HELP, Suspended on Maternity Leave for bs reason

[TreeHuggerMum1]

I am an Office Manager and have been on ML for 8 months, one f my office girls / women has had a prob with sexual harassment while I have been out of the office and is in the process of grievances with my employer as it is not being handled properly. The boss has got quite nasty with her and told her she must have a union rep or a co-worker present or go alone, no other staff would go with her to these meetings and she knew nobody in a union so I agreed to be her witness.
She wrote to him to inform him I had agreed to be her witness and I have now received an email to say I have been suspended from work while they investigate a cash issue and I am not allowed to talk to my co-workers or go on company premises.
The girl in question has also received a letter sent recorded delivery to say she must attend a gross misconduct meeting on Monday morning and if she is found guilty of misconduct she will be sacked immediately. They are saying she paid 15.00 short on 2000 worth of goods. So again a really poor reason.
ARGH!!
Any ideas or tips, my head is in a muddle.

Solicitor if you can afford one, CAB if you can't (the latter are really good on employment issues)

Sounds like they are trying to deflect. She needs to push ahead with her issue and make more of a noise with it.

But what can I do in the mean time? Is it legal to suspend via email???

I will ask my friend tomorrow. She is an HR manager within a police force. Hopefully she may be able to tell me something more concrete.

bumping for you, I have seen flowery around though in the last few days

Constructive dismissal. And the sexual harrassment side is discrimination. Doing this to you whilst you are on maternity leave is madness. Emplohyment tribunals can award an unlimited sum for discrimination.

as someone said, lawyer or CAB. Union is also good if you have one - think you said you don't. check your house insurance, you may have legal included in it - go to the meeting prepared to defend yourself and also of your rights.

They sound like very shoddy, unprofessional employers

did the email have a read receipt? You can legitimately claim not to have read it if not

Paying £15 short on £2000 is not gross misconduct. Smashing a window, hitting a customer, internet porn is gross misconduct.

She needs advice and needs to continue to push. Bear in mind that she might be as well to settle though - who wants to work there after all that? And who wants to have to go through an ET - despite the fact she might win it is not a nice process. Get her thinking about what she would be willing to take to go. She can still take a discimination case afterwards so long as she doesn't sign a compromise agreement - the tribunal will of course take into account the fact she made an agreement - but could be explained away imo by the treatment.

Has she talked to your HR team? They might be able to bring things back into something sensible!

Don't claim something that is not true.

If you are being victimised for supporting someone who has made an allegation of sexual harassment will be an act of sex discrimination.

It sounds like she too is being victimised becuase of her complaint.

As suggested get a laywer. Do you have home contents insurance, if yes, then check to see if you have legal expense cover. If you have this find a discrimination specialist. It is best to choose your own solicitor rather than let your insurer select for you.

If you don't have this, contact a CAB, law centre or the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

This is a very complicated issue.

Firstly you should not receive detrimental treatment for acompanying anyone at a meeting. So I am at a loss as to why they have suspended you? Especially whilst on Maternity!

As for bringing her up for a disciplinary whilst in the middle of a grievance - well I hope they have good reason otherwise they have a case to answer at tribunal.

Can I suggest you call ACAS for yourself in the Morning and tell her to do the same.

here

They offer free advice to employers and employees, their job is to help settle employment issues before legal action becomes neccessary. Always my first port of call at work and are very helpful.

Try not to worry

I just wanted to add that constructive dismissal is only applicible if she walks due to unbearable circumstances. As she is going through grievance the triunal would want to know what caused her to walk out before de process was completed. Never a good route tbh as the compensation is poor compared to sitting it out and letting them unfairly dismiss and bringing a discrimination claim.

This is all assuming there is a valid discrimination or unfair claim to make.

Me again - this has got me cross with your employer

here is the ACAS guidance for disciplinary and grievance.

See pg 26 quote below:

It is unlawful to disadvantage workers for using their right to be accompanied or for being companions. This could lead to a claim to an employment tribunal.

Note the last sentance and take heart

It's important not to get overdramatic about this. Taking each issue at face value, yes your colleague's boss is perfectly right to say that she can only bring a colleague or union rep to her grievance, there's nothing wrong with that.

Suspension isn't disciplinary action. You have not been disciplined and it doesn't sound as though your suspension is pending any disciplinary action against you. Have you actually got any reason to think you've been suspended because you agreed to be this woman's supporting person? You say it's because of a 'cash issue' which presumably is (at least supposedly) unrelated to her grievance. What has this cash issue got to do with you, anything? Are they alleging that you had some part in it? In which case they'd be notifying you of possible disciplinary action against you. Just trying to establish whether it's reasonable to suspend you pending an investigation into it and disciplinary action against someone else.

If what they are alleging against your colleague might possibly amount to theft, it might well be gross misconduct. Could that be the case, could it potentially be theft? If they are bringing disciplinary action against her and have no evidence or anything, then obviously that's not on. Did she pay short? Has it just happened? Again trying to establish whether the fact that they've raised this discplinary issue right now is a reasonable thing for them to do.

Don't get me wrong, there may well be some discrimination involved here, or unfair treatment of you for wanting to accompany someone, but based on what you've said so far, it's by no means certain. I can't see anything that implies constructive dismissal would be a reasonable claim at all.

Your colleague needs to ensure she has all the information about what the allegations are against her and prepare a suitable defence accordingly. She should refuse to answer any claims made in the meeting itself that she wasn't previously made aware of on the basis that she was unable to prepare a suitable defence. She should ensure they follow a reasonable process and can appeal a decision afterwards. If she feels she has adequate reason to believe disciplinary action was completely unwarranted or unreasonable, and possibly related to the fact that she has raised a grievance for sexual harassment, that will of course be relevant.

You should continue to accompany your colleague should you wish to, to her grievance and disciplinary meetings. You should also write to your employer and request further information about your own suspension, including exact clarification about why it is necessary. Depending on the response, you can then decide whether you feel you have reason to believe it is to 'punish' you for accompanying someone and take action accordingly.

At face value this looks like discrimination and victimisation contrary to the Sex Discrimination Act.

contact Working Families, they have employment solicitors who advise, at no charge, on Sex Discrimination and who have particular expertise in pregnancy and maternity issues. This area of law is highly specialised and it really is worth speaking to an employment lawyer who specialises in this particular area of employment law.
0800 013 0313

On what basis do you say that eggandsoldiers? The OP is the one on maternity leave, and all we know is that she has been suspended, supposedly relating to a 'cash issue'.

Without knowing more about why her employer felt it necessary to suspend her I can't see that it's possible to say it sounds like she is being victimised or if she is, that it is remoted related to the fact she is on maternity leave. We don't have enough information and neither does the OP I would say, at the moment.

The OP's colleague might be being discriminated against, in terms of the harassment she may have suffered and the fact that it isn't being handled well. Similarly if her disciplinary relating to this cash issue isn't warranted and there is reason to believe it's because she has complained about harassment, that might also be discrimination, but not related to maternity leave or pregnancy.

At face value this looks like discrimination and victimisation contrary to the Sex Discrimination Act.

On the facts there is an appearance of discrimination, which of course may just be conicidental but it needs to be explored with a lawyer. Granted all of the events in ISOLATION could be explained. Woman 1 complains of sexual harrassment. Woman 2 on maternity leave agrees to accompany her to greivance meeting. Woman 1 is then (out of the blue) invited to a disciplinary for gross misconduct. Woman 2 is supended.

OP I do think you should speak to someone so that the issues can be explored. It is not easy to do this on a thread.

Still don't see how 'at face value' it's possible to conclude from the information we've got that there's any reason to believe the OP has been suspended because of her maternity leave, but there we go, we'll have to agree to disagree on that I guess. It does seem there's a possibility her suspension is related to her decision to accompany her colleague though.