i maybe suspended from work

[dj1971]

Dee,

 

I understand completely how you feel about taking your employer to an ET, having been in exactly the same position myself a few months ago. It is a big undertaking and no small task therefore it must be something you are 100% committed to.

 

For me personally, I decided I could not let my ex employer get away with how they had treated me. It would have caused me even more grief, stress and anxiety to not take action.

 

But this is your situation and therefore you must do whatever feels right for you and if you decide not to go down the ET route I know everyone here will respect your decision and support you in whatever route you do take. For example you mention moving to another department, is that something you have suggested to your employer?

 

Another alternative might be to try and reach a compromise agreement with your employer.

 

My point is you do have options and your decision on what action you take if any must be the one that feels right for you.

 

Regards

DJ

[dee6921]

my manager phoned me and told me once i returned from sick leave i may get suspended for going to the shop on my dinner hour , all other issues are being swept under the carpet and because i didnt tell management at the time of cruel comments ,, that the comments made, maybe perceived that i find them acceptable ! i think i will appeal this with work as why would i find comments of that nature acceptable .

thanks dj and emmzzi

[dj1971]

Well done Dee,

 

In my humble opinion you have made the right decision.

 

It is ridiculous that any reasonable person would find such comments acceptable and well they know it.

 

DJ

[altobelli]

Yes, include that in the appeal. The comments made against you were far beyond what any reasonable person would find acceptable, also they deliberately intended to injure you with the comments and could not have believed that you would find the comments acceptable when they made them.

 

Was the phone call from your manager today, separate from the grievance?

[dee6921]

yes ,he was asking when am i coming back to work as we need to adress the issue of me going out on my dinner and possible suspension .

[altobelli]

Go back to him via email, copying in his manager, and ask whether the potential suspension is connected with your raising a grievance. Explain that you were away from the office in order to take medication. Ask that he communicate in writing with you going forward and that his manager be copied in on all correspondence.

[dee6921]

basically he said that the people whom i have raised a greivance against have now said this to him and he must investigate it , i see it as a blatant retalliation for me raising the greivance , as my employer is well aware that at times i need to have maybe ten mins to pop to chemist for a prescription for my son or my mum ,so he is just listening to the people who i have the problem with . thanks altobelli

[altobelli]

It shouldn't require a formal investigation, common sense would be that if there is a problem he speaks to you informally at first. If he was aware that you occasionally took slightly longer for lunch to get prescriptions he can hardly launch an investigation into it. Suspension for something like this is ludicrous - keeping you away from work for a period of time for the sake of 10 minutes here and there which he implicitly agreed to makes no commercial sense. I think the logical conclusion here is victimisation following your grievance.

[dee6921]

altobelli ..thanks for this , the people who i work with have obviously filled my managers head full of nonsense , they had no idea i was sat in my car most dinner times , as i mentioned earlier in this thread i had to take painkillers which sometimes made me feel quite sick and didnt want to do this in front of an office full of people who have no idea why i had to take these , i did mention to him once about the car accident i was involved in but didnt elaberate further as it didnt affect my work in anyway , i was never late from my dinner hour and the company i work for was aware of my son and the previous difficulties we have had , i must add that this manager is not in our office , he maybe visits once a week . thanks everyone for advice im really struggling with this and your advice has helped me tremendously ..

[Pusillanimous]

yes ,he was asking when am i coming back to work as we need to adress the issue of me going out on my dinner and possible suspension .

 

Dee6922 Put it in writing in an email as soon as possible to your manager, cc his boss, on the lines of "Thank you for your telephone call of DATE and TIME in which you said I would be suspended as soon as I am back from sick leave because of XYZ".

 

An e-mail date-stamps it as hard evidence.

[Emmzzi]

"possibley suspended." you do need to actually keep it factual!

[dee6921]

sorry emmzzi im just trying to make sense of it myself .. he said ,when you return to work i need to investigate you leaving the office and i may have to suspend you !

[dee6921]

hi ive just managed to type this up but thought id get some advice from you guys first ..

 

 

 

To whom it may concern

 

i wish to appeal the decision of my grievance dated 7th aug 2012 . investigating manager xxxxxxxx

 

there are many points i do not agree with ,the decision not to uphold my grievance i believe places blame solely on myself for these things to have happened .

1. it is ridiculous that any reasonable person would find such comments acceptable with regards to any disability never mind comments aimed directly at me or in association with my disabled son .

 

2.the salary subsidy . please could you explain in detail how this was paid to me in my wages ? as it clearly shows on my wage slips, ss subsidy £100 , then directly below -£100.

so it looks like i have been given it and then its taken away , i have not had this subsidy and would like an adequate response.

 

3.with regards to the member of staff that asked me to stop being mard and do i need my "leg amputating" in my eyes is not a thoughtless comment but was intended to hurt me , throughout all the offices i have worked in everbody knows what happened to my son, and he is well thought of by many ,he was in the local newspapers and on the tv , bear in mind this was the same member of staff who began the jokes about the customer who came into the office who was an amputee and upon leaving i was asked by her " do you like armless people " whilst laughing hysterically.

 

4.holliday entitlement . please can you look at the office diary , this will show that i was given " what was left of the year " after the others had taken theirs , at no time was it discussed with me or anyone else i had to make do with what i was given .

 

5.with regards to problems of bullying and harassment , everything what xxxxx and other members of xxx staff has told mr xxxl are complete nonsense (who would admit to bullying)

they are all in contact with each other and have had plenty of time to get there stories straight, these people made my life a misery and have made me ill .

 

6..with regards to the female member of staff calling me at home and calling me an" evil racist "i have dates times etc and awaiting an itemised bill from bt.

 

7. my 13 year old neice has come under attatck from a member of xxx staff on her facebook wall , my niece asked me" what do i like to keep as treasure " this member of staff replied "pubic trimmings from his girlfreind back in 95 " this is totally unacceptable behaviour towards my 13 yr old niece . and my sister is considering reporting this to the police .

 

any advice or corrections are welcome ,thanks dee...

[dj1971]

Hi Dee,

 

Well done on taking this step, as I have said before these people need to be given a short sharp lesson in what is and is not acceptable in the real world.

 

Personally, I like your letter. However being picky I would suggest a couple of adjustments as follows:

 

Was the 7th of Aug the date you submitted your grievance? If so I would but the date you received the outcome of your grievance rather than the date you submitted it.

 

1) Replace "it is ridiculous" with "I do not accept that any reasonable person.........."

 

2) "I have not had this subsidy and would like an adequate Explanation of how you have concluded I did receive it" rather than adequate.

 

3) Personally I would leave out from "throughout all the offices I have worked in." as it isn't really relevant.

 

4) I think you need to clarify what you mean by "I was given what was left of the year" is not very clear to me personally.

 

5) I would just say something like "I deny the allegations made by colleagues about ............... evidently this is retaliation for ........."

 

6) State how serious this is and in what way it affected you. If it happened more than 1 or 2 times you could consider reporting this to BT and they put a monitor on your phone calls.

 

7) I think you need to clarify exactly what you are saying here, is not very clear.

 

Like I said, is a few minor adjustments and me being picky. In my opinion you need to let them know you are taking this very seriously and personally I would consider adding something at the end about if they fail to take appropriate action you may be forced to consider other options. But some of the more expereinced legal caggers can advice on how far to go with this.

 

Well done

DJ

[dee6921]

thanks dj

im still not with it through these pills but am trying ...

 

on 3. .. there were 4 of us , and because we cant take hollidays at the same time ,the others sorted there hollidays before i got a chance , so i was left with what was left , i have had 1 week off all year .

[dee6921]

sorry that was point 4 and not 3

[dee6921]

point 7 , happened over the weekend and this comment was posted to me from my niece (harmless fun with her uncle) then this member of staff replied with the pubic trimmings comment , i thought that was quite underhand with her being 13 , i am of the thinking they are trying to rile me anyway they can !

[dj1971]

Certainly looks like it Dee.

 

Important ting is you keep and note of everything and all the evidence you can get.

 

On suggesting clarification I meant be more clear in your letter. Do not give any room for misinterpretations or any room for them to riggle out of addressing your specific issues.

 

Just remembered, did you not say earlier that your manager knew about popping outside for 10 minutes to collect prescriptions during your lunch break, if so I would add this in as well that you already had permission to be off the premises.

 

DJ

[dee6921]

thanks for this dj ....sometimes my manager was busy so just told supervisor where i was going ,but most dinner times just sat in my car so i could take meds in private ,

[dj1971]

Dee,

 

I will leave other more qualified to comment on the legal points of your case.

 

On a personal level, I am so pleased for you that you have decided to stand up to these bullies. They can try all the dirty tricks they want, you have truth on your side and what they have put you through is despicable and they know it. So let them continue digging a hole for themselves, you stick with the truth.

 

DJ

[dee6921]

thanks dj

ive felt bloody awful the last few weeks but the advice and kind words have made me realise there are some decent people out there , it really does mean a lot as ive struggled with it all ,

cheers and will update how things turn out ,i,ll get this appeal in the post tomorrow

[dee6921]

hi guys

just a quick update ,i submitted my appeal last week and this morning i receive a phone call from my manager ,asked how i was and asked did i want to leave my grievance until i return to work and he would like to make a home visit.

It was also suggested i see an occupational therapist , i told him i will be back in work within weeks as i feel a lot better and i also said i have no problem with seeing an ot .

I am a little sceptical to this request though i must admit , yet all i could say to this ot is simply i do and did not have a problem with or doing my job ,just that over the last few i was ground down by these people and there behaviour towards me was totally unacceptable.

I am thinking the end of october i will return to work (most probably in another office) and then deal with the appeal when i return.

[dj1971]

Dee,

 

Well done for getting the appeal submitted.

 

There is nothing unusual about your manager requesting that you see an OT, particularly as you have had a period of time off work. I imagine they will want a qualified opinion on when you will be medically fit to return to work and possibly whether there are any reasonable adjustments your employer can make to (i) speed up the process of your return (ii) make it easier for you to return to work.

 

If you think it is feasible then I would be pushing for a transfer to another office so you do not have to put up with those ignorant colleagues of yours everyday. In fact this would in my humble opinion be an excellent reasonable adjustment which the OT may be able and willing to help you with.

 

Always easy to say and hard to do "try not to worry" but of course the most natural thing in the world is to worry when we do not know the outcome of something. So try to think of it another way, this is an opportunity to put some weight behind a request you could make to be transferred to another office. The OT is definitely someone who could help you with this.

 

I genuinely don't think there is anything more synister than an obligation on the part of your employer here.

 

Keep your chin up & stay strong.

 

Best Wishes

 

DJ

[dee6921]

thanks for this dj

that,s what i thought to , but you hear all sorts of spook stories about ot,s and they work with your manager and hr to "manage you out of work " so to speak .

like ive said i do like my job and met some great people so moving office would,not be a problem and seems the best way forward.

but that said ive only disclosed to my manager last year verbally about the car accident a few years back , then on appeal ive explained it as a reason to be in my car on my dinner hour to take medication (preventive migraine pills) i thought they were trying to dig deeper about my medical history which i wish to keep private , maybe im being paranoid , in any case it did not stop me from doing my job .

either way im going back to work in a couple of weeks (no mention of suspension either) and going to try and start a fresh ..will keep updating as and when.

thanks

dee

[dee6921]

quick update

i went back to work on the 29th oct, only to be suspended (on full pay) for me going out on my dinner hour ? my boss told me that it could amount to gross misconduct as he has been told this was on a regular basis(and i could be dismissed immediately) , by the same people i lodged a grievance against .

i actually told my manager on monday i might withdraw my appeal on the grievance as i didnt want to come back to work with stress still hanging over me but now i really dont know what to do .

the occ health suggested i move to a different office to which i have no objection .

my investigation is this tuesday 6th .