While sat on the boat I find myself trying to sort a problem out back home. I employed a girl 5 weeks ago to answer our phones in the last couple of weeks she has been unreliable due to sickness causing us all sorts of problems with the phones been unanswered . Today she founds out she is pregnant. As I have up to 8 weeks to give her a contract and the length of contract was never discussed I had not got round to giving her a contract . Today she should of been answering the phones but on several occasions she didn't answer the phone. Where do I stand legally if I want to get rid of her as if she wasn't pregnant I know its straight forward but the minute the P word is mentioned its a whole new situation . Could I say it was only a 2 month trail contact as its her word against mine ? Any advise please .
Get rid. ASAP. Otherwise it's going to cost you. how do I know? last waste of space cost me £6k in litigation. Once bitten..... probationary period is still ongoing upto 8 weeks, she has no rights.
its not the same situation but this is what happened to my mrs 4 years ago, she had been working in a biker cafe for about 3 years working on average 25-30 hrs per week in winter months and 40-50 hrs per week during the summer months but without an official contract, unofficialy her boss found out that she was pregnant and within 2 days she was called into work for a meeting, basically she was handed a 15hr per week contract and told to take it or have nothing, there excuse was that business was quiet and they had to make cutbacks, but it also ment that legally they didnt have to pay her a penny towards maternity pay, then later on in the pregnany she had numerous trips to hospital for various reasons and so had a bit of time off work and was advised by doctors that she had to take things easy at work, when her boss found this out she basically said that there were no "easy" jobs available and that she either continued on as she was and risk loosing the baby or carry on needing time off work where they would sack her for not being able to perform her duties as there was no job available for her to be swopped over to, so to sum up yes you can get rid of her but you might have to do some very dodgy stuff in the process
just to add she was not a lazy employee, she worked bloody hard but some employers dont give a toss about other peoples lives as long as they keep there pennies in their own pockets, just think if she wasnt pregnant would you be looking at sacking her anyway, if the answer is yes then dont let the pregnancy thing bother you as you will have genuine grounds for her dismissal
Jase Once you've fecked her off don't waste money on employing someone just to answer the phones. Use a Call answering service. We use one as it's cheap as Chips and no feckers any the wiser they aren't speaking to direct employees. We use this one Zebra Connections | Home - Zebra Connections and have done for 10 years or so. Costs between £60-100 per month for an 08:00 - 18:00 service with answerphone service out of hours. You get a txt and or email about every call and an end of day summary. Compare that with paying some dumb Chick £12k + who'll be surfin' the Net and txting her BF the rest of the time, never mind sick pay, Hols, etc etc etc
Cheers Si is the 8 week period still the case if pregnant going to get some legal advise in the morning still. Cheers Jay
Unsuccessful probation mate. Job done. Although in the contract you haven't issued it would state the period they are on probation for - in the absence of a contract it'll go to statutory rights mate I think... Not HR expert but got rid of a few people lol... I'd never employ a young woman if I owned a small firm, they can cripple a company with maternity leave. Proper harsh I know, but business is business....
What jimbo said. Probationary period isn't up yet. Get rid as she's not suitable, nothing to do with her being pregnant.
play the 'I have reviewed the telephony answering service provided in recent weeks and need 100% certainty of cover so have taken the business decision to use a third party to handle new business enquiries who in addition can provided an extended period of time into the evenings where we are getting an increasing number of calls'
if that happened and you were in the nhs you would get the boot, more than three occasions of sickness in your six months probation period and its bye bye no matter what causes the sickness.
As JV stated, failed probation mate, unreliable, does not do what you employed her for, ie answering the dog and bone....job done...bye bye the pregnancy does not even enter the equation, she just has not passed her probation period end of.
Mate agree with the above as I've had to do it a few times. Failed probationary period but to be honest at that short employment you can just let her go and wouldn't see any comebacks. That way you can spend more time at home with her when the baby is close to being born....
