in full-time in the previous location of my work. I was re-located before without change of contract.). You'll get your new contract when you signed the Wage Subsidy Scheme Form for me".

I understood he had to re-apply for wss because of my re-location but I never understood why he terminated my contract - ripping me off some employee's right I had gained with a 2 years continuous employment. I seeked legal advice and was advised to bring a claim for unfair dismissal. Later my solicitor figured out that I was sacked for my employer could not re-apply for Wage Subsidy Scheme if I was employed for more than a year!!! So he had to make me a new employee for his subsidy.

Recently he also stated in court that he would not have employed me with new contract if he was not entitled to wage subsidy scheme, he could not afford me, he said...

Though we are still waiting for verdict, we once had a decision by the Right's Commissioner who stated while it was, indeed, unfair dismissal, I significantly contributed to the dismissal. My solicitor could not find any other reason for this outcome but my statement that I would not have signed the wage subsidy form as I was not treated with illness anymore, and it would have been a lie (a fraud more like)

And again, my former employer was not questioned why he believed he could sack me for not being sick.

I have SERIOUS CONCERNS that there are thousand os people with mental disability out there employed under the wage susidy scheme - and being taken total advantage of by greed. They would not even understand what is going on... We had all the JobBridge and JobPlus scandals, and now it seems employers are hooked on by significant subsidy, to employ someone they would not need or could not afford otherwise.

I am utterly shocked it is happening, and looking forward to hearing opinions.

MarkAnthony

If you've an ongoing case I'm pretty sure we're not allowed to comment although that said it's at the tribunal rather than court.

Pretty poor form though and ill advised. I suggest waiting until your case is settled before campaigning - which I wish you the best of luck with when the time is right.

mamdmrmi

MarkAnthony wrote: »

If you've an ongoing case I'm pretty sure we're not allowed to comment although that said it's at the tribunal rather than court.

Pretty poor form though and ill advised. I suggest waiting until your case is settled before campaigning - which I wish you the best of luck with when the time is right.

Thank you. I'll wait for the official decision and we take it from there.

Shint0

.

George Michael

i had never even heard of that scheme