[Jenny1]

Hi,

I've got an employee who has been assisting me with domestic work.  She's 17 and was doing jobs with me supervised.  She's hardly worked for a couple of months as she has an ongoing illness, which means that she's in and out of hospital and was calling in sick at the last minute quite a bit.

Since she's not been around I've had a change in circumstances meaning that I've had to take on part-time domestic staff and I've not really been doing a lot of cleaning myself.  I've just had a call from the employee's mum to say that she's now feeling well and is available for work.  I don't really have any work to give her now and feel that she's nowhere near ready to work alone as she has little initiative and her work always needs to be checked. 

I just wondered what the best thing would be to do in this situation.  Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

[Adam P]

this is just my opinion and not officially what you should do etc, but i'd say as much honesty as you can give (i wouldn't say the bit about the constant checking) is best and as much effort into getting her work again. make sure they're aware of the reasons there is no work and that they feel confident you're doing all you can to get work for her.

if she will always need supervising and you don't expect to have work where someone can supervise do you really want her back?

[garyj]

Quite telling that the call came from her mum and not her!!
Phone up and tell her that you have no work at present and she will be your first call when you do and then forget about her.

[Adam P]

Quite telling that the call came from her mum and not her!!
Phone up and tell her that you have no work at present and she will be your first call when you do and then forget about her.

meh i woudln't judge her because of this. she's 17 and going to work with some random person. i know at 17 i wasn't too confident to call up my boss and would usually text in to say i'm ill etc. just something you have to understand when you hire 17 year olds. the important part is the standard of cleaning imo

[garyj]

But funny how the ones that can clean and do a good shifts work and don't let you down all the time at the last minute are the ones that can phone themselves!
Yes the standard of work is obviously the biggest issue here and last minute non attendance and for that reason she shouldn't be back.

[kate1]

Think you have to be careful here, dependent on whether she has a contract or not?

[Jenny1]

Thanks for your advice.

She does have a statement of employment stating that she will be working 4 hours per week and she is outside of her 3 month probationary period now so I'm guessing that I have to keep her on?

[kate1]

Hi Jenny

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/

If you go to this site, they have employment specialists in the legal section.

Their normally very good at answering postings.

[Jenny1]

Thanks Kate, I'll take a look at that.

[cml]

Hi Jenny,

I would agree it does depend on the terms in her contract  irrespective of age.  The following questions would need to be examined

1.   Has she worked with you for at least 12 month and if not how long?

2.  How did she pass her probationary period when she was hardly at work and you had to assist her on all or most of her jobs?

3.  Does her contract terms allow you to increase or decrease work according to your work load/ contracted jobs?

4.  Does her contract state she has been taken on to work at an allocated job site?

5.  Was most of her absences during her probationary period?

6.  Without discussion any of her medical problems but in your view is her illness aggravated by the works she does for you?

7.  In reference to performance does her condition make it very hard for her to carry out certain job tasks?  i.e. if she has a problem with one of her legs and this means she has to climb a flight of stairs to enter any premises you might clean and if no lifts are in the building she cannot do the job.



Sorry for so many questions but it would assist is answering your question.