Discliplinary meeting - help for friend

[sittinginthesun]

I can't say too much, but a friend has been suspended from a LA job, and has been given a date for a disciplinary meeting.

Friend has been told she cannot take advice or discuss this with any 3rd party. She has spoken to union who say she has strong case, but they can't help as she wasn't a member at the relevant date.

Any idea what she can do? Can she seek legal advice? What if she gets sacked? What happens regarding references etc if she just resigns?

I have no idea how public sector works in this regard. Thanks.

Your going to have to provide more details.

• What is she accused of and did she do it (the important bit!)
• Length of service
• is she in union

She can talk to 3rd parties, though I'd advise against talking to anyone at her work about this just (e.g. Friends) neutral parties.

Thanks.

I don't know the detail, but it is technical work stuff, relating to a specific file. It is pretty much accepted by her work colleagues that she did nothing wrong, but she has a running feud with a senior colleague, who is pretty much out to get her. This is the third "issue" he has raised. The other two were thrown out several months ago.

She has around 10 years service.

She is a union member now, but not at the time it happened, so they can't help.

She has been putting her head in the sand a bit, which hasn't helped, but she says the letter she has is scary - it says that she cannot talk to anyone, ad it would be a breach of contract. I think she should take legal advice, but she is scared to.

Not talking means people at work as they could be spoken to as witnesses/spoken to as part of tge investigation. She will be able to take someone into tge meeting with her though.

Wrt resigning if she resigns pending a disp tge tge reference is likely to state that.

If she's not done it then she shouldn't resign. She needs to deal with this bully and raise a grievance against them.

She can look at the directgov website or call acas for advice.

She can take a friend into the meeting with her. They can take notes etc (useful if she is really stressed!) and generally offer moral support.

If the meeting gets too stressful she can request a brief adjournment - much better to do this as calmly as possible rather than run out of the room in bits!

She can take legal advice - tell her to check her home insurance as that might cover her for some time with a solicitor? Or some solicitors will offer the first half hour consultation free.

Worth trying the cab or ACAS as previously suggested.

Acas are excellent.

She absolutely can take legal advice. That's her choice to make and if she ended up in a tribunal and it came out that her employer had tried to prevent her taking external advice that would definitely go against them.

She can bring a colleague to the hearing if she can't bring a union member and I would suggest she does that.

If she resigns in the middle of the process her employer can say that in a reference.

Thanks everyone. I have passed this info on. She is taking a senior work colleague with her, and is going to check out ACAS.

It sounds awful - she was overwhelmed with work, telling her bosses that she needed more support, whole team at risk of redundancy, and colleague fighting to take her job. A real eye opener to me - just wouldn't happen in private sector field where I work.

Above post - it does happen in the private sector and can be even worse as no unions and anyway everyone is fighting for their jobs at the moment

Good luck to your friend. She might also wish to put an informal complaint/grievance in against the other colleague.

It can be viewed by a tribunal as extremely prejudicial to your interests (puts you at a disadvantage) To prevent you from contacting people at work who would be relevant to presenting your case. There is case law on this.

ACAS are a concilliation service - if your employer is determined to be adversarial, then acas may not be able to help. I recommend going admin crazy - get all performance documents, notes of thanks, annual reviews etc in order and ready to access. If you get this right it will minimise the need for solicitors.

Best tip of all, if it gets serious, look at xpertHR (online HR service) under 'employment law - case reports' and use the keyword search to find relevant cases. Also 'employment law, tactics and precedents' is good -website gives tips on how to manage the tribunal stage.

Take a competent person with you - seek people who have experience in senior mgmt or HR if poss - or a solicitor. The notes taken by them will be essential in making her case.

If her case is simply stated, also start a paper (like a witness statement/statement of case) for submission to the disciplinary panel outlining what your defence is, or what you think should be considered by them in reviewing her performance.

check procedures before submitting a grievance - if they say that relevant grievances should be completed before disiplinary - take one out saying that you have been bullied or discriminated against and that the person who was instigating this has also raised this action against you so its relevant (ie. you are saying that if this person is proven to have been acting against you then the dismissal needs to be looked at in this light). Certainly mention ongoing hostility and failed 'thrown out' complaints as well as the reduction in staff and her wish to keep her work under control.