Dismissed Over Dogs Death.......

MadMan-JaMeS

MadMan-JaMeS

MadMan-JaMeS

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Reading the news this morning i come across this article:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-49346408

A woman who was sacked after her family dog died has started a campaign for bereavement leave to be granted when employees lose their pets.

Emma McNulty, from Glasgow, said she was too upset to work after her terrier Millie died at the weekend.

She claims she was physically sick with grief, but the 18-year-old student was told to find cover or risk dismissal.
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I think the employer has been reasonably fair to the lady. I get that some peoples pet are everything to them, but they did give her the chance to find cover. A business still needs to run, if her fellow employees could not help out then what can they do ?

Obviously it would different if it was family.
 
MadMan-JaMeS said:
Reading the news this morning i come across this article:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-49346408



I think the employer has been reasonably fair to the lady. I get that some peoples pet are everything to them, but they did give her the chance to find cover. A business still needs to run, if her fellow employees could not help out then what can they do ?

Obviously it would different if it was family.
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This is the reason you have a team leader / manager. They are supposed to find cover not the person off sick. This is how it is where I have worked in the last 20 odd years.
 
Why does stuff like that get so much coverage on the bbc, I'm sure there's more important things to cover.

She's probably on a temporary contract anyway and may well have been unreliable in the past.
 
I'd say thats a tough move by the employer but probably not without background. You wouldn't get rid of a good employee for one day off with a good reason.
 
People are too precious these days.
Thekwango said:
totally related, she's never 18!? looks more 38. must have had a tough old paper round i guess.
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That's because so many girls these days plaster on ridiculous amounts of makeup and inject crap into their faces. They look ridiculous and older.
 
18 and had the dog for 14 years so if this, as a one off, was the only reason for dismissal then that's incredibly harsh.
Can only think there's more to that...
 
Washout said:
18 and had the dog for 14 years so if this, as a one off, was the only reason for dismissal then that's incredibly harsh.
Can only think there's more to that...
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I wouldn't be surprised either way, some companies/managers have literally no empathy for their staff, but then plenty of people also take the **** when it comes to work.
 
A lot of managers don't even SEE their staff, just numbers. Someone didn't show for work one day, still in probation period...sacked, next task...

Amazon operate like that. The managers sit in offices overlooking the warehouse, off-limits to the plebs.
 
There is no law regarding a right to bereavement leave at all even for family members let alone pets, it is purely down to the discretion of the employer.

It can come under the right to time off for an emergency involving a dependent, but that's about it. And that is not defined, it's just discretionary again.
 
Very harsh of the employer. Least they could have done was given her the day off and fixed her up a bereavement sandwhich to show a bit of compassion. She only asked for one day off, it's not like it was weeks, and it doesn't sound like her absense would have tanked the business or caused long lasting detrimental impact to it.
 
Absolutely mental. What did she expect to happen? She worked in an industry where her shift had to be covered. Employer was good enough to give her the opportunity to find cover if she cant she has to work.

If she had any sense she would have phoned in sick and not mentioned the dog.
 
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