Disciplinary Action

[zew]

Hello EveryOne,

I would like to request for your kind help with one of the problems I have just come across. I work for a Food Retailer, There was an incident about 2 and half months ago, when a very rude customer walked into my store, she misbehaved with everyone and when i tried to calm her down and challeneged her, she got worse. She went home and complained about me. My manager was on holidays at that time and we had a covering manager from another store who would only come once a week. That covering manager had a go at me without listening to me and i got really upset and asked her to go and interview other staff members who were working there at that time and then see if i am responsible for whatever that customer is saying. She didnt like the way spoke with her and passed on avery negative feedback about me to my manager when he came back from the holidays. My manager and I had about 2 hours conversation around this and couple of more issues in store and the matter apprently got resolved informally there and then as my manager did not punish me for that particular reason. Same week(when complaine was raised), I served another customer who was very happy with my service and left my positive comment.

After one week, I went on holidays, for nearly 2 weeks, unfortunately, i fell sick and could not go back to work for another 2 weeks. My manager didnt like the fact that i had called in sick.(because when I called in sick, he picked up the phone and showed no compassion whatsoever.) So when i came back from my holidays, my manager called me into the office and started investigation. He said that the positive comment i had received was a fake one and that I personally had done this to cheat the system. He saw me reprinting the receipt and folding it. I have catagorically denied this accusation and have asked him to prove it that I have done that comment. He has invited me for the disciplinary hearing now based on the CCTV where it shows ONLY that i have reprinted the receipt and apparently folded it. He has no evidence that i have gone onto the system to do the comment. He just assumed that i might have done it.

I strongly believe that my manager might have some sort of grudge against me as he is the least liked person in the store and non of the staff member likes him, he is quite bossy and has very rough attitude.

I apologise for the long essay, I would really appreciate your guidance. I just want to know what should i do next, where do i stand in this case.There is no way he can prove that the comment was done by me.


Please help me with this.

Regards,

[ULA]

When you have been invited to the disciplinary has the company included all the evidence that they are going to rely on at the meeting. They need to provide you with all the relevant evidence.

What you will need to do in preparation for the meeting is write down your version of events and also if you disagree with the evidence provided you need to state that with reasons why the evidence is not proof of what in fact happened.

[zew]

When you have been invited to the disciplinary has the company included all the evidence that they are going to rely on at the meeting. They need to provide you with all the relevant evidence.

What you will need to do in preparation for the meeting is write down your version of events and also if you disagree with the evidence provided you need to state that with reasons why the evidence is not proof of what in fact happened.

Hi,

Thank you for your response, really appreciate that. They have included the print out of the receipts and are going to show me the cctv on the day of hearing. The investigating manager(my line manager) has said that they have seen me reprinting the receipt and folding it. He didnt say that i had put it in my pocket etc. Also when i challenged him about his decision of inviting me to the disciplinary and how can you prove that i had done the comment even if the receipt was reprinted, he had no answer.

I have tried to write down the points one by one, Just not sure about the potential outcome, because they can not prove if the comment was sent by me and i dont want to be punished for something i have not done. it feels like my words against theirs. but obviously if my manager does not like me then he can influence the decision.

if you could kindly guide me how to defend myself effectively.

[JRG11]

Did you reprint the receipt ? If so, for what reason ?
I am sure this will be asked at any disciplinary and at firts
sight papers suspicious unless there is good reason to have done so..

[zew]

Did you reprint the receipt ? If so, for what reason ?
I am sure this will be asked at any disciplinary and at firts
sight papers suspicious unless there is good reason to have done so..

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I had printed the receipt that is for sure, but i dont remember for what reason though tbh.i had once previously forgotton to confirm an online order and it had caused so much chaos at work and we could not fix since i tend to reprint the ticket to reconfirm the order details, its something stuck in my head since then, but that does not mean I would take that home and do me a comment. I have been working for nearly 3 years for that company and its the first time this has happened, and its the probably the first ever time that any positive comment is being investigated.

According to the witness interview notes(another colleague manager) he has seen me reprinting the receipt and folding it into my pocket, but the investigating manager has stated in his report that he can see me reprinting the receipt and folding it, But there is no eveidence of me putting it in my pocket as apprently the CCTV does not cover that area, also intrestingly, the date this witness has been interviewed(apprently) he was off on that day according to Managers rota. which strengthens my believe that my line manager is trying to play a dirty game to give me hard time,potentially trying to get rid off me. your thoughts please.

[ULA]

Thanks for the further information. My view is that you need to start preparing for the disciplinary and here are some suggestions:

1. Prepare your own notes of what you did on that day in regard to the receipt.
2. confirm whether you did or did not put it in your pocket.
3. If you did put it in your pocket give a reason for why you did that.
3. If you believe the witness manager was interviewed on his off check this actually happened - he may have been met off-site
4. Challenge that the CCTV does not give the evidence that you put the receipt in your pocket and refer back to point 2 if you did not do this
5. Ask why a positive review is coming under such scrutiny since this has not happened in the past to you or anyone else (check this latter point it the case).
6. Review anything else that they have provided as the evidence they are going to rely on and if there you have concerns about its accuracy then you need to ask about it.

Hope that helps.

[JRG11]

On what you say the Management appear
to making accusations that cannot be substantiated,
specifically the positive comment.
They need to show strict proof of this and you should
take the to task on this.
Also,your previous disciplinary record should
force them into seeking alternative remedies other
than dismissal.
Use of these type of allegations they may go
down the line of “loss of breach and trust” which allows them to dismiss, basically same as gross misconduct.
Difficult to advise best response until there is sight of the
wording of the reasons for the disciplinary hearing.
Maybe when you have this to hand post the details and we can maybe assist further.

[JRG11]

That should have read “Loss of trust and confidence”