legal recourse

Stu_Allcott

Stu_Allcott

Stu_Allcott

Associate
Joined
7 Feb 2011
Posts
155
Location
Southport
I have litterally just been fired from my job, ive been there 6 months and out of the blue i got called into the office this morning to say im going to be let go due to gross mussconduct, what it comes down too is that as in most places of work we print out receipts, and ours just happens to have the company logo on it which is "neos" and thought i know i'd cheer someone up by writing in dry whipe pen "the one" next to it, not damaging it in anyway and just being able to be rubbed off. now they are withholding this months pay, fireing me for gross missconduct and destruction of company property.

I understand that i can be punnished for doing that but do they have any grounds for actually dissmising me for what i did?
 
Sounds like they have redundancies to make and thought they could get you with gross misconduct over nothing - unless there's some stuff that you aren't telling us.
 
About the only thing wrong I can see from what the company is doing is withholding your pay. If you've worked it you are entitled to be paid, possibly less any amounts due to taking too much holiday or possibly to replace damaged property, but if it's a receipt I can't see that being much.

As for being fired for gross misconduct, yup nothing wrong there.
 
You need one year's continuous service before you have legal recourse should you be fired in this sort of situation (aka. Unfair Dismissal). Even then it's difficult to do anything about it.

I doubt you'd be entitled to any pay for your notice period either due too the reasoning for your dismissal, have a look at your contract of employment (if you have a written one) and see what it says regarding (gross) misconduct.

Withholding this month's pay is a different matter though.
If you've worked it you are entitled to be paid, possibly less any amounts due to taking too much holiday or possibly to replace damaged property, but if it's a receipt I can't see that being much.
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Yeah im under contract, and it just has my pay per hour on it, my holliday entitlement but does say to fire me they need to give notice, ive asked my union rep and she says that its grounds for unfair dismissal seeing as i wiped the pen off with my finger after being told about it, and yes its the only thing that i have done.

i even recently had been given a pay rise for "high standards of work"
 
It's not gross misconduct, it's just something they made up to fire you, but you don't have any recourse after working there for such a short time. It's illegal to withhold pay though. You should name and shame them.
 
As you've been there less than 1 year then you've not got much of a leg to stand on, unless you can prove sex, race or disability discrimination.

You should still get your notice period paid and DEFINITELY get paid for May.
 
Not in a Union then I assume?

if you're not, speak to CAB

Be prepared for them to take a while to get to your case though - they are very busy due to the same **** happening all over the place - and it's only getting more common.
 
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