Please help me with unfair disciplinary action

[Nezuko22]

Hi,

I have an appeal meeting on Monday against a disciplinary that was given to me last week. I have written dow a rebuttal because I'm quite an emotional person and I will be less likely to cry if I'm reading it off of a bit of paper.

The gross misconduct I've been accused of is false, and they have jumped straight to final written warning despite this being my first "offence".

The disciplinary was also sprung on me, there was no warning, no invite detailing the nature of the meeting, no chance to prepare my defence and no chance to bring a representative. I have been on the ACAS website and this appears to be unlawful. I also note that the appeals meeting is being conducted by the same manager who conducted the disciplinary. I was not offered the chance to appeal, I had to ask for it.

How would you play this? I truly believe this to be a personal vendetta agaisnt me and they are looking for a way to force me out of the company. I am going ot leave, but I am not going to tell them this until I have a job offer in my hand from somewhere else.

The emotional distress this has caused me has been unreal. My anxiety has been so bad I have spent most of the week shaking as I have to sit directly next to the manager who did the disciplinary. I had not eaten in 3 days and am at risk of my hair falling out due to stress related alopecia.

I'm going to call ACAS on Monday morning before the appeal for some extra advice but was wondering if any of you lovely ladies had some words of advice.

Do totally understand not wanting to fight it. However from experience of a close family member, a gross misconduct on your employment record can impact future work.
From the point of view of legal advice, it would just give you (possibly) peace of mind as to what you can/can't do and any potential long term impact.
Good luck!

My friend is the one doing the references and he is going to just confirm dates and role which is great. They have shortened my notice period and allowed me to take time off for interviews so they definitely want me gone. Which is great because I want to be gone! I'm not going to tell them when I have interviews though as I don't want to give them more notice than they need and I will just end up training my replacement (I trained the guy who got promoted to my manager!)

Who ever said anything about lying? If there's not a protected characteristic, then the OP would get nowhere by saying that there was. It would literally be pointless. That's just stupid. I don't agree with lying either btw. I wouldn't be fussed about the 'greater good' if I was in that situation. No lying required.

Well I had 2 interviews today and they went really well so fingers crossed!

Good for you, so fingers crossed now!

I'd stick in an FOI request re previous gross misconduct in the organisation/disciplinary outcomes, and the sex of the individual concerned. You wouldn't have to do anything with it but it might put the shits up them!

On the other case you might have grounds for a constructive dismissal case if you can prove the sex discrimination without 2 years!

Of course, I work for a public body, and that didn't occur to me - it comes so automatically! I doubt this is public sector somehow.

I’m the only female so not hard to figure out haha

Oh god!! I think you should access some legal advice - there might be an angle? Did you check your house insurance to see if you have legal cover? Or your car insurance?

I used to be a disability outreach worker and l’ve attended many tribunals looking at unfair/constructive dismissal and l think what most people don’t fully understand is that just having a protected characteristic isn’t enough. She would have to prove to a tribunal that that protected characteristic was relevant to her case.

You can’t just rock up at a tribunal and claim you shouldn’t have been disciplined because of race, sex, religion etc, if you’ve actually committed the offence of which you’re accused. So @StormingNorman is right. Better to wait and see what evidence the employer has and face the music honestly instead of using protected characteristics as a get out of jail free card. Ultimately that doesn’t benefit anyone - least of all those who have faced genuine discrimination.

I hadn’t had time to join a union when l started a new job and more or less straight away faced discrimination from a line manager who tried to impose certain working conditions on me because of my disability. I refused to comply and he started disciplinary action.

l joined the union and and they provided a representative to accompany me to the disciplinary meeting and advise accordingly. They usually required membership for four weeks before providing representation but said they could waive the condition according to circumstance - appreciate that not all unions will have the same approach but some do. Most people also don’t realise that you can ask any trade union for an official to accompany you informally in disciplinary meetings - you don’t have to be a member and the trade union doesn’t have to be recognised by the employer.

I'm an HR professional.

Therefore I suggested speaking to an expert lawyer to ascertain if there are any grounds for a complaint. Neither you nor I are in a position to judge.

It may well be the case that the OP is being discriminated against. It may be the case that she is not, but my spidey senses are tingling. That doesn't mean there is the evidence to support a case. I often know damn well that there's grounds to the complaints that employees are making but I can't find in their favour unless there is evidence, and very often there isn't.

In my experience, the TUs we work with will give advice to non-members on joining, but will not represent them if the action against them has been the prompt for them to join, and is already ongoing at that point.

Hey everyone. Just wanted to come back and update. I start my new job in a few weeks, 25k a year more than I’m on now and better work life balance! This disciplinary actually turned out to be the best thing ever!

I was thinking about you just the other day. So pleased to read your update. Everything happens for a reason eh! Congrats on your new job 😊

@Nezuko22 great update. So glad you have got a new job.

@Nezuko22 Great news. Very happy for you. Glad it's all worked out for you.

@Nezuko22 Fantastic news!! So happy for you and lovely to have a positive story MN!

That's great! Congratulations! Good luck with your new job.

Well done. Is your mortgage sorted as well?