Long story short.....
I am a manager of a successful charity shop. I recently went on holiday. Cover told my volunteer that they'd been sent by the area manager to spy on us, ask questions & see what they could find to bring us down & made claims to this volunteer that they'd found derogatory comments about our volunteers in our diary, and that we'd 'get into trouble' (absolutely not true).
Area Manager also came while cover in the shop to 'conduct interview's' (never happened before) knowing that neither me nor assistant manager would be in. Volunteer asked cover why he came to shop. Cover finally admitted there were no interviews, he'd come to look around.
Volunteer felt v. Awkward and didn't know what to do, so asked a friend (also a manager in a charity shop) for advice. Should they tell us? Friend advised them absolutely yes, we should know what's going on. Volunteer told my assistant manager before I returned from my holiday.
I arrived back from holiday. Area Manager came for a shop visit on day of my return (shop visits very rare although supposed to happen every month). We confronted him about what we'd been told. Area Manager reaction very telling. Didn't seem surprised, didn't ask for any details of what the volunteer had told us, didn't mention why had his name been bought into these allegations, just nervous coughing, darting eyes and then came the immediate denials " I can assure you that it did not come from me"..... then tried to change the subject and turn it round to what he wants us to change. We kept trying to steer the conversation back to what had happened and how hurt we felt, and that it was sneaky and underhand etc, but they would not address the issue. We said we felt that the trust between us and cover had gone and immediately they said that next time they would use someone else to cover. (Strange reaction as there is no one else really and why say this so quickly?). Then came the complements which is when I really knew we were being fed a big bag of bull as they have NEVER had anything positive to say about us or to us. I believe this is all a bag of lies and they turned on the charm, telling us what we wanted to hear to deflect from the situation. I asked them to find out from the cover what was going on and they skirted round it. They left thinking we were all best friends and 2023 is going to be the 'best ever'.
Anyway, the next morning I rang the cover to get their side. They come across as very bumbling, butter wouldn't melt but they ummed and erred and said, "well no, there must be some misunderstanding ". I asked them if they were calling my volunteer a liar..... again 'no, and I'm sorry if I've caused any upset'blah blah blah.
Now, the volunteer in question is the salt of the earth type, devoutly religious without a bad bone in their body, and NOTHING to gain from making this up. They were very angry with the response that we got from the area manager and the cover and is writing a statement to explain what happened. They are also willing to be interviewed.
AIBU to think that this is despicable behaviour by the area manager and cover and AIBU to raise a grievance against them both?
My volunteer, assistant manager and I are all appalled that this has happened, because the only possible reason we can think of is to look for something to get rid of us, but is this a serious issue in employment 'rights'?
The area manager is super sneaky, has form and can't be allowed to keep using his position to think they can get away with doing this kind of thing and then blatantly lying about it. We do not trust them in the slightest.
Thanks for any perspective.