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Potential Gross Misconduct

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  • Potential Gross Misconduct

    Hi all,

    Looking for a bit of advice in regards to an upcoming investigation meeting i have that looks as if my actions will be classed as GM unfortunately.

    The incident occurred 6 months ago and there has now been an anonymous complaint received. I am a manager in my work so maybe someone hasn't taken too kindly to me recently - anyway...i never denied the allegations as i am too honest!

    Christmas lunch and one of my team members was heavily intoxicated and i had to get them home as they were barely able to walk and couldn't put two words together. I don't even think they knew where they were. As i attempted to get them home they collapsed and passed out on an elevator, attempted to fight a random woman and couldn't tell me where they lived. They were in such a state that they couldn't even take in what i was asking them. Their wife phoned them, who was 6 months pregnant at the time and he started to curse at her. Decided i would need to take the staff member home. I checked their drivers license and they hadn't updated their address ( i knew they moved house recently), i couldn't get access to his phone nor he was able to tell me his pin code due to his intoxication. I made the decision that i would probably to take him to hospital due to his condition, potential alcohol poisoning but had no way to get his emergency contact details. I made the regretful decision on the phone to my partner to ask her to log in to my work computer to obtain these details - which is probably going to be classed as unauthorised access. I had never been in a situation like this before nor seen someone in this bad a condition. I have 15 years with my employer, clean record, no other issues. Obviously i am very worried about the consequences of this which could be dismissal.

    Has anyone had anything similar happen to them or have any advice they can pass on? Case law examples etc? im trying to work on my mitigation. I also suffer from anxiety which can have a bearing on my decision making.

    I know i have done wrong but i was landed in the situation where i had the fate of another employee in my hands and a duty of care for my staff member.

    Any help would be appreciated.

    Thanks
    Tags: None

  • #2
    Sorry to here about your situation. So, the reason that this is now being investigated 6 months after the event is that someone has become aware of the situation and made a complaint.

    Has the meeting you have been asked to attend been described as investigatory or has it been determined as a disciplinary meeting? If the former, then currently they have not decided whether any disciplinary action is to be taken and they are trying to establish the full facts of the situation before making any decision. In which case my advice is that you need to be as honest as possible about the events that evening regarding this situation.

    I presume that other work colleagues witnessed the extremely intoxicated state of the individual and can confirm that was the case? I would have their names available for the meeting since, if it is investigatory in nature and the company has not already done so they should speak to a few people to confirm how intoxicated this person was and in no fit state to get home on their own safely.

    Did you report the incident to anyone at work i.e. HR or a senior manager and your course of action with your partner accessing the company’s computer system? If so again you should provide the name of that individual. If not may be consider the reason/s why at the time you did not think it relevant to let someone know.

    Did you change your password as soon as possible after the event? If so that should be made clear at the meeting i.e. you understood what you had done but made sure as soon as possible thereafter that your partner would not be able to use the login details provided to access the company’s network again.

    You do need to explain that this situation caused you to become anxious/stressed given the responsibility of the situation and the need to control an intoxicated person, trying to ensure their safety given their condition and the duty of care towards an employee of the company. This may have led you to making what you now realise was a bad decision once you had exhausted all possible options that you could think of at that time in the "heat of the situation."

    I am sure you are only too aware that your course of action allowed someone outside the company to firstly access the company systems that your password gives access to and secondly that clearly included staff details which is considered personal data and depending on the level of details held on what was accessed, could be consider sensitive personal data under GDPR.

    I am not sure if this has been of any help but some of my early points may be relevant in terms of providing some mitigation to the incident.
    If you would like a one-to-one expert consultation with me on your employment issue than I can be contacted by emailing admin@legalbeaglesgroup.com

    I do my best to provide good practical advice, however I do so without liability.
    If you have any doubts then do please seek professional legal advice.


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    • #3
      Thanks for your response Few things there I will take on board thank you. yeah it was an anonymous complaint but no idea why it took 6 months, but that’s the least of my worries!

      It is an investigation meeting which has been classed as potential GM. The circumstances meet the definition of GM as per my company’s policy, but what I’m not sure of is whether due to the circumstances of the incident they could still downgrade that to serious misconduct when I offer my mitigation?

      I regretfully didn’t report the incident as I previously thought “I’d done the right thing” on the night which I obviously realise now isn’t the case. I can’t remember if I changed my password, but my laptop is never at home, it was only there that night because I was working from home the next day, it’s usually locked away in work.

      I dont think the data is classed as sensitive, to add to it all the contact details were for an old address as the staff member hadn’t updated it!

      Comment


      • #4
        If it is an investigatory meeting and you have not been given the right to be accompanied then it cannot turn into a disciplinary hearing This must be a new meeting with you being formally notified of date and time, given copies of all the evidence that will be relied on in the meeting, be advised of what the outcome might be and be given the right to be accompanied.

        They are basing their view that it is gross misconduct on the facts they currently have. To possibly "downgrade" to serious misconduct they will have to take into account the sensitivity of the data accessed and even if it is old information on a staff member it is still personal data, what else your partner had the potential to access whilst you were not around and their v
        iew the various aspects of your mitigation, including your 15 years of unblemished service, duty of care to an employee as you are their team manager and the stress of the situation. These will all have to be taken into consideration when they decide what level of action to consider taking.

        I know this must be really stressful for you and I hope that the meeting is not too far away.
        If you would like a one-to-one expert consultation with me on your employment issue than I can be contacted by emailing admin@legalbeaglesgroup.com

        I do my best to provide good practical advice, however I do so without liability.
        If you have any doubts then do please seek professional legal advice.


        You can’t always stop the waves but you can learn to surf.

        You are braver than you believe, smarter than you think and stronger than you seem.



        If we have helped you we'd appreciate it if you can leave a review on our Trust Pilot page

        Comment


        • #5
          I received a letter yesterday to state that internal governance will be doing the investigation meeting. No invite as of yet though. Confirmed as potential GM on the letter. Breach of security, access of systems to a 3rd party.

          Thats what I am hoping. As it is now with IG I assume they will have details of what was accessed and it will show it was only those details. Although I know they look at the potential harm as well. Hopefully they can take on board the situation and downgrade as you say. Not getting my hopes up though!

          Thanks again

          Comment


          • #6
            Best of luck and let us know how you get on. We are here if you need any more support.
            If you would like a one-to-one expert consultation with me on your employment issue than I can be contacted by emailing admin@legalbeaglesgroup.com

            I do my best to provide good practical advice, however I do so without liability.
            If you have any doubts then do please seek professional legal advice.


            You can’t always stop the waves but you can learn to surf.

            You are braver than you believe, smarter than you think and stronger than you seem.



            If we have helped you we'd appreciate it if you can leave a review on our Trust Pilot page

            Comment

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