Employement Law Essentials Penrith

Length of service : The fact that you were in employment for over a year makes a difference to where you stand. Under twelve months service you are only have contractual rights however, above twelve months you are also entitled to claim unfair dismissal, which means that the employer has a statutory duty to be fair and reasonable and the compensation for failure to fulfil this obligation is potentially higher. Was the employer at fault? You may try to argue this was in fact constructive unfair dismissal, which would occur where your employer was responsible for a situation which led to your position becoming untenable and you feeling compelled to leave your job (even though your employer did not actually tell you to go). Whether this would succeed or not would depend on the facts of the case and without more information I can’t take it much further. Turning now to your point about pay : The statutory notice entitlement for continuous service of between one month and up to two years is in fact ‘one week’ which is what you have received and obviously you should also have been paid any outstanding wages you were owed. Some employers do offer more in the contract of employment but as you say, you didn’t have one, so you would only be entitled to the one week. On a procedural point : I don’t know why so many employers resist issuing contracts of employment when in fact they can be to the benefit of the business. Anyway, the lack of an employment contract, otherwise known as the Statement of Terms of Employment means that your employer is in breach of your statutory rights and for that breach you are entitled to claim a few hundred pounds. The more interesting point is that you should try to make this complaint to your employer by writing to him directly and then give him the chance to resolve it. I am not sure whether his girlfriend is a manager in the business, so be sure to put your grievance in writing to your employer. If you don’t receive a reply within 28 days then you can complain to the tribunal, as your previous employer would be in breach of the new Grievance Procedures introduced in October 2004. It's definitely worth seeing a lawyer about this aspect and if you are going to do so, you had better get your skates on because you are limited to making your claim within 3 months of the event complained about.

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