Settlement offer after lodging a grievance against a co worker.

[irene66]

My daughter has worked in an office for nearly 3 years. Last year she started to receive inappropriate texts from her boss. She confided in a colleague (she is senior to my daughter) who was a friend & asked for advice. Daughter spoke to boss & he apologised & everything got back to normal. After a few weeks this colleague started to bully, criticise my daughters work, daughter asked her to stop, colleague went to HR & MD informing them about texts saying they had been photoshopped. They had not. Daughter suspended for 2 weeks until we persuaded her to supply all the texts (in the discipline meeting she did not inform them of all the texts). The Md asked her to go back to work, this was March. Since then the colleague has gone out of her way to again criticise her work, ignoring her, changing her work whilst she is at lunch & much more and in my opinion is a bully. Daughter was scared to say anything to her. Came to a head, daughter had a panic attack, was signed off sick for 4 weeks. During this time the HR manager accepted that a grievance needed to be put in. Took them 7 weeks to reject it. Now 2 weeks later she has had a letter asking her to consider leaving the company with 1 months pay & as a gesture of goodwill 1 extra months pay. I find this shocking.

[teaboy2]

Tell your daughter, to write back declining their offer, whilst making clear she will not be resigning and they will have to dismiss her. in which event your daughter will take them to employment tribunal.

If the texts where of a sexually harassing nature, then that's sexual harassment and breach of the equality act 2010, the other employees bullying is clearly linked to the managers text (in my opinion). So i believe there maybe some collusion between them two - Maybe the ex-friend and manager know each other on an intimate level now after your daughter rejected his advances. As such, the bullying is linked to the sexual harassment - So if forced to go to tribunal your daughter would have grounds to claim for sexual harassment, harassment and bullying and unfair dismissal.

In mean time she needs to get another fit note - She needs to explain all that has happened to her GP, that way you can use medical notes at tribunal too as supporting evidence.

[irene66]

Thank you for your reply, i will send this to her. The texts were sexual. I feel they will make her redundant as an option to get rid of her as she has now rejected their offer of a settlement. But yes we will then go to tribunal. Daughter has all the texts & the bullying malicious texts from the colleague as well.

[teaboy2]

Don't worry about weather they may make her redundant or not, as the letter offering her a settlement to resign, is enough to prove that her role was not made redundant and they intended to get rid of her one way or another. They would basically have to prove to a tribunal that her role was made redundant, and that she was selected as part of a fair redundancy procedure, which would be next to impossible for them given the settlement offer in exchange for her resignation.

[irene66]

Update. They have told my daughter last week the settlement agreement is being left on the table for a month, and they want her to take it. But today has received another letter on her desk telling her she has to attend a gross misconduct hearing on thursdsay. This gross misconduct charge has arisen from the fact the rejection to her grievance in a letter was left on her desk, a couple of weeks ago, at lunchtime & she went home very upset, after telling her line manager the reason why. Can they sack her for gross misconduct?

[Amethyst]

Gross misconduct for leaving the letter on her desk ? Or for getting the letter then going home ? or for getting the letter and disclosing the contents to her line manager ? ( sorry it's not clear what this allegation of gross misconduct is actually for ) ( and they need to stop leaving things on desks/tables )

[irene66]

Apologies if not written clearer. They have said its gross misconducting for going home after receiving the rejection letter to her grievance complaint against a co worker for bullying. She explained why she needed to go home to her line manager ( who is also the manager who started all this debacle off by sending sexual texts), she also informed her immediate senior that she was feeling ill & needed to go.

[Amethyst]

Ughhh they are awful people aren't they. She went home unwell ( mental or physical is still unwell ) She informed her line manager as per, I assume, company policy on sickness and returned to work the next shift ?

[irene66]

Oh yes they are totally awful. And yes she returned the next day. The following week (after she went home for the afternoon) she was summoned down in front of the the senior managers & told they wanted her to take paid leave for a month, then return fully fit to work ( shes a junior graphic designer), the next day she had the letter offering a settlement. She declined & now has been given a letter stating a disciplinary hearing for gross misconduct for going home. Incidentally, the HR manager is not qualified and is actually an admin manager, who has not took her exams to become a HR manager yet & she has made a lot of mistakes in all of this saga.

[ULA]

So the incident of her leaving work for which she duly informed two managers so could not be accused of being absent without leave, if that is what they are implying, happened before the settlement offer, so several weeks ago and they are only just raising this now as gross misconduct.

This is just harassment and bullying to find any way to get your daughter out of the company all because she raised a legitimate issue of sexual harassment in the work place which should not be tolerated. W

hat a catalogue of HR disasters.

[irene66]

Yep & she raised a grievance against the girl who went to HR & MD about the texts for her behaviour after doing so, as my daughter confided in her & asked for advice. This senior manager is late 40’s, has recently married & they accused her of lying. His statement is full of lies but nothing has been done to him. She has sent me the texts, when she went home, which she sent to her superiors & they replied to these texts. I am outraged that in 2019 this can still happen to young girls in the workplace & i am not just going to sit back. I have told her not to sign anything & tribunal it will be.

[irene66]

I want to tell her tomorrow go in, tell them to stuff the settlement offer & disciplinary & resign, & then tell them see you at tribunal, where its all going to come out ( with evidence) to show how backward you are as a company. Hopefully gets in the press as well. They cannot treat junior members of staff like this

[ULA]

We will be here to give as much support as we can.

[teaboy2]

Best thing your daughter can do now is to follow through with the gross misconduct hearing (i.e. let them hand themselves) . Whilst in the mean time, i'd say its time your daughter contacted ACAS to get the ball rolling for tribunal action, though it may not go to tribunal as the company will clearly loose based on what you have told us, so your daughter will likely get a much more substantial settlement offer with the help of ACAS mediation.

[Amethyst]

Does she have someone who can attend the disciplinary meeting with her ? ( to take notes, act as a witness if anything gets misrepresented afterwards etc ) The letter inviting her to the meeting should inform her of her right to have someone attend with her.