Informal Meeting with HR

[EnglandKeepMyBones]

I posted a few weeks ago about my husbands work issues. He had been pulled into a meeting to discuss performance issues (we assume they were planning on firing him in the meeting) but he raised his disability (dyspraxia, which they had been made aware of at the start of employment. OH at the start had suggested reasonable adjustments but the company didn't put them in place. Anxiety and depression over the last few months has made his coping mechanisms for dyspraxia disappear, which is why it was an issue now and not when he started).

They suspended him with full pay pending a new OH report for which the appointment took two weeks. OH agreed that the performance issues were linked to his disability and that the EA applied. They've had the report back nearly a month and we have heard precisely nothing from them, until today where the HR person has emailed DH asking him to meet her and his line managers manager at a neutral place tomorrow morning to discuss how to move forward. She has specifically said the meeting is informal and will not be to do with any disciplinary or capability, and that he doesn't need to be accompanied.

What could this meeting be for? Everything we have thrown around makes no sense as most things should go through formal procedures. The only thing we can think of is a potential settlement offer but we weren't really expecting one (he had been advised by acas to put in a formal grievance but hadn't got around to doing it yet).

He has only been there a year so no employment rights except the protected characteristic.

Have the OH suggested reasonable adjustments been put in place since the new OH report?

He is still suspended, we have had no communication at all about the OH report - we only know it was received and what it said because DH received a copy in advance. So no idea at all about their thoughts on the reasonable adjustments or whether they can implement them.

I'd say no such thing as an informal meeting with HR. Put that formal complaint in, reschedule the meeting and take ACAS

In my previous workplace (where I worked in HR) an informal meeting was the first step before performance management and you had to have that meeting in order to then start performance management. Equally an informal meeting did also often resolve issues. Sorry it's probably not much help.

HR know you have had the report so based on the fact there are adjustment recommendations from OH, the meeting can be likely to be to discuss those. Please ignore the above I'd say no such thing as an informal meeting with HR, this is typical 'dispise HR' mentality and informal meetings do exist with HR for goodness sake, same as with meeting with any other member of staff. Don't forget that HR are also employees themselves. Your husband is best to go to the meeting, see what they say, note everything down and go from there.

A settlement offer, as you suggest above, could also be a possibility, but as much as one as anything else. If you don't go to the meeting you won't know what is going on and this puts you at a disadvantage. By not going, any grievance you submit may be hindered as they can state they attempted to meet with your husband but he declined.

Is/was he actually doing the job he was paid for? Were there performance issues? If so are they definitely all related to his "disability"?

If he wasn't doing the required work and it isn't related then I'd imagine they'll be giving him notice. If not then I guess they are reinstating him.

Has he requested a copy of the OH report? He should've been asked at the time of the meeting if he wanted to see it.
He can then see what adjustments were recommended.

The informal meeting and lack of adaptions thus far is very wrong.

It is worth getting your DP to call Access to Work as they will assess his workplace support needs and can insist on employer making any changes.

Xx

www.gov.uk/access-to-work/overview

It does need a call from your DP

She has specifically said the meeting is informal and will not be to do with any disciplinary or capability, and that he doesn't need to be accompanied

It isn't up to her to arbitrarily remove his right to be accompanied. He should accept the meeting, and say he wishes to exercise his right to be accompanied. It's good to have someone there for moral support, take notes oes etc.

They may need to reschedule the actual date so he can find a colleague or Union Rep to join him

BeepBeep Some of the accusations in the complaint from his line manager were (provably) false. There were however some performance issues, all of which are related to his disability, none of which would have been an issue had they have implemented the reasonable adjustments put forward by OH at the start of his employment. It appears that they just ignored the report as when he mentioned his dyspraxia during the meeting nobody knew what he was talking about and they had to search for the original report (he had emails relating to it too).

He is going to today's meeting. He asked to be accompanied to any disciplinary meetings but the person who he ideally wanted isn't available to accompany him to any and he isn't a member of any trade union. There are very limited options of colleagues available because everyone does stints away, and we are desperate to just have it all over and done with either way. Loosing his job at this point would be better for his mental health than this dragging on much longer.

My empathy to your DP. Be prepared for them to conveniently ignore fact and kick it into the long grass. Please encourage him to keep notes of the discuss and agreements made. If he can send them an email with the meeting outcomes it places it on record.

If he feels unfairly treated it would be worth contacting ACAS for their advice.

"It isn't up to her to arbitrarily remove his right to be accompanied. He should accept the meeting, and say he wishes to exercise his right to be accompanied"

Unless it is a formal hearing he doesn't have a right to be accompanied. That's not to say he shouldn't ask, for support, but there's not a right.

Is there any reason not to take this at face value as being an informal meeting to discuss ways forward? Sometimes, just sometimes, HR can have meetings with people and discuss situations in a constructive way without needing a formal hearing.

Thanks all. I've just spoken to DH. It was a settlement offer. A much larger settlement offer than we had even contemplated. I haven't quite processed it yet.

I'd hazard a guess that they want him to leave, they don't want to make reasonable adjustments, they just want him to leave. An informal chat would involve talking "terms" on which he would leave quietly. Eg a payoff and a decent reference?

Doh sorry op, just realised I missed your last post!!
It's not that unusual tbh to quietly "persuade" somebody to leave and it often works because nobody wants to be in a work environment where they know that the boss is just waiting for them to fail. You have a big decision ahead, good luck!

I'm very pleased for you, England I hope they honour their commitment so that you and your DP can move forward positively. I'm sure they realised their transgressions even though they wouldn't admit it openly hence covered it financially.

All the best.

I wouldn't expect a "decent" reference. Unlikely they will want to do anything more than factual dates of employment, but that's very common nowadays. Even if they only give a factual reference that will be a good result.

I stand corrected re: right to be accompanied, flowery but I don't see any harm in being cautious about the motives of HR.

Gone are the days of HR being "Personnel" and a safe haven for staff to have a friendly ear. My trust of HR has been tested far too many times to think otherwise

"Gone are the days of HR being "Personnel" and a safe haven for staff to have a friendly ear"

Absolutely. But there's a whole world in between friendly ear and formal hearing, and if they say it isn't a formal hearing there's no reason to disbelieve them.

I know it varies according to industry, but settlement agreements often include a good reference as part of the deal. Mine did; I have a good reference on record at my old employers, which will be pulled out any time anyone contacts them to ask for a reference for me. It's made up of nice things my boss said about me at all my appraisals.

They have agreed a good reference too, without even being asked. It appears that during the investigation they realised just how much was false in the initial statement, which is shit as DH is now convinced that he is utterly crap at his job.