Suspension from worksuspension from work

[Stillo]

I'm sorry I have made a post without signing in and I am unsure if it will be read or not so I have reposted it here. Please forgive me if I have done wrong

good evening I would like to ask for some advice for my wife today. She was suspended from work without any warning for the offence of alleged theft. Some items have gone missing and my wife was working over the pandemic so she and a few others were at work, but they have suspended her and no one else.. She obviously devastated. She's been with that company for 38 years she has done so much to help this company and they have done thisto her.

shw was not given any notice of suspension they have not put anything in writing. She doesn't know how long she's going to be suspended for and she doesn't know the reason for the suspension as none of this was discussed, I really would appreciate if somebody please tell me the steps we need to take to ensure that she is not found guilty of an offence that she hasn't committed, the company would never allow any union representation into the workplace so she doesn't have a union rep

please forgive me for any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors I am registered blind with a severe sight impairment

[ULA]

Please do not worry I have seen your post in both areas, but here is best as it is specifically the employment area of the forum. I will just delete your other post to avoid confusion.

When was your wife suspended as it would be useful to know when this happened?

Suspension is normally used when an allegation of serious or gross misconduct is being investigated but not established i.e. they do not know for certain and want to find out the full fact first and from which a decision will then be made as to whether to carry out any disciplinary action.
As part of the process it is normal but sometimes does not happen in all situations for the person who has been suspended to be invited into an investigation meeting so that they can answer any questions that the investigator may have and respond to the allegations that have been made.

The outcome of the investigation and period of suspension has a couple of options either the investigation does not find that the allegations are upheld and the person can return to work or there is sufficient evidence for the company to consider some form of disciplinary action and the person will be asked to attend a disciplinary meeting.

The correct procedure should be that at the time of your suspension or very soon after you should have been given written confirmation that you had been suspended that includes:

• the reasons for the suspension and how long it is expected to last
• your wife's rights and obligations during the suspension. For example, that she should be contactable during normal working hours
• a point of contact (such as a manager or HR) and their contact details for her during the suspension
• that the purpose of suspension is to investigate and is not an assumption of guilt
• remaining on full pay and benefits unless the contract of employment says otherwise in the event of suspension.

This period of suspension should be kept as brief as possible and the employer should keep her regularly updated about the suspension, the ongoing reasons for it and how much longer it is going to last.

I hope this at least gives a brief overview of the process as I can appreciate this must be distressing for her. If either of you have any more questions then please come back to this thread.

[Stillo]

thank you very much for the detailed response, my wife's suspension happened yesterday, Thursday, 2 July without any warning, she was asked to go into the office with our manager and with a member of the HR team and the manager started to question her obviously. She denied absolutely everything, I can say and is provable that the theft, as occurred by somebody placing an order on a computer, the sum goods from their other factory so that they could be packed and dispatched it seems somebody as overloaded by 10 units and these 10 units of disappeared.

Now my wife has a computer system that three people use and one of these people had the IT department change her password while she was on holiday in Poland in January, when she returned to work this other employee told my wife of the new password meaning my wife this other person and another person that she works with all of access to my wife's computer and that is where the company are saying that she is guilty of the theft because it was done on a computer, even though three people have access to the systems that she uses, someone could have quite easily placed the order on a PC, receive the goods from the other warehouse and then stall them.

I probably have not explained this correctly, but basically multiple people use my wife's login credentials on my wife's PC and the IT department are absolutely aware of it. So the three people that use this PC in my should have all been suspended and not just my wife.

I can honestly say hand on heart, that my wife is not stolen anything from her company. She has worked for them. The 38 years without incident, without ever being disciplined going to work early and doing absolutely everything to help the business as much as she could.

I really appreciate your help in this matter at the moment there is only an investigation but she is absolutely terrified of the outcome, obviously we will be seeking legal advice and possibly at the end of the investigation, depending on the outcome.. Taking this matter to tribunal.

Thank you very much for your help.
David

[ULA]

At the moment, although very worrying for your wife, there is little that she can do except co-operate with any requirements for her to provide information or attend any meeting/s if required as part of the investigation.

Since it is currently an internal matter is is doubtful that you will get a solicitor to provide much assistance so do not be disappointed if this happens. It is not a reflection on the situation.

We can continue to provide support so as things develop just come back to this thread and we will do what we can to help.

[Stillo]

thank you very much. You are not wrong. She is extremely worried. In fact I would go so far as to say she's devastated, we obviously will away the outcome of any hearing and I understand a solicitor would not be of much help at the moment but if they don't discipline. We will be taking legal action because too many people have access to our work systems. They even have access to their systems. When she's not there, she has requested a meeting with the HR Department to explain that someone changed her password on a computer in January without their permission, and at the time she was in Poland on holiday, so we have a little bit of hope.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my post and thank you very much forgiving me the opportunity to come back to you should I need to do so. It is very much appreciated.

Take care and have a great weekend
Stillo

[Stillo]

Good Evening I would like to request some further advice with regards to my post, if at all possible. My partner has now received an email from a HR department, inviting her to a meeting next Tuesday, saying that they have now thoroughly conducted their investigations. They have not mentioned whether this is a disciplinary they are not advised. The that she does or does not need anyone to accompany her and if it is a disciplinary they have not allowed enough time for the to gather her evidence do you think this may be a good sign of something to worry about.

Another matter I would like to ask for advice about is all this came about because her so-called work colleague is the one that told her bosses that these items had gone missing. Now this work colleague does exactly the same job as she does or should I say she's the same grade as she is, but my partner does at least 20% of her workload as well as her own and my partner has now found out that this other person is on 5 1/2 thousand pounds a year more than she is considering that they are both the same grade working side-by-side can my partner bring a claim for equal pay, I'm fairly confident that the reason this other person gets 5 1/2 grandmother. My partner does is that her boss sexually assaulted her many years ago and I'm pretty certain that the five and have ground extra salary was to keep quiet although we cannot prove this, my partner was also assaulted by this man over 20 years ago and a further three female colleagues have been assaulted by him. Although they no longer work for the business.

All of this really doesn't make any difference, but my partner is extremely annoyed that this other person is getting 5 1/2 thousand pound more than she is and she wants to betray equally, my partner is asked for a copy of the other workers. Job description so that she can compare hers to work colleagues, but so far the company have resisted letting have a copy.

My partner asked for a copy of the own job description and they centre one that was dated January 2019, my partner has never seen this job description and in fact she has been doing this job for over 20 years, so why would they feel the need to either change or update the job description without even informing her, I'm sorry this is such a long post, please forgive me for any mistakes or errors I am completely reliant on software on my PC as I have a severe visual impairment, I hope that someone may be able to offer further advice. But if not, I thank you very much for the advice you of already given.

Thank you
David

[ULA]

To follow a correct procedure if your wife was being invited to a disciplinary meeting then she should have been given details of the allegations, copies of any documentation that the company was relying on to support those allegations, the right to be accompanied and an indication of what might be any potential disciplinary action taken. Given that none of this seems to have been provided in regard to the meeting I would hope that it has been arranged for them to explain the outcome of the investigation and what is to happen next. However that does not preclude them saying that they will be taking disciplinary action but they will then need to write to her setting the date for the meeting and provide all the information I have detailed above.

In regard to the pay situation, does the grade that your wife's role is assigned to along with her colleague have a pay range and do both salaries fit within that range for the grade? How rigid is the company in enforcing its pay structure and associated pay ranges within each grade?

[Stillo]

thank you very much for the speedy response, they have invited her to a meeting next Tuesday but not supplied any information whatsoever. They have not told that this is or is not a disciplinary hearing. All they have said is they have completed their investigation, as for pay. The company, I believe does not have that many different pay skills they have the staffson the shop floor our role on the same pay structure. They then have supervisory grades, of which my wife and colleague are part of except her colleague is paid a substantial amount of money more than she is, when she brought this up to the HR they were quite surprised that she was on a lot less than our colleague so we may have to now bring a grievance against the manager for paying this other member of staff much more than my wife for doing exactly the same role.

My wife is of a supervisory grade and she is actually a production planner, whereas the other lady just as supervisor over the staff on the shop floor, my wife actually has to tell this other supervisor what work she needs to carry out on a daily basis, so consequently as you can guess, she has a more responsible job as she is the one that has to make sure that the workload is given to the supervisor and then the supervisor in turn gives it out to the staff on the shop floor.

We are fairly confident that she will not be facing a disciplinary procedure as there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that she has done anything wrong. Apart from a photograph of an empty cardboard box provided by the manager who instigated the initial allegation, why you provided a photograph of an empty cardboard box is beyond me, but it happened and it will have to be dealt with.

I am extremely grateful for your assistance and I am positive that she will get the outcome. She is hoping for, but now as you can guess she is wary of colleagues and her superiors,

thank you very much take care
David

[ULA]

Fingers crossed that the meeting on Tues is purely to provide the outcome of the investigation. Please let us know the outcome.

On the issue of the pay rates I would suggest that your wife either approaches this on an informal basis with HR or if she feels that would not lead to any consideration being given to the issue then she should raise a formal grievance.

[Stillo]

thank you for your response. It is very much appreciatedwe hope that this is just a matter of putting the issue to bed. My wife is very proper in everything she does. She would never contemplate stealing from anyone, never mind our employer scenes it may be a bit of a witchhunt, I will take your advice and adviser to make an informal request to her HR Department and we will see where it goes from there stop

thank you very much for your time. Take care
David

[Stillo]

Good Afternoon.

My Wife has today been to a meeting at work and it looks like they have absolutely no evidence of any theft by her whatsoever. Although she still faces a disciplinary due to the fact that she down dated some sheets that somebody had put in to her in tray without checking them, and for that she held her hands up.a decision on the disciplinary will be made this afternoon, but it looks like she will be returning to work

However I have another question I would like to ask if it is at all possible, at the meeting it became apparent that the manager who suspended her divulged to her colleague and to his son that she had been suspended. Surely this is private personal information and no one other then the manager, the HR Department and my wife need to know that information, the manager indicated that he had diverged. This information to one of our colleagues, who is also a supervisor and his excuse was, she needs to know. But surely he could have said Beverley is unavailable for the next few weeks and left it at that. But he didn't and she is extremely unhappy

Thank you very much for your time and for your assistance. She is now very relieved as am I. But she is now just a little upset that these two members of staff are aware of why she was suspended.


Take care. and thank you.
David

[ULA]

Good news on the outcome for your wife.

In regard to your wife's colleague and son being told of the suspension, the only real reason they should have known is if they were interviewed as part to the investigation. Even then the details should have been limited to just what they needed to know to meaningfully provide information pertinent to the investigation.

I am not sure whether your wife want to raise this as an issue, or whether she just wants to take the view to put a big line under what has gone on and just get back to work.

[Stillo]

good evening thank you for your reply, she wants to raise it as an issue, as there is more than one issue with regards to this matter.

There is an issue of equal pay.
There is an issue of confidentiality.
There is an issue of spying on her.
and there is an issue of allowing staff to use her PC with her credentials. without her knowledge, the manager was liaising with the IT department to allow other members of staff to log onto my wife's PC using her password and username. So basically anybody could have done anything and it would look like. My wife had done it, as it was her PC that was logged on in our name at the time, this is not an isolated incident it has happened on numerous occasions and we have asked for it to cease immediately

All these issues concern the same manager, the most important to her is that she has just recently found out that supervisor. She works with which is the same grade as her has been spying on her and reporting back to the manager and she earns 5500 pounds a year more than she does, there is no pay scales within roles, she has asked for a copy of the job description of this supervisor so that she can use as a comparator when she is asking for equal pay. Unfortunately, the company have yet failed to supplier with a copy of this job description, can you tell me if she is entitled to ask for a copy of this job description so that she can compare both roles and salary, she is extremely unhappy that she is earning much less than our counterpart when she is the one that makes sure the workload is completed on a daily basis.

Thank you for your time.
David

[ULA]

As per an earlier post on the pay issue your wife will need to raise this in a more formal way. Given the other issues she has identified I would suggest that she actually raises a formal grievance, which is effectively against her manager and the issues becomes the list of the complaints as you have detailed, including pay. Dates of when breach of confidentiality and spying happened would be good to support her claim. Information about the IT issue should also be detailed.

[Stillo]

Good Afternoon.

I am eternally graateful for your advice and I will do as you suggest. I'm sorry I didn't see it in an earlier post. Either that or I didn't understand it, but I do know.

Take care. Thank you for your advice
David