Can I be made a scapegoat?

[TillyTotter1]

Hi. I think I might get fired and seriously panicking! Any advice would be appreciated.
I work for a large national organisation. We provide specialised services to the general public and the work is paid for by another company via contracts. I'm a junior manager at said company.
The company was having huge staffing difficulties for a number of weeks meaning services were unable to be met. This was able to be hid for a substantial length of time as simply the majority of people who received no service complain to ourselves - not the people paying for it. A few weeks ago I was due to start work on Saturday at 3pm. Even with staffing issues the usual number of deliveries that are left for me to sort out at that time is in the range of 30-40. That day there were 110 deliveries to be made that evening. Long story short approx 80 deliveries weren't made as I was unable to source staff to make the deliveries. I contacted senior management for advice at 6pm as deadline for delivery was 10pm. As such a huge number was missed the suppliers obviously found out and (rightly so) went mental. They want answers and they want someone held accountable.
I have a very good working history with the company and have had no other issues. However, the contractors are threatening to pull the contract if they don't get answers and I think I'm being made a scape goat. My employer has raised HUGE issue with the fact that I didn't contact them until too late in the evening (if I had contacted them at 3pm they feel they could have found alternatives in time, which even though I don't inwardly think would be possible I have held my hands up, apologised and agreed). This is also despite a senior manager leaving the office at 10pm the night before knowing we had 3 times as much work do as usual and my colleague who had been working to 3pm had not contacted senior management at all. My defence is also that usually on a Monday there are approx 600-800 unfilled deliveries whereas that week on the Monday it had been sitting at 2400. No extra measures had been put in place to accommodate for this.
I have already attended 2 informal investigatory meetings re the above but I have just gotten a letter saying I am now being formally invited to an investigatory for "issues arising from your shift on x".
I have rang my relevant union (which I am not a part of) and they can't help as you need to be a member for four weeks before availing of their services.
I am bricking it. Does my employer have a right to fire me??
Again, thanks for reading and any advice would be gladly taken on board

[HermioneWeasley]

What's your length of service ?

How did it come about that there was such a big imbalance between the deliveries and the employees available?

[neiljames77]

Is it your responsibility to hire staff to meet these extra demands?
You tried your best to figure out how you could meet the extra demands with the resources available to you but after 3 hours, you realised it was impossible and informed them.
Perhaps they should think about making the right provisions in future instead of expecting you to perform miracles with one hand tied behind your back.

[TillyTotter1]

I've only been in their employment 20months (but have been doing the same job 5years so not inexperienced/unable).

No we have our own staff but we have had a big growth in business plus a lot of staff left which both contributed to the missed services in general in the moths leading up to this weekend. Even though things had been touch and go for a while, that week was particularly bad because the pay went in on the week previous and they forgot to process the bonuses a lot of delivery drivers had been promised hence huge numbers either went off sick or refused to pick up the usual overtime

My job is to source cover for any last minute deliveries that are needed or to cover last minute staff sickness- technically there should be 0 cover for me to source but like I say things gradually declined to the point each weekend there was more and more to cover.

Is my failure to cover these deliveries a sackable offence?

[Slowdownsally]

Two things I can think of:

Call working families for advice - they are a great charity who help people with legal advice on employment issues

Check your home insurance policy to see if you have legal cover for employment matters - quite a few do.

[neiljames77]

You can't possibly legislate for a combination of higher demand coupled with short notice sickness.
Get in touch with acas. You might be needing it.

[atticusclaw]

Unfortunately you have less than two years' service. This means that even though your dismissal might not be fair, you are unable to bring a claim of unfair dismissal.

The only claims you would have would be those for which you don't need qualifying service such as discrimination claims but there is nothing in your post to suggest this might be a factor.

Sorry.

[neiljames77]

I thought it was 12 months for statutory rights? This government must have extended it.
Doesn't really matter anyway. A breach of statutory rights is worth £200.

[EBearhug]

I thought it was 12 months for statutory rights?

A lot of employment rules, particularly around things like grievances and dismissal, changed last year. Workers' rights have been reduced quite a bit.

[JustSayNoNoNo]

"that week was particularly bad because ... they forgot to process the bonuses a lot of delivery drivers had been promised hence huge numbers either went off sick or refused to pick up the usual overtime"

When did the drivers go off sick / refuse the overtime working - was it before your shift, ie earlier in the week? Sounds like the problem was building up all week. Two other people (at least) were aware of the issues, one of them more senior than you. Does seem harsh to blame you.

Definitely check any insurance policies you may have to see if you are covered.

[TillyTotter1]

Everyone went sick between the Monday and friday - no-one went off during my shift so management were aware of the severity of the situation before they headed off for the weekend. They have conveniently forgotten about this.

I think from speaking to ACAS since I don't have a leg to stand on because I'm there less than 2 years regardless of who's fault it was. I may roll with the punches and just take it as it comes. Thanks for all the constructive advice :) x

[iK8]

It's really hard to give you constructive advice when the details in your op are obviously quite vague and this is not my area of HR expertise, but your employer appears to have been covering up a problem for a long time and this is important. Depending on what they are covering up and who they are providing a service to/for you may be able to make a protected disclosure (aka whistle blowing) which could cover your backside from any fall out related to blowing the whistle. However, it may be too late to cover you from proceedings already occurring and may look like a vexatious complaint unless you can back it up with hard evidence. Some information on this is here: www.gov.uk/whistleblowing/overview but you need specialist advice on this and I can't give you that even with the full facts.

In the meantime please make sure you don't attend any meetings unaccompanied. Take a colleague in to take notes. The information you have given here about escalation of the problem is really important. If you can demonstrate that this was an accident waiting to happen and why and who is accountable this should help. Have a clear time line of what happened and when and highlight all the points where things could have been different. Eg "between Monday and Friday we had X number of staff away or off sick. It would have been apparent to A, B, C and D on X date that this would lead to reduced staffing and make it impossible to fulfil the contract. This is not something I am responsible for or can control." "When I arrived for my shift at 3pm I was not informed by Y at the handover of the issue. I discovered this for myself despite Y being aware of this at X o'clock and not taking any action. If Y had made senior managers aware or alerted me so that I could contact senior managers other action could have been taken. However due to the severity of the staff shortages I do not know if alerting management could have made a difference to the operation, only to the management of client's expectations". Do not admit to things you don't believe to be true, do appear contrite for any errors you may have made but also clearly explain if a different action would have made any difference or not.

Asking an employee to do the impossible and then punishing them for failing to do the impossible is not fair or right and could possibly fall foul of the company's policy on bullying and harrassment which could lead you to make a claim for breach of contract but that is really, really hard to do and best avoided if you can sort things out by calmly laying down the facts and demonstrating you were just a cog in the wheel and not responsible. Probably best to ride this out and then talk to a lawyer if things don't go well.

On other thing that has occurred to me, you say you have only been employed by them for 20 months but have been doing the job for 5 years. Was your company bought and were you transferred under TUPE regulations? Or did you move from a competitor/different industry to your current employer? Because that is very important.

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