Anyone else been sacked on xmas eve?

I got sacked on xmas eve for refusing to do a job. I don’t know if I am been unreasonable.

I done a job first thing in morning. Then went done my second job tipped in yard at half one.
Went to office and asked what happening over xmas and they says come back at 07.00 on Monday.
So I waited till after 16.00hrs to get on a wash point to wash down the truck, as the yard was packed with trucks.
I started washing down my truck and then got told to go do another job after been in the yard for 3 hours.
The job would have took a few hours then would have had come back then wash my truck down for another few hours.

I know they asked one of the other lads that’s worked there a week to do a job at 1300hrs and he refused. He never got sacked.
They expected me to go out at 1600hrs.

Am I been out of order or would anyone else kindly refused?

What time did you start?

Are you agency?

Whilst this may not be the case it sounds like you were milking the hours by hanging around for hours to get on the wash, most of our blokes soon as they’re done on such a day are out the door, even i wouldn’t have waited three hours for the wash unless it was hours i’m contracted to, as such cos you were still there you put yourself in the frame.

However that may not be the case at all and you had to stay till your hours were up.

Custom and practice may apply here, if such a thing is common practice that people including you get asked to do a job late, or your normal working hours include what you were being asked to do, then you are on a sticky wicket, if it was not normal practice and you just happened to be the only body available who hadn’t scooted out the door and it wasn’t normal practice then you might have a valid unfair dismissal claim.

Hopefully you are in the union, who will immediately have put in a failure to agree, overtime isn’t compulsory but custom and practice can work both ways.

If not, then you should write down as much as you can remember about the other case, names dates etc and hope he will give evidence if needs be (same terms and conditions?), and seek a claim for unfair dismissal, hopefully you’ve been there long enough for legislation to kick in, ISTR 2 years employment before tribunal will take the case but i’m rusty on current regs.

If your employed by them ie not agency then they cannot just sack you on the spot unless you have done something that comes under gross misconduct ie being drunk at work or causing injury or risk of injury to yourself or others.
They have to follow a disciplinary procedure and give you a opportunity to appeal against any decision made.

Juddian:
Whilst this may not be the case it sounds like you were milking the hours by hanging around for hours to get on the wash, most of our blokes soon as they’re done on such a day are out the door, even i wouldn’t have waited three hours for the wash unless it was hours i’m contracted to, as such cos you were still there you put yourself in the frame.

However that may not be the case at all and you had to stay till your hours were up.

Custom and practice may apply here, if such a thing is common practice that people including you get asked to do a job late, or your normal working hours include what you were being asked to do, then you are on a sticky wicket, if it was not normal practice and you just happened to be the only body available who hadn’t scooted out the door and it wasn’t normal practice then you might have a valid unfair dismissal claim.

Hopefully you are in the union, who will immediately have put in a failure to agree, overtime isn’t compulsory but custom and practice can work both ways.

If not, then you should write down as much as you can remember about the other case, names dates etc and hope he will give evidence if needs be (same terms and conditions?), and seek a claim for unfair dismissal, hopefully you’ve been there long enough for legislation to kick in, ISTR 2 years employment before tribunal will take the case but i’m rusty on current regs.

I wasn’t milking any hours.
I do 70hrs a week average.

There were 50 trucks coming back on xmas eve and you can’t leave your truck dirty in the yard under no circumstances.

Why didn’t you use the few hours you was going to use to clean the truck to go and do the job then leave the truck dirty when you got back . Bit of a crap time to be sent out again granted but it is still a normal working day. Hope your not out of work too long tho

Themoocher:

Juddian:

I wasn’t milking any hours.
I do 70hrs a week average.

There were 50 trucks coming back on xmas eve and you can’t leave your truck dirty in the yard under no circumstances.

That 70 hour week average might work against you, unjust as it may seem, a good wheeze is to raise victimisation due to the other driver not being subject to the same disciplinary action (thats a definate unfair dismissal defence, that they will struggle to justify), and failing to follow proper disciplinary process, as said above you should have been suspended prior to a hearing, muddy the waters as much as possible letting them know that this is going to a tribunal with transport media publicity if they don’t recant this to a final written worse case.

With no union representation, you leave yourself open to Victorian treatment.

I I’m gonna say is life is unfair, your just a number and if you can’t tow the line then out the door you go, they can find someone else that is willing enough…
More to the point can you prove they gave the job to someone else at 1pm who refused to do it… doubtful…and if he’d only been with the company for a limited time, maybe that person wasn’t confident enough with what he was being tasked with…

Was you being unreasonable… maybe…because you refused to carry out an instructions from your line manager / work thats in your contract of employment…

Sue them for unfair dismissal, take the compo, be back in there on agency on more money the following week. Seen that happen more than once.

Juddian:
With no union representation, you leave yourself open to Victorian treatment.

Sadly very true. The word ‘union’ unfortunately has became a dirty word, a situation which in a lot of cases has been brought about by Unions themselves, where a lot of the officials got too much power and were in it for their own advantage.
A situation which has been taken advantage of by a lot of employers, especially in Transport.

Most of us feel xmas is a special time, but in this industry not everyone shares the same sentiments, BUT at the end of the day, this is transport someone is waiting for their goods and you are a driver, the only reason to refuse work is if you don’t have enough hours to finish, tough at times like this but very true.

Either they are using it as an excuse or you peed someone off at the wrong time. At the end of the day would I want to work for people like that, prob not.

To be honest I’d have prob done it and left truck dirty

ckm1981:
If your employed by them ie not agency then they cannot just sack you on the spot unless you have done something that comes under gross misconduct ie being drunk at work or causing injury or risk of injury to yourself or others.
They have to follow a disciplinary procedure and give you a opportunity to appeal against any decision made.

Refusing a ‘reasonable’ request, generally falls under gross misconduct which can result in instant dismissal.

truckyboy:
Most of us feel xmas is a special time, but in this industry not everyone shares the same sentiments, BUT at the end of the day, this is transport someone is waiting for their goods and you are a driver, the only reason to refuse work is if you don’t have enough hours to finish, tough at times like this but very true.

Not really true that the only reason you can refuse is because you’re out of time.

If you’re contracted to 50 hours and you’ve done 50 there is jack ■■■■ they can do about it.

Sounds to me you’re better off out of such a firm. If they’re going to sack you anyone with half a shred of any deceny would have left it until whenever you return to work, rather than doing it when they did and spoiling Christmas for you and presumably the whole family.

OP was probably in the last-chance saloon and they were looking to get rid, so definitely managed-out-the-door.

It would also depend on how long the op had been there, but usually instant dismissal is a bit draconian. Usually there is a set procedure to adhere to. ie: suspension, hearing, verdict.

I think personally that there is more to this story than meets the eye, as has been on many an occasion on here where the full story has not been told.

Ken.

Quinny:
I think personally that there is more to this story than meets the eye, as has been on many an occasion on here where the full story has not been told.

Exactly. Before everyone starts talking unfair dismissal compo it needs to be remembered there are three sides to this story. Op’s version,TM’s version then there’s what actually took place. I highly doubt someone was sacked on the spot for what was in the OPs first post. And any outfit with over 50 trucks is big enough to know employment law and proper procedures etc. With todays laws even if you are caught red handed with your hand in the cookie jar you cant be sacked on the spot,you have to be suspended first. But I was not there so who knows. As said,there’s more to this than meets the eye and we do not have the full story.

Guys Iv not posted on here about unfair dismissal, tribunals, unions or any other stuff been mentioned.

All was looking for was to find out if I was been out of order and to see if any other lads would have done the job.

Yes I did say I would do the job if I could leave the truck dirty.
But it wasn’t a option.