Employer making life VERY difficult.

[Titslikepicassos]

Supposed to be returning from MAT leave in June, have childcare arranged and as a key worker they will still take my baby - excellent.

Had a team meeting with work this week to discuss going back and have been told that I have to relocate as my partner works on the same site as me - which has been known since I informed them we were in a relationship, however the policy changed in October (before I went on MAT leave). While we are on the same site, our jobs are separate and we are working in different buildings, have different managers and different hours. The different hours means I will need to do drop offs and pick ups to coincide with opening and closing hours.

So during the middle of a pandemic, with child care mostly closed I now have to find a new nursery, lose a significant term time deposit and start the settling in process all over again. Not only that, they have told me to find my own employment within the company - my head is exploding with all of this. AIBU to think this is an unnecessary ball ache!

I appreciate that this is a minor problem given the amount of people losing jobs!

Sorry didnt read the full thread!

No advice but bumping to help & wishing you luck

Thanks all - appreciate all the support. I know it’s the right thing to do but I’m not sure if this will end well for me!

Hearing has been pushed back to the following week now 😩

Jesus.

Just has HR business partner on the phone - they’ve made a date breach and uploaded my grievance letter on to the internal system, it was accessible to all and read by my manager!! They were very apologetic and I’m awaiting a phone call from the controller but fucking hell, what a mess.

What can I do with this?!

Christ almighty, report them to the ICO! Or at least make it a part of your grievance. Incredibly big fuck up on their part as it could potentially compromise working relationships/the status of your grievance hearing.

Thats awful -have they self referred to ICO already?

They have stated that because it’s only my data that’s involved it doesn’t need reporting to the ICO. It has the names of all the witnesses, it’s going to cause massive issues with working relationships!

That is absolutely terrible.

I'd be expecting disciplinary action to be taken against the manager for reading it, even if it was uploaded.

@Stompythedinosaur - same, she read the first page and then realised it was a data breach... she read the whole thing, of course she did.

Company are saying that as it’s all factual information that would be discussed in the grievance hearing anyway, it’s not issue. However, I would have retracted a lot of information prior to allowing her access including the witness statements - they only agreed to it because no one is meant to know they’ve said anything! Working relationships are going to be awful now

Also it has medical information in that I don’t want her knowing. Company have admitted that this will obviously cause distress - cool as if I’m not under enough stress with this shit.

Just 😳 at their utter incompetence.

Have you and DP decided what to do if they won't honour the working pattern that was originally agreed? Presumably he could amend his/resign rather than you?

I can't believe this still isn't resolved.

Obviously with all this stress you could end up phoning in on your first day sick

Time for another separate grievance around this disclosure I think.

Poor witnesses!

Have you got advice from your Union about this development?

"Only your data", oh well thats ok then!
Report it to the ICO.

@RandomMess - DP has resigned and will leave at Christmas. I’d go off with stress but going from SMP to SSP isn’t ideal 😩

@Stompythedinosaur - my union rep is on leave until the day of my hearing! I’ve emailed the main office to see if someone else can advise. Argh, I can’t cope with another grievance!

@Titslikepicassos PLEASE PLEASE take some advice from a lawyer with Data Protection expertise/an employment lawyer about this. Don't take their word for it.

They sound wrong. Medical information, witness statements. Seriously - of course they want you to think they've done nothing wrong AND they may well not understand the law fully.

Fuck em. Report them yourself. What are your union and solicitor telling you to do

Crikey OP that is absolutely awful. I would be inclined to speak to the ICO and see if it needs to be reported.

If I were one of the witnesses I would be very cross - as you say, this won't help their working relationships.

Union on leave.

Only used the solicitor to deal with the partner at work issue and can’t use them alongside the union now.

Surely it’s a breach of your data but also their data? Like separate grievances ?

Call the ICO yourself. They’re really helpful. Also ACAS if your union rep not around.

Just saw about your medical data being included!!!

Christ, that's even worse! I would be furious. Get advice from solicitor/union on this and go to ICO if they advise you to do so.

Just read the thread. What you are going through is awful.

I cannot see why they think this is not a matter for the ICO, it is.

I’m not sure how much more of this I can take before I snap. I have been nothing but professional, polite and flexible where I can be surrounding this whole blooding thing but they fuck it up at every stage.

I haven’t even got to the fucking hearing yet.

I’m sitting on my hands to stop me emailing them 🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻 as a response

Bloody hell! You couldn’t make it up!

What a shit show.