How to deal with threats of [unfair] dismissal at work?

BimboGeek said :

To nhand42 – I was on site for several years and 90% of all communication occurred over email.

Then for several years the employer wasn’t getting value for money. The new president is justified in expecting a minimum level of onsite attendance from employees. E-mail is a lousy form of communication. You are perhaps an introvert; IT needs fewer introverts.

I suspect that a number of contributors to this discussion don’t work in not-for-profits – HR division?!. If you have such close contact with the president in relation to your work, that suggests to me a small organisation with a flat structure, and a management committee which has a lot of hands-on responsibility (urk! warning bells are ringing!! Unqualified and inexperienced people with power and not enough organisational checks or accountability)

If this 80-20 split of your work has been going on for a substantial amount of time, then it should be regarded as your ongoing work arrangements. If there is a concern about the telecommuting not working, this should have been managed by some performance management sessions (like supervision, but a bit more of the sharp end of the stick). Whatever the story, if you’re threatended with losing your job when there has been no history of opportunities to discuss and address concerns held by management, that’s in your favour. Your employer should have to show that reasonable steps were taken to get you to address their concerns to mount a successful defence aginst wrongful dismissal on this point.

as to having the right to demand that you move to Canberra, if this is because of these extra social events that will be happening so often that you need to be locally based to help with them, that is a diffculty for your case, but I tend to agree with those above that you should have been given more time to organise your affairs. The employer should have to be able to give some proof of substantial adverse effect on the NFP’s activities if you couldn’t move within the time frame required to justify dismissal.

The final questions – what award or workplace agreement covers your work and do you belong to a union? If you don’t know the answer to the first and it’s no to the second, learn a very important lesson from this. When you’re battling for fair treatment against a bad employer, it’s hard enough even when you have a union and an award behind you. When you’re on your own, you’re on your own. Don’t make the same mistake when you get your next job – but remember the old saying: walk softly, but carry a big stick.

That’s called the ‘nothing to lose’ approach.

NoAddedMSG said :

Ergh, and of course, the person you are having issues with will have read this, and will know it is about them. Do you think that will have helped the situation?

I don’t know. I was very distressed and really needed to get some advice cause legal aid will take a few days to get back to me. Feeling a lot calmer now, and maybe this was a bad idea on reflection, but either way I haven’t said anything here that is not true so I don’t think it will hurt the situation.

harvyk1 said :

Hi BimboGeek

80% is not the complete job, as someone who has employeed people in the past, an employer needs 100% of the job done, and I myself have let people go who didn’t do the full job.

hence i travel to canberra once a month for the other 20%…

Hi BimboGeek

Just to pick up on a point you made

BimboGeek said :

Yes, the remote arrangement made with previous prez is in writing (email), but it is not in my contract. I can and do currently perform at least 80% of my job remotely.

80% is not the complete job, as someone who has employeed people in the past, an employer needs 100% of the job done, and I myself have let people go who didn’t do the full job.

In any case don’t send them anything until you have received a response from legal aid, if they press you simply state that you are receiving legal advice on your position, but leave it at that. They can not fire you for receiving legal advise (then you really would have an unfair dismissal claim).

Unfortuantely if you where to follow sepi’s advice and say to them “Send them an email stating that you are working on moving your life back to canberra to resume your employment with them, but that you will need a longer time period to arrange that,” that can then state that they have an agreement that you would move back, so if you don’t then they would have a right to terminate your employment.

From a moral (not legal) perspective I think it is quite reasonable for your employer to request that you work in Canberra providing they give you reasonable notice.

Ergh, and of course, the person you are having issues with will have read this, and will know it is about them. Do you think that will have helped the situation?

i would suggest to speak with your human resource officer if you have one. clarify your rights and work arrangement. after all, HR is for employee’s best interest.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I called Legal Aid today but they need a couple of days to get back to me, so it’s a bit of a waiting game now. To clarify some of your questions:

Yes, the remote arrangement made with previous prez is in writing (email), but it is not in my contract. I can and do currently perform at least 80% of my job remotely. So harvyk1’s comment “if your not in Canberra you can’t do your job, and thus if you can’t do your job then they are within their rights to let you go” would apply if the newly added social events were my only responsibility, but not in this case. In fact I was waiting for the Prez’s call on Friday so I could suggest splitting the job and hiring someone else for event planning, leaving me with fewer hours to do the tech side, but allowing me to remain where I am. However not only did he not give me an opportunity to talk when he called last week and completely caught me off guard, he didn’t even bother to try again when I missed his call. Anyone else would have left a message or email to ring them back, but all I got was an email saying “comply with my directions or you will be fired”.

To nhand42 – I was on site for several years and 90% of all communication occurred over email. The only time I ever saw anyone was during social events, which have nothing to do with the technical aspect of the job. Anyway the most upsetting thing is that this guy is only going to be here for a year and will then move on with the position looking awesome on his resume and his bank balance slightly healthier (Prez is a paid position), but I was actually hired in the first place to help fix up things after “leaders” like him have gone through the place with their “control everything” attitudes. We were lucky to have a few good Prezs in my time who have concentrated more on building things up rather than tearing down whatever work others have done before them, but some do enjoy reinventing the wheel. Getting rid of me or hiring someone incompetent (as someone suggested) will have absolutely zero impact on this guy apart from a quick rush of power, because any negative impact of getting rid of me will either not be felt till his term is over or can easily be blamed on the poor new guy who has to learn how to do the million unrelated things that I do there.

No, I was not injured at work, and my treatment is now being done by a physio. There are physios in Canberra, it’s just that (a) I now don’t trust the free ones at the hospital who didn’t do a very good job on my hand earlier and (b) I can’t afford to pay for a private one, also (c) I like the one I have here and would rather have my review with the specialist at the Hand Clinic here than the surgery registrar in Canberra who did not even notice the second fracture or care about the horrible splint that was on my hand when I visited. He even asked me where I got such a horrible splint but then sent me to the OT without any further info/recommendations so they told me they didn’t have time for me and to come back in 8 days. They sent me home with the splint that the registrar called horrible (surely they could see that too?) which caused me to be back in emergency soon after with what looked very much like compartment syndrome. Whoa that is too much irrelevant information. I have friends in the hospital system in Sydney and they all assure me there is no point trying to take it on because it will be a lot of wasted effort and money on my part.