Please Help me to refuse a formal letter!!

[Neighbourhoodwatchbitch]

Hello All.
I'll try to be as brief as possible without omitting the facts.
back in august there was an incident at work, and i was reduced to tears by another member of my team. I spoke to my manager to say that i didnt feel i could work the rest of my shift due to this incident and went home very upset.
moving forwards, my rota was changed so that i didnt work the one day during the week that this other lady worked. towards the end of august, my line manager pulled me to one side and said that he would like to attempt mediation. I said i would think about it.
Fast forward to today. 2 line managers showed up at the place i was doing a shift shortly after my start time (Im working about 20 miles away from the normal office)

They handed me a letter, which said:
"Dear X,
We met some weeks back and you alleged that you felt you were being bullied when at work. from our discussion it would appear that communication between you and the other memeber of staff has broken down "
then went on to cite the company bullying policy etc.

but at no point did i alledge bullying. the words never crossed my lips as I feel that an accusation of bullying is a big statement to make. and i was careful at all times not to say this.
Im unhappy that A) - im feeling like im being pushed into mediation when i dont want to be, and B, Ive been handed an official letter stating that I have made an allergation that I havent made. I do not want this to be put on my file.
I know i need to send some kind of an email, as I feel that I can't have that on my file, when I never sent it, but I dont know where to start.
if anyone could help me it would be much appricated.

Well you may not have used the word bullying but if you said you were upset to the extent that you need to go home and can't work with this person, I think they are right to consider that this is, or might be, bullying and take it seriously.

If you really don't want mediation, make that clear to your line manager, then write back to the person the letter is from saying that you do not feel you have been bullied and do not need mediation.

Thanks Flowery :-)

Am I within my rights to refuse mediation?

I maybe wrong to think this, but as a boss if you said 'I wasn't bullied and I don't need mediation I would consider that maybe I didn't need to be quite as careful with the rota in future'.

Check the company policy of bullying both for how they define it and whether they have outlined how they deal with it.

If you refuse mediation, there are two potential options:
The management of the teams has to be changed to enable you to work separately ( personally I would avoid setting this as a precedent if I were managing a team as it will escalate to rotas being impossible due to taking account of everyone's stated need to avoid working with X and x wants to avoid working with P)
The rotas are managed without taking your needs in to account ( so you either leave or feel unhappy and potentially are in a more vulnerable position to the point where it does meet your definition

Tbh as a manager I would be following these steps too. It isn't good for anybody for you to simply avoid this person. What if you have an incident with somebody else? Mediation is appropriate. If you really don't want it then I would accept that but I would be clear that if the business needs require you to work alongside this person then I would rota you alongisde them without consultation.
OP - wouldn't it be better to reply accepting mediation but saying that you did not define what happened as bullying.

Well you could refuse mediation but I wouldn't advise it for the reasons the previous posters mentioned.

Whether you define it as bullying or not is a bit irrelevant really. That's just a label. The fact is that you were upset by this woman and at the moment, feel you can't work with her. That sounds worthy of mediation to me.

If its a formal letter, you can write to them re any inconsistencies.

Why do you not want mediation?
It may not be possible to separate you indefinitely.