[M Walker]

I have recently had several run ins with one of my female cleaners who I believe does not have the heart for the job anymore she has worked for me for approx six months and is on a salary. Last week I lost a contract directly as a result of her uncaring attitude and this week have had a complaint from another. I have several times had reason to verbally warn her and today gave her a wriiten warning and advised of the deduction from her wages of the amount it has cost my company to rectifie the complaint. When she was given the letter she informed my contracts manager that she was giving me a weeks notice then departed hastily off site only to reappear saying in fact she was now going to see the docter and get signed off sick. Also she has threatened to take my company to an employment tribunal lol. This particular employee has been nothing but a multitude of problems in recent months and is forever costing me money any advice on how to deal with this issue would be greatly appreciatted.

Regards Mark

[Bertie Boo]

hi

Are you allowed to deduct money from her wages to cover any thing she may have done? What did she do?

Cheers

Stephen

[Fox]

I hope you gave this lady a contract of employment which states that she will not get paid for any work that needs rectifing.  You also need to know your section on notice, if it says you accept verbal notice that is your get out of jail for free card.  Hopefully this is the case and you just need to write to her accepting her verbal notice to your contracts manager and confirming the last day of employment.

If you have followed the correct disciplinary procedure then you won't have a problem with a tribunal but you can dismiss this employee without reason anyway (as long as it's not racial, sexual discrimination etc, please check on the gov web site) as she has not served a year. (also do a search on here there are many threads discussing this).

Good luck
Fox

[cml]

Hi Mark,

If your contract allows and you can accept a verbal notice you may want to act on this without delay.
If not and she  writes a letter complaining of her work or any managers say...before you've inform her of her termination, this may be considered as her  first steps to   initiating a grievance procedure against you.  Then you may have her in your employment longer than you may wish her to be.  She has already told you that she wishes to take your company to the tribunal so she may have some issues that need addressing and she may wish to do this to support her case at tribunal if she goes ahead with it. 

See Fox's note above about following the Disciplinary procedures and dismissal advice. 

Den

[M Walker]

Thank you for your replys yes she has a contract of employment that she has failed to sign awkwardness is her middle name she has had several verbal warnings before the written one. And walked directly off site after recieving a written one. I would be quite happy to pay her SSP as I am pretty sure she can not survive on this and I could claim most of it back. I have already offered her meetings to discuss any issues and within the contents of the last letter she was again offered an opportunity to meet. However I feel pretty much this is a lost cause. I have lost one contract directly because of her actions and had two more threaten to dispense with my services if I do not remedy the problems she has caused. I have a very good working relationship with all of my employees but this one is trouble I can ill afford to have her in my employ nor would I like to be taken to a tribunal or other. I am really frustrated.

[Fox]

The best way to get rid then is with notice, she has been with you for six months so you can dismiss her as she is not 'suitable' for the post, you do not have to give rhyme or reason.  Write to her saying that the company is considering terminating her employment and include a date and time for her to meet with you.  If she doesn't make the meeting set another date and say that if she fails to turn up the meeting may take place without her and she would then be notified of the outcome.

At the meeting tell her that you feel she is not suitable for the job (don't go into detail and don't let her argue with you) and that you are giving her one weeks notice (if you don't want her to come to work you will have to give pay in leiu of notice, if she walks she loses her notice pay) also say that you will advance any unpaid holiday pay with her last pay slip. 

Do not get into a discussion about this, if you are worried about a tribunal don't be, you are well within your rights to do this and even if she brought a claim about discrimination you obviously have information to back up the fact that she lost you a contract and she is unsuitable.  She might be shouting and screaming about a tribunal but she will also know that she has caused problems for you so probably won't carry it through. 

You need to do this immediately as if she goes on the sick you won't be able to dismiss her and it will make things drag on and become more complicated.

Fox

[J. Deans]

IMO.

An employee that has received numerous verbal warnings, then leaves her place of work, without authorisation - upon receiving a written warning - would normally be dismissed instantly!

Or:

Forget any employment contract. This is simply gross misconduct.
Any employee that leaves a place of work under those circumstances, would be considered to have terminated there own employment.

I would have called her straight away to tell her not to return. Followed as soon as possible with a letter accepting her resignation. The normal notice procedure may still apply, but she would not be required to work her notice. She would be paid up to the moment that she left work on that day - and the weeks notice would come into effect straight after.

She would be laughed at if she tried to take you to a tribunal.

Many disciplinary procedures would consider instant dismissal if there was an offence committed that would warrant another one within a certain time frame.

Leaving a place of work without good reason or authorisation would easily constitute an offence of this type.
Also, check your Health & Safety policy. There are many H&S reasons you could cite as back up.

Before it is too late - get rid!

[Cleaning Resource]

sneak up behind her, put a black bag over her head and secure with rope, place her in the back of your van and take her to the nearest high cliff and dangle her of off it.

That ought to make her go away 

if it don`t i got some other suggestions

[M Walker]

Lol that is how they make me feel sometimes. All has gone quiet now on this which is good thanks for all your advice folks.

regards Mark