Suspended During Grievance

A question about : Suspended During Grievance

Hi, I am wondering if you smart cookies can offer me advice.

I have been employed by employer for 15 months. During this time my job role has expanded into 3 main areas and the demand tripled. I am struggling to do the administration i was originally hired to do for the comany, the marketing and the graphic design. I feel that the quality of my work has been suffering due to a lack of time and resources. I am the only assistant to 4 managers/directors and recently due to a blip by my boss in our new premises there is no broadband and poor infrastructure.

This was raised to my CD and she ignored it.

Last Thursday my child minder called and said the school informed her on collecting her that she was ill. I immediately informed my boss to which she asked me to take holiday. There is another manager at the company with young children who does not have to. This was the final straw that broke the camels back. This boss who told me to take holiday is the highest where i work. I have been told that I am not to talk to another boss about anything relating to the office. There is no grievance proceedure, discipline procedure, written terms of employment particulars or job specs.

The Friday i called another Director and said I wasnt going back and my reasons why. He said he had no idea and asked how i left it, i said i really didnt feel like going back.

Then i looked into my rights. I went to work on Monday and was told to go home and wait for a phone call and the trust was gone. Later phone call from other boss saying he has my verbal resignation and that he feels that this cannot be fixed, my job will go back to admin assistant there will be no more paid time off for children (to which i have had until now). My wage is classed as sufficient, there will be no other member of staff.

Rang Acas and they said to out a grievance letter in now with a settlement figure or i will take them to court on grounds of discrimination. They advised i go to work the next day and ask why i am being sent home. They could not give me reason. I was asked if i wanted to take my things and ushered out.

Manager comes to my door asking if we can have an in-formal/formal meeting to discuss. he says that they can have who they want and i can have who i want - i say no, i can have a trade union or colleague (to which there are none) and you cannot. he said ok, arranged a date - i asked for it in writting.

I have now had a letter for a grievance hearing - they list Breach of Contract, Duty of Care, Trust and Confidence but not list the Discrimination.

I have no colleagues to take and its too short notice for an official. I can request someone else but they do not have to accept.

I always got on like a house on fire with the manager who is holding the meeting, i feel awful that it has come to this. I dont know whether to speak to him prior off the record and get things clear - they are mortified with the thought of the law and havent a clue about procedure.

This is the first time i have found myself in a situation like this - any advice anyone?

Thank you

Kelly

Best answers:

• ah ok, yes i've mostly been going off acas - they said no legal representatives could be present?
  Does that mean i can take a legal?
  and i am guessing my thoughts of a chat with the manager are not advised lol.
• i have been onto my solicitor twice now, there are grounds if i resign and if i am sacked however i dont know whether trying to sort this out might be the best option? saying that they were trying to push me out up until i raised the grievance.
• You have a legal right to short periods of unpaid leave to deal with family emergencies. Generally this is taken to mean time to arrange childcare, not to do it yourself. Providing you get this minimum from the firm that is all that is required. The fact that they may treat another member of staff better is not unlawful..
  Claiming constructive dismissal (i.e you resign) is very difficult. Less than 3% of cases succeed.
  One other point, in law suspension is a neutral act so as long as they are paying you that is not wrong either I'm afraid.
• I'm confused - when you called the Director in Ireland, did you resign or didn't you? It sounds like you did, but now you seem to be saying you didn't?
  And the call back from the Director seems to be suggesting he offered you your old job back? So he accepts your resignation from the excessive job but offered you the basic admin job back? Is that what happened?
  And I'm not understanding the grievance either - what is your grievance? You say they listed breach of contract etc... is that your grievance or is that what they are accusing you of? If so, that's a disciplinary not a grievance!
  As for the technicalities, you are entitled to request a colleague or union rep accompanies you. You can ask for your mum or the attorney general but the employer does not have to allow it. Your employer can have whoever with them. If your union rep cannot attend, you must suggest an alternative date within 5 days of the date currently proposed when you can both attend.
  Maybe we can help further if we can straighten out what has actually happened...
• oh an acas also advised me to put in the grievance letter - please provide me with a written statement of particulars which is a legal right.
• sorry this is so messy.
  i felt like i was being pushed out. they were denying details and saying the trust was not repairable. saying my post would go back to original and nomore paid time off for children - acas advised me to put the offer in.
• I would try to get some written (or recorded) confirmation that they do not consider you to have resigned. Don't ask directly but carefully preserve any evidence that suggests you have not.
• Firstly, thanks to Uncertain and Pricivius for establishing the facts.
  I will tell you how it looks to me..
  You resigned without notice on Thursday, and on Friday you telephoned the Director and confirmed your resignation.
  There are certain restricted circumstances where an employee is allowed to withdraw the resignation - this is known as a 'heat of the moment resignation' where for example and employee has a disagreement with a manager, tells them to stick their job and flounces off. Then once s/he has calmed down, s/he goes back and apologises and says they didn't intend what they said to be taken as resigning. It would be a foolish employer who insisted on relying on a resignation in those circumstances.
  But that is not what happened, is it? You resigned plain and simple. If it had been left at that, you would lose a constructive dismissal case for certain? Why? Because the first hurdle is that you have to show that before resigning, you lodged a formal grievance and gave the employer the opportunity to consider the facts and put things right (if something needed putting right). Only if you have exhausted internal procedures without resolving the problem, do you have any chance of succeeding in a CD claim, and even then the prospects if success are slim.
  That is why the ACAS call centre operator told you to lodge a grievance. As Uncertain says, the concilliation officers know what they are doing, but the telephone answer service is staffed by people reading from a card - they hear CD, they will always advise you to lodge a grievance first.
  In a way, you are fortunate that the employer does not appear to know what they are doing. If they had any knowledge of employment law at all, they would have sent you home when you arrived for work on Monday, written to you accepting your resignation, and refused to hear a grievance as you are not an employee.
  Where you are up to now is not clear to me.
  They don't appear to want you there, but they have not formally accepted your resignation.
  Equally, it is not clear what the purpose of the proposed meeting is. It sounds more like they want to have a meeting with you to consider whether you should be allowed to withdraw your resignation and return to work, than a meeting to hear your grievance (going on the issues they wish to discuss with you).
  However, just the fact that they have suspended you on full pay (have they confirmed this in writing?) is evidence that they have accepted that you are still an employee of the company (otherwise they would have no right to suspend you, and you would have no right to be paid).
  I have to be honest, I don't think you have helped yourself in all this, but you are where you are.
  I suggest that the important thing now is to decide what you want to achieve from this meeting.
  In particularly, do you wish to continue working for this company?
  Dx
• thank you for the advice
• Ah, okay, first things first - that makes things clearer - and may make a difference.
  It seems that they have taken your grievance to be that they have summarised your compaints against them as
  Breach of Contract
  Breakdown of Trust and Confidence
  Duty of Care
  Do you agree that this is an accurate summary of your complaint?
  Dx
  After that we can look at your letter
• Is there any point in going into all this, if you don't want to carry on working for them anyway?
  If you are fighting for your job, that's one thing (even then there is no point in asking for things that you are not going to get)
  If you are not going to stay anyway, then you might as well let keep it short and to the point.
  There is a huge difference between trying to prove a point and coming across as a 'barrack room lawyer' no matter what the cost to yourself, and deciding what you want to achieve and sticking to it.
  It's your call
  Dx
• thats the thing.
  do i want to go back?
  do they want me back?
  is there any point in ruining a company just to prove a point? i think not.
  i am no legal, but they have took advantage so much i had to draw the line.
  the company director treats me like rubbish and will not recognise me for the position i have grown into. there are only 3 of us there, the other guy i have been told i am not allowed to talk to.
  suppose its just a case of establishing whether i want to stay and they want me to stay.
  should i try and have an informal / off the record chat prior to this meeting? just establish the outlook? obviously i am not there so i dont know how the ground lies now.
• zzzLazyDaisy is right. All the facts and thoughts buzzing around in your head (understandably) are irrelevant as you really do need to decide what you want. Only then can you determine what the next steps should be. You seem to have a need to understand their position beforehand. For reasons described by zzzLazyDaisy you can't approach them for a chat before your meeting. From what you have described this is where I think they stand if it helps.
  Do they want you back? No. They made their position clear all along and when things blew up decided they wanted to accept your verbal resignation. Because of your further conversation they are now backtracking and proceeding in their own communications more cautiously. This is not to help you, it is so that they can cover their backs should this go further. When they sent you home and told you to wait for a phone call it was to stall while they sought advice and their written response to your grievance letter suggests that they are receiving this.
  If you have to stay their preference will be for it to be in the admin assistant role with them doing as little as possible for you. They may learn that they have to meet certain obligations (reluctantly). They don't trust you and have said that as far as they are concerned the working relationship will be difficult. You are now a problem to them. From here on they are preparing for the meeting and will only do for you what they are advised they have to.
  I note that in your list you put 'room for further growth in the role' suggesting that you are ambitious. Following recent events they do not see you progressing with them now if you do stay. Perhaps this will help you to reach a decision and leave you free to pursue your ambitions in a business where you are more valued, supported, encouraged and happier. If you decide that your goal is to remain employed in the short term (while you consider your future options) a compromise for all may be that you explore the option of the admin position.
  If do decide you want to stay you would be wise to follow the advice from zzzlazyDaisy about how to conduct yourself in the meeting. Your aim would be to rescue the situation as best as possible by being assertive but non confrontational, choosing your arguments carefully, being willing to negotiate where appropriate and also helping them (through gritted teeth) to save face.
  I hope that you manage to reach a decision and manage an outcome that is right for you so that you can set about securing a position where you can enjoy working again.