Summarily dismissed - Am I entitled to pay in lieu?

kathmandu

Hi all,

I was summarily dismissed from a customer services team on 2 days ago.
The main issue for this was that I hung up on a customer, which came under major(rather than gross) misconduct, as per the company's code of conduct.
With the way the call went, the customer actually said goodbye before the call was ended, but that's a grey area.

A meeting was called by the head of finance last week, and held late last week. At said meeting, I explained the factors around what led to it happening. The person who called the meeting, and thus made the decision to dismiss me, decided not to attend, even though they were in the building at the time.

Here's where i'm unsure of things:
Given that this came under major misconduct, rather than gross, should I have been given a chance to improve my conduct, or failing that, be entitled to a week's pay in lieu based on my time served with the company? (more than 13 weeks and under 2 years)

Prior to this, I received a verbal warning, but it was never documented. I didn't sign anything to acknowledge that it happened, therefore can it be proved that it happened?
Also, a second warning was brought to my attention, which happened in a light-hearted manner in our smoking area. Again it was never documented.
Neither warning took place in front of a wider audience, the first with my office manager, and the second was with my supervisor, so can they be proved?

One final thing worth mentioning. The act of major misconduct(which was hanging up on a customer) specifies that I caused the company to lose revenue, as the customer cancelled afterward. I have a record of an email sent to the company by this customer stating that their phone call with me was not the reason for cancelling, but due to an ongoing issue of theirs which had not being dealt with over several months. The customer had dealings with other members of my team before myself.

As well as the loss of pay in lieu, this also tarnishes my name going forward, and in the short-term should affect my ability to obtain Jobseeker's Allowance

Samuel T. Cogley

Get on to a solicitor immediately.

Fair procedures issues are fairly glaring IMHO.

Victor

Edit your post and remove the dates at a minimum.

kathmandu

Ok then, can anybody else offer advice?

I contacted Citizens Information, who then sent me onto the Workplace Relations Commission.
Neither were particularly helpful, but they tried.

Samuel T. Cogley

kathmandu wrote: »

Ok then, can anybody else offer advice?

I contacted Citizens Information, who then sent me onto the Workplace Relations Commission.
Neither were particularly helpful, but they tried.

How about someone the same offers the same advice?

If it was dripping and itchy you'd see a doctor. This is a situation for a solicitor. As someone with a law degree and no employment law experiance (even in the classroom) there are issues arising IMHO - I'm not going into it, the same way I wouldn't advise you what do do with something dripping and itchy if I was a med student.

Most smaller solicitor firms will give you an initial brief consultation for free or a nominal fee.

See a solicitor, google Solicitors in X where X is roughly where you live. There is very little other advice anyone can or should give you on the legal side.

Practically, Job seekers - no you'll be grand. Reputation - very little impact, references are generic and only cover dates of employment.

kathmandu

Thank you sir!