Suspended from work!

[BeckiF]

Maybe W & R can help me here. I am a manager and went back to work today after Xmas break and was taken straight up to the conference room where a string of allegations were made against me and I have been suspended on full pay. The allegations range from the ridiculous (i.e we only play my choice of music in the office, when I'm in a bad mood the office suffers etc. etc.) to the serious (i.e I have touched this male member of staff on the back of the neck. We are a tactile office and there are others far more tactile than I).

I am devestated and in utter shock. I am not able to talk to anyone from work except my director, and yet this guy remains at work and could be saying goodness know what. I've been there 2 years and he has been there 6 months and has already been moved from one dept as he wasn't up to scrathc and I agreed to have him in my office! This is the thanks I get.

What is my position?

How can they have done things right so far when they didn't tell you in advance of the hearing, gave you no opportunity to defend yourself or prepare for the accusations and still have not published you with a list if the allegations????

I would stick with seeing an independant solicitor if I were you (and you can stand the cost). What is the situation re work at present? Have they given you a date for another hearing or any progress on the investigations they are supposed to be carrying out?

If possible I really wouldn't let the issue drift.....

Apparently you can be suspended withouh notice if you beng there can/could impede the inestigations, i.e. to protect the person making the allegations. They also reiterated that I shouldn't ake it personally as it is just the proper procedure ... how hard is that?! If I receive nothing in the post today I will e-mail my superior and ask for an update. The wait is killing me ...

I can understand them suspending you, so you don;t hinder the investigation but they have to tell you what the allegations are in writing and then keep you updated. At least set a date for reviewing it.........

How are you feeling in yourself now - any better now the dust has cleared a little? Are you still planning on going ahead with your ttc plans - hope so

agree with Runtus - they should still have given you some warning, and be detailing the complaint in writing.....I'd push for answers on this...

In law, they are not required to give details of the allegations in writing until they write and ask the employee to attend a diciplinary hearing. In this case, it may well be that following the investigation, there may not be a disciplinary hearing at all - although there should be a grievance hearing as an employee has raised a formal grievance (I assume he has put it in writing, but the employers do not have to give a copy to Becki).

Becki, I really hope they sort this out quickly so that you can get on with your life again - it must be awful just waiting.

It's the not knowing that's killing me. The more time that goes on the more that I realise that I am innocent, other than a bit of internet useage, but it's hardly a sackable offence. Every morning I dread the door bell ringing as I know that's the postie with a recorded delivery. Will let you all know as soon as I do. In the interim, I still can't even think abaout conceiving as I'm on the "keep your sanity" drogs from the quack ....

Oh BeckiF I am so sorry you are going through all of this, just not fair. Esp now it is affecting your plans for conceiving...it really shouldn't be allowed.

Wishing you all the best honey and I know it is impossible but try and think of this time as extra holiday - you have done nothing wrong and that will be proved in their investigations. In the meantime, relax and enjoy the thought that while you are at home with your feet up - the sad individual who started all this is stuck at work defending untrue allegations.

Thinking of you

BeckiF, check again re choice of solicitor if you use your legal expenses cover in your household insurance. I know that they normally say it must be a solicitor of their choosing, but they are often open to other options. If you have a firm that you want to instruct, get your solicitor to write to them asking for authorisation to act.

Also, check the wording of your policy. They may not actually be right in imposing their own choice on you - normally means they have a "deal" with certain solicitors in a bid to keep costs down. But this interferes with your right to choose your own legal representation.

It's worth checking again.

Well, tonight I found a hand delivered envelope in the hall (about 9.30pm) which was from work giving all the details of the allegations and telling me to attend a meeting on Monday morning! I e-mailed back and said that I couldn't possibly attend at such short notice and would let them know what times my representative was available. Does anone know of a trade union rep in the Merseyside area?! Am absolutley terrified that I will lose my job and was shocked that my so thought girlfriend colleagues have actually agreed with some of the allegations! The guy in question even had the audacity to state that I offered myself to him at a party and he turned me down! And this is a party where I was there with my fiance!

Don't know of any reps in the area but bump!

What union do you belong to? Could you contact their HQ and ask if there are any reps in your area?

Sounds horrible. Even if you are totally cleared (which I'm sure you will be) how awful will it be to go back and work with these people??

Beckif, have you sat down and written down your side of the allegations? You MUST do this (for your own benefit and eventually, your lawyer) so that you don't forget any important small details (so easy to do when stressed!). Obviously I haven't seen the list of allegations, but they sound more like a lot of minor allegations put together to make a long list. Did you get a copy of your contract or employment terms? Check for stuff like guidelines on internet usage and also make sure if they do a report on how much you were using the internet that they also produce a report on other people in your office for comparison purposes - ask your lawyer about that (if you believe it was a widespread thing). As for the touching thing, it sounds like you have witnesses for the party but is there anyone in the office you can think of who would stand up for you in that environment?

Anyway, I'm sure your lawyer will point you in the right direction. Poor you, it really sounds too awful for words.

This all sounds absolutely grim. In your shoes I'd go for the biggest payoff you can get, a deal whereby they have to give you a glowing reference and agree not to badmouth you to any future employer (or anyone at all in fact) and you walk away from these scum.

BeckiF, does the letter mention that the allegations, either individually, or together could constitute gross misconduct or that a possible outcome of the disciplinary hearing is dismissal without notice? sorry to be so matter-of-fact about it but am trying to work out how seriously the company is treating the matter. Also, what sort of meeting are you being asked to go to - disciplinary or grievance hearing, or just a meeting to find out more about the allegations? If it is a disciplinary or grievance hearing, you are entitled to be accompanied by a colleague or trade union rep, so if you are not in a union, it may be worth joining one. Amicus is a union that represents office workers and you may want to look at the TUC for other unions.

So sorry you are going through this and as foxinsocks says, you must write down your response to each and every allegation - it will help at the hearing/meeting with your employers and also, if you decide to join a union, it will help to have written response that you and they can refer to. Good luck.

Hi Sis - the letter states that it is a formal disciplinary hearing and later in the letter it says that "You are advised that if the allegations are found to be proven, it will be considered gross misconduct under the company disciplinary rules and your employment may be summarily terminated." How serious does this sound? I noted that the list of allegations that will be considered at the hearing number 5 whereas the chap involved made aound 13 allegations initially. Further to that our contract states that whilst under probation the disciplinary/grievance procedure does ot take effect, and that they employee will be informed in writing that they have concluded their probation. This chap is on is 2nd 3 month probation, and I have had no notification that he has passed his probation .... all fishy. Also the witness statments in parts are all but the same wording. Further concerns are that the allegations were made on the 22nd Decebmber, I was suspended on the 4th January and the witness statements where made on the 10th January. All the people involved socialise and work together and one of the girls in particular is engaged to the MDs son and would of spent time with the MD over the Christmas break. I feel they have had plenty of time to get their heads together.

And I am rining Amicus on Monday.

bump

Dear BeckiF

You have my sympathy. I'm not an HR manager or a union rep but a manager with some limited experience of disciplinaries. It is important that you are able to represent yourself properly at a disciplinary and IMO you are being given far too little time to prepare for it which is unfair. I work in the public sector and we would normally expect a member of staff in a similar position to attend a disciplinary with an experienced union rep or occasionally a solicitor. I would suggest that you either contact your solicitor or Amicus at 9.00am tomorrow morning for advice. They may well be willing to ring your employers on your behalf to postpone the meeting until a later date when you will have had the opportunity to consider the allegations, prepare a response and arrange for someone to come with you. If they won't then you could call in sick. I'm reluctant to suggest this but if your employers are behaving unfairly then it might give you breathing space to organise formal support for the meeting at a later date.

BeckiF - it is a shame that you employers were doing everything by the book apart from giving you adequate notice of the hearing. It takes them a couple of weeks to investigate the allegations and hold a hearing and you are supposed to be prepared in less than one weekend! I think the company is taking things seriously and there are two main possible reasons (okay three, if you count the likelihood of them approaching the whole thing with an open mind!).

They either think it is a serious matter and following the proper procedures or, they think there is little substance to the allegations and are going through the proper procedures so that he cannot have a successful sex discrimination claim against them (for not taking his complaints seriously.

It is hard to give advice on the hearing without knowing what the allegations are but, again, please make sure you are well prepared and have you side of events properly set out - do not assume that they know anything - spell everything out. For example, if one of the complaints is that you touched the man on his neck - if you accept that this happened, then say why it happened and emphasise that you would have done the same with a female employee - therefore it is not discrimination on grounds of his sex. If you do not accept that it happened or cannot remember, ask for copies of staements from other staff who witnessed it and ask for them to give evidence at the hearing so that you have the opportunity to ask them about the circumstances surrounding the incedent. If your employer refuses to ask the employees in question to attend the hearing, say that you protest against their decision and that you want it noted in the notes/minutes of the hearing.

All the best.

Hi Sis - ohhhhhh how I wish we could talk on the phone!!! I have copies of the witness statements and one person says that they have seen me touch him (we are talking about on the back) and another person says they have seen me playfully touch him on the back but also seen me touch a female member of staff too. I am being investigated for going against the companies nternet policy, i.e. using it too much, this thing about touching this chap, running the office in an inapproproiate manner (what the hell does that mean!), for using my mobile and for disobeying an instruction regarding using the internet.

What do you think? The initial list of allegations from the chap was 13 items long, and the list I am being investigated for is only 5.

Becki, sorry no time to read the whole thread but have you ever signed a copy of your company's internet policy/anything to say you will abide by it? Have you seen it?

Sorry if this has already been said.

BeckiF, this sounds so stressful and smacks of a set up to me (they all will have met over Christmas etc, Md's son, all a bit suspect. Can't add much to the advice already other than don't go to the meeting without a solicitor or a union rep and don't agree to anything there and then. Make sure you make notes too. Poor you, this sounds horrible.

There is a company internet policy but I can't remember signing it, but them I'm not saying I haven't. However, I have already said that I am aware of the policy, so I guess I've shot myself in the foot.

BeckiF, I doubt they'll make that the main reason, usually when a co invokes the internet policy thing it's because someone's been accessing dodgy porn sites, not spending the odd hour online browsing etc. So what if you signed it?

They say that the audit shows (and I know that they have a program that logs everyones usage) that I have spent an average of 3 hours a day on the internet. Well, if you take away my half hour lunch break, that's 2.5 hours. I want to know what web pages I was looking at because we have a webpage, I look at customers webpages, competitors and other work related sites. I'm not saying though that I haven't looked at non work related sites.

Becki, as well as a union rep/solicitor, you might take a friend along for moral support. I supported a friend during her hearing, and although I wasn't able to say anything, I did take very extensive notes, which she found very useful later.

Good luck with the union/solicitor.

Tanzie