Strange goings on at my Brother's company yesterday in South East London. He works at an insurance firm.
They've just been bought out.
One of his colleagues got called into the Directors office and she was told that they had been monitoring her for some time.
They alleged misuse of email without providing any evidence.
They gave her a choice of either resigning or being sacked.
Can they do this?
I would have thought ACAS guidelines would have stopped them doing anything like this.
I was always under the impression that you get a verbal warning, followed by written warning, followed by disciplinary hearing and then if found guilty then you are sacked, unless its gross misconduct, then you would be suspended upon further investigation.
My brother asked me for advice as I'm heavily involved with HR issues where I work but we have a code of practice manual to stick to with anything like this. Can any of you with HR knowledge give us any advice?
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1.) Find out the disciplinary prcedures (i think it as you say)
2.) Get the company to provide evidence (if she is sending confidential information or donkey porn to people it may amount to gross misconduct)
3.) Tell her to say "i'm not going anywhere", get them to sack her and then take them to court.
When I worked for rather large multi-national a number of people, including a high level manager, got the the bullet for sending porn via the companies e-mail system. They recieved no warnings just thier cards.
Suggest that she makes contact with a Solicitor practicing employment law ASAP!
One of my old managers always paid people off, he reasoned it was quicker and less hassle all round.
If i was not performing at work and spending all day on here then i'd say i'm in the wrong. I can't help it if i'm awesome. ;-)
Its all to do with misuse of company property, ie computers, she would or should have been asked to sign an employment contract, that would have been in there classed as gross misconduct, normally instant dismall, my partner is the same, works for a law firm, signed a contract to that affect, its not about a normal disciplinary procedure, gross misconduct is instant dismissal
I'm the same WSS. I'm probably on here too much but my work gets done correctly and efficiently and to the deadlines imposed on me so they have no room for complaint. Plus, I've been here 21 years so I think I'd know if I was taking the pee or not.
Once HR said one of my guys had said i racially abused him. I asked if he had put it into writing thay said yes. I asked to see it and in the letter it said "my boss called me a doughnut, i am not a doughnut!" . I asked had they read the letter ? they said not yet . Pointed out there was no racial content. They then read letter and after many red faces on their part. It was dropped like a very very hot spud.
I'm lucky in that respect, my job is customer facing and reactive, so if no one is in the office or on the phone pretty free to do anything within reason, of course when I do kick in to work mode I am awesome
Was it a chocolate doughnut or of eastern european persuasion?
http://www.charltonlife.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=4980&page=1#Item_16
For everyone's info...Any dismissal has to take the following three point step:
1. Employee receives written statement from employer outlining problem including evidence.
2. They have a meeting to discuss the issue, hearing both sides then a decision is made.
3. Appeal
Only exception is gross misconduct but this has to be proved with evidence.
However, given that they offered her the choice to resign indicates that they do not class this as gross misconduct.
Therefore, my HR director said let them sack her then she'll have an excellent case for unfair dismissal and a very large payout should she wish to take it to court.
For the disciplinary hearing she should havge been given notice and the opportunity to be accompanied by Union representative or a colleague as an observer.
Is there an e-mail policy, if not she can claim that she was unaware that the e-mails she was sending were contrary to company policy. Does she know what types of e-mails other people have been sending, if they are similar to her's then this reinforces her position.
They must show her evidence of her conduct.
It also sounds like they are bullying her.
I suspect that from what you have said and assuming that she has not contravened policy and committed gross mis conduct she has a case for constructive dismissal.
Whatever the situation is it sounds like she is in a situation where she needs to leave them, she could agree to resign but on her terms, say six months to a years severance pay and an agreed format for references, plus an agreement that references will only be given in writting, this needs to be formally written up and signed.
Basically, 'your' email account at wortk is not 'yours'. It is provided to you in order to facilitate your workplace duties - not for personal use. Now I have worked at various places with vastly differing Acceptable Use Policies, but almost all of them (providing they are written by someone with even a basic understanding of compliance procedures) have two things in common - the first being that you aren't supposed to use corporate IT systems for personal use (occasional personal use may be acceptable, but mosty AUPs are deliberately vague about this because they are designed to be used as a stick to beat employees with when needed) and the second being that your employer reserves the right to monitor all IT system usage, invluding (but not limited to) Internet usage, phone calls, blackberry usage and email.
In my experience, however, any company that fails to prove that it has explicitly informed its employees that they aren't to use corporate systems for personal use and that they are being monitored at all times when using work systems has very little chance of being able to successfully defend themselves at an Industrial Tribunal. That said, almost all employees nowadays are made to sign a form declaring that they have agreed to the Acceptable Use Policy - you can bet your arse if she has signed this form it will have been kept on file. If you PM me I can go into more detail about this - I've sat at tribunals on both sides of the fence so might be able to assist.