Give them a hug

The case of the 38 long-serving soldiers cowardly informed by email, that they were losing their jobs, caused huge embarrassment to the MOD and the Defence Secretary Rupert Fox. The warrant officers who had all served at least 22 years, received their emails without warning giving them 12 months notice..

Mr Fox said: "I am furious that such a situation should occur. This is no way to treat our armed forces personnel. I want to know how this was allowed to happen and what measures will be put in place to prevent this from happening again." Armed forces minister Nick Harvey, apologised for the blunder by the Army personnel centre in Glasgow.

It reminded me of the case of barmaid Karen Ogilvie, who took her case to an industrial tribunal last October after being sacked by text message. For her employer, the result was much worse than a rebuke from a Govt Minister.

Ms Ogilvie had worked at the pub since summer 2006 until her sacking in January 2010.  She had worked the previous day from 11am-4pm and again from 6pm-midnight.There were usually two staff present, but she had been left on her own for most of the evening shift and became stressed. The next day she slept in and missed the start of her shift. She then received a text message from her employer stating, "As you have decided not to come in tonight, any wages due and a week in lieu will be put through your door on Friday."

In a written judgment, the tribunal said the sacking had taken place without an investigation, a meeting or any right of appeal. "On the basis of the evidence before us, the claimant was dismissed by text message but she was not given any opportunity whatsoever to provide an explanation for lateness," it found.

The tribunal has ruled that Ms Ogilvie should receive £14,355 for unfair dismissal, plus almost £1300 for breach of contract and in lieu of annual leave.

However, worse than this, consider the fact that because of the way you treat your staff, you may lose your home? a bit far fetched? well ask flooring boss Simon Cremer  from Essex, who about the same time as the soldiers were receiving their redundancy notices, was facing a £34k legal bill for his actions and is now having to sell his house to pay it off.

You may remember he is the gentleman who caught his employee stealing money from his firm and frog marched him down the street to the police station with a sign around his neck that read “THEIF I stole £845 Am on way to Police Station”.  The employee Mark Gilbert was cautioned but was later able to bring a civil action under a medical policy against Mr Cremer for “stress, humiliation and trauma”.  The case was settled out of court and Mr. Gilbert received £5000 in compensation.

All of the above just prove to be a timely reminder that we all have a duty and legal obligation to treat our staff in a reasonable and fair manner and that there is due process that has to be observed.

These cases are extreme of course but regardless of the circumstances - the financial penalties and bad publicity are a huge drain on resources and highly damaging on any business when an employer gets it wrong.

So next time one of your team comes in late, rings in sick, upsets a customer – take a deep breath  - remember your staff and your teams are your no. 1 asset  - so look after them!!