From what I have heard Jimmy has ditched his old agent and hooked up with a new one who has more realistic expectations and is more professional. Could this be the catalyst to resolve the Jimmy versus club row?
Jimmy didnt have an old agent,must have just employed one to find him a club as the offers hardly flooding in.
substitute the words 'new agent' with 'big hitting lawyer' I wonder if we will start to see some public statements on courts and out-of-court settlements in future
I honestly can’t see it unless the club has given him written warnings in the past which we don’t know about or he has done something which can be contrived as gross misconduct. What I can see however is both threatening legal action and then settling outside of court with us paying Jimmy a certain fee to leave by “mutual consent”.
In any normal job, threatening to smack your boss would be considered gross misconduct, I'm not sure why it should be any different for footballers.
There is no set legislation for this by UK law for this to be a sackable offence the nearest legislation are just regarding health and safety: •Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 •Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 So unless he has put anyone in great danger he cannot be sacked for this offence. Most times when people are 'sacked' for violence within the workplace they are asked to leave on their own accord and more often than not are willing to leave as they are on bad terms with their boss, enough to smack him anyway. However in Jimmy’s case he will not leave by choice with him being on such a ludicrous contract.
He could be sacked for actually smacking his boss because I have seen it happen where I work. He would have to go through the club (company) disciplinary procedure and dependant on that procedure how that offence would be deemed and any other offences he has committed he would be given a warning/written warning/final written warning/dismissal. For me it would be a gross misconduct as OLM says hence dismissal. We would then stop payments and it would be then for Jimmy to instigate legal proceedings against us if he felt we had breached his contract of employment for dismissing him. He would have to present his case to an Employment Tribunal. The would take into account all the facts (including what his contract says re: club (company) discipline etc) and decide whether the sacking was legitimate or not. With respect, threatening to smack or smacking the boss has nothing to do with either the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 or any of the other legislation flowing from it such as the MHSW Regs nor any of the other related Regs such Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations. I think you are looking at it from Nigels point of view (if indeed he had of been smacked by Jimmy) in that, if that had occurred the club would be held vicariously liable for the actions of an employee i.e. Jimmy and hence they would then be in breach of their duty of care to Nigel putting him in a situation that could endanger him. HOWEVER the action would have to be a foreseeable event. I guess a player (employee) hitting their boss could be considered foreseeable so if (in theory) Nigel was hit by Jimmy it would be Nigel who could bring a claim against the club under thw legislation quoted. That legislation has NOTHING to do with sacking an employee. That would derive from the Employers Rights Act 1996.
I think the Allams Lawyers and all the evidence the club has on Jimmy will be more than enough now. For sure Jimmy needs a new agent to get him a contract somewhere and maybe very soon ?
WHAT UTTER RUBBISH. By smacking his boss that is a sackable offence. Its been done by my company and the offender lost the case at the hearing. Then the police arrested said person for assault. Case continues.
