If you've been employed by a company for 5 1/2yrs - can they then suspend you.........

[FAQ]

pending an investigation to your CRB???

DP had just called me, he's worked for this company for 5 1/2yrs, and had a CRB check done when he first started. There are a couple of minor things on there from about 18yrs ago (none of which ever actually came to anything as each case it was proved he'd done nothing wrong - apart from suffering from epilepsy and having the misfortune to fall asleep in a friends parked car, the handbrake of which failed and rolled into the car parked in front of it)

Anyhow, this was all on the CRB that he had done 5 1/2yrs ago, and he's been working for them since (in care work). They've rung him today to tell he he's suspended from now until they've "investigate" his CRB.

Thankfully he's got a new job which he's starting in a few weeks time, they've already seen his old CRB (waiting for his new one for this job to arrive) and accepted him for the job without any problems.

But are his current company allowed to do that? Surely if there was something on your CRB that they weren't sure about it should have been looked at when he started?

I don't know for sure, but I would imagine that suspension with full pay is normal procedure for any concerns with Disclosure issues but it does seem strange that it has popped up now.

Suspension with full pay is as much to protect the employee as the employer, and if nothing comes of their investigation he is not required to disclose any of this to his new employer (at least that has been my experience here in Scotland).

Some jobs require updated Disclosure form yearly but most will update after 5 years so it might be that they have found it out-of-date and have to suspend whilst they await a valid one. Can he request details?

agree it is more likely to do with the length of time which has elapsed than any issue, especially if he is in a day to day contact role , requiring him to have an up to date one, so cannot do other work. Do they know he is leaving , if so maybe they don't want to pay for another one .

thanks - just spoken to him - he's had a new one every year - last was in December - and they don't know he's leaving yet.

I agree that full suspension with pay would be normal and proper if there is any concern about a CRB. But it is strange that it has come up now.

I think he needs to ask them what the issue is and find out why it's come up now. It's not a case of challenging the suspension as such, more about trying to find out what the problem is.

Is there a reason he's not told them he's leaving? It might help and prevent them having to worry about it, depending what the issue is.

he's not told them yet as they've already been messing him around with his working hours.

He's contracted to work 37hrs a week with an agency. As he's contracted any work that is available is supposed to be offered to him (and one other contracted employee) before it's offered to anyone else.

He's been sat around for the last 2 1/2 weeks waiting for them to ring him with work. Yet they DO have work there.

I don't think whether they've got work is the issue - there's obviously some issue with his CRB. I think he should ask what the problem is, offer to go in for a meeting to discuss it to see if he can help sort it out in any way, be proactive about addressing whatever the problem is.