Sacked without explanation!

[happyducky]

Basically I was employed by a retail shop as a part time worker but left to go to Uni. However, the manager said to me everytime I returned home my job was waiting for me, which i did on several occasions, odd weekends, and xmas holiday. I assumed therefore my part time contract seeing as it wasn't revised was still my and the employers "code and conduct" which included the 3 strikes you're out rule (warning, letter, meeting with management.)
However when i returned back to Uni my mum informed me I had a letter from them which was just my P45 in an envelope. No warning no nothing! I was not told I had done anything wrong but from previous experience my Boss can be petty and immature and i think she did this in a nasty way - but surely they can't just let me go like that, by posting me my P45? I'm really upset but if I ask my boss she'll make up some story about how I said i wanted to leave or something. but of course she won't have this in writing because i never said it!
What do I do? just accept it? Because I am quite in debt at Uni and because I had her word the job was waiting for me whenever I returned I never got another one. I can't help but feel hurt and angry.

[Buenchico]

The employer simply seems to meeting her statutory duty. You were not so much a 'part-time' worker as a 'casual' worker. That means that the employer should 'put you on the books' every time you start a new term of employment in the shop and 'take you off the books' whenever you finish working there. (That includes providing you with a P45, so that you can hand it to another employer, such as if you did some part-time bar work while at Uni).

Sending someone a P45 isn't necessarily a 'nasty' thing to do. It's just required by law. I work for a firm which carries out traffic surveys, with staff employed on a casual basis. I choose to work as self-employed but my colleagues who go 'on the books' often receive several P45s in one month from the employer (because they're 'on the books' for a few days and then they come off again) but they still know that they'll be taken back on when there's more work available.


Contact the employer and ask whether sending you a P45 was just a formality or whether your services are no longer required. You might find that they're begging you to come back ;-)

Chris

[banned-dot]

I employ zero hour contract staff, but if they are not required for 6 weeks or more we have to send them a leaving form and the HR send their p45., it is to make sure they are in the system even if it is negatively I suppose.

[happyducky]

hey thanks for the responses but i spoke to a member of staff who works there and i have been let off. thats why this bothers me - i was told my job was waiting and i've lost it with no explanation after well over a year of working there.