Hi all, The company I work for is a well known retailer, which is in partnership with another well known retailer. I am paid and employed by one but my job is in based store of the other, Hope that makes sense. I recently requested and took 2 weeks holiday which I had changed from my original holiday request, I had the request authorised by my line manager. Now the rules are that when we take holidays we need to arrange our own cover for our store. As I am the only employee in my store we need to get cover from other stores, which I did do. When I the colleague from the other store if she was available to cover me on the dates in question she told it shouldn't be a problem (she was helping at my store when I asked her). I tried to call her the week before leave but I couldn't get through and I assumed she was still covering. On my return from holiday I had a visit from HR telling me they were investigating me and took me into the office. the investigation was for going on holiday without having cover for my store. The girl I had asked told them she had told me she couldn't do it as she was on holiday herself, this is untrue as she at no point told me she couldn't do it. Anyway the outcome of the investigation was decided there and then & i was told it was being took to a disciplinary level. Now as for my representation to the meeting, I had chosen someone from the store I work in as I do not have regular contact with colleagues from other stores, so I assumed the staff from my store were classed as my colleagues. I have been notified by my line manager that the colleague I have chosen cannot represent me as they are not from the same company. Were do I stand with this please, any help you can give me would be much appreciated. x M x

Hi all, I have a disiplinary hearing this week which i was notified about last week. My question is this: The hearing consists of my director, HR representative (takeing notes) and additional HR Mgr who is dialing into the meeting. My Mgr is now going to be abroad and has also said he will now dial in to the meeting. So it will be me and an HR representative taking notes with the HR Mgr and my Mgr dialed into the meeting. Is this reasonable?, there is alot of paperwork to go through and present and I had also planned to ahow a business presentation in relation to the hearing, which is for non performance. Is it reasonable for me to request that the meeting be re-scheduled so we can be in a face to face meeting ? Thanks

Good evening all, My fiance has been on suspension since the early part of May and had her meeting with her work about the event that lead to the suspension, over a month ago. She has not heard anything back from them whatsoever about the results of the meeting. We have not heard anything untowards a decision as to whether she will be sacked or allowed back to work. It's getting beyond ridiculous now and I'm getting really annoyed with the fact that they are not communicationg with us. Her contract is in work so she can't see whether or not they are allowed to kpep her off work with no communication for this amount of time. So my questions are: Can your work keep you on suspension for over 2 months without a decision on whether or not they will sack you or keep you on? Can you ask a member of staff to obtain your contract and bring it to you, so you can look at the disiplinary procedure? I'm pretty sure they can't keep her off work for this long without some form or decision. I would appreciate any replies to this, and thanks in advance for those who take the time to read it. James