Advice request: irregularities at work during probation

[Kartis]

Hi, everyone. I am writing to inquire as to what can be done regarding a situation that is affecting a relative at work.

She started a new job 2 months ago, and immediately had problems with management. Here are the issues:

1) She is in training, but she was deliberately classed as a full time employee by her manager - thus, she was missing all the targets and wasn't being paid for training hours. She discovered that after the first six weeks, when there was a conflict with her manager and HR had to become involved.

2) She's NEVER been told that there are any performance issues during her bi-weekly assessments, even though she has been deliberately accused of making serious mistakes several times by the department manager + supervisor, but only verbally. The accusations have been so egregious that her colleagues have had to leap to her defense; to put an example, she was accused of mishandling confidential documents that another colleague had approved and sent for processing. Even though there is an audit trail proving this, as all changes have to be confirmed and approved by the handling employee and a supervisor, her manager kept accusing her of causing a data breach. This was, until the employee who had processed those documents presented the audit trail to this manager, proving that the accusations were false.

3) Things escalated the day when my relative arrived at work, logged in and discovered that all the cases that had been assigned to her, had been deleted. Each employee account can only be accessed by the employee him/herself, and their supervisor + manager. So, only the supervisor or manager could have deleted my relative's cases. When she asked for help, the manager exploded into a rage and accused of being incompetent and deleting important data from the database. When my relative explained that the audit trail shows who has entered each account, and therefore this could prove her innocence, the manager accused her of being hysterical and trying to victimize herself to divert attention from her mistakes.

This prompted my relative to talk to her union representative, who in turn spoke with HR. HR made an investigation and sent a warning to the manager and supervisor involved. This is when it was discovered that my relative had been classed as a full time employee even though she is a trainee, and hadn't been paid for her training hours.

Since then, things have escalated. The manager and supervisor are extremely hostile to my relative, and have spread rumours about her, which had effectively isolated her and caused fellow employees to shun her. Also, they withhold information from her and do not provide her with support of any kind - this is so blatant that other employees have actually had to tell managers that they should share relevant issues with her.

Today, she has been told that from next Monday, she will start her training again from scratch and won't be allowed to work on any cases, because she is a disaster. When my relative has asked which targets she is missing or what incidences could justify this decision, the manager has said that there are no standards or targets to be missed, because her decision is based on 'my careful observation of your performance'. That can mean anything, so my relative has requested formal feedback about her performance, listing her mistakes (there is also an audit trail for these). At this point the manager has dismissed her and said that my relative will be supervised by someone else from now on, and she doesn't have any obligation to give any further explanation to her.

Now, the training that my relative will have to start has NOTHING to do with her job. She has been required to enrol on courses on diversity, harassment, inclusion and conflict management, which will take the entirety of her work hours and won't provide any insights on the job itself, which she has been doing without any problems until now. Also, she doesn't understand why she has to take these courses when she is the one who is being bullied.

She has spoken with her union rep again, who has apologized to her for giving her bad advice, as she is on probation and technically, she can be dismissed at any point. He claims that there is very little that can be done, if anything at all. We're going to consult a lawyer, but I wanted to ask for everyone's insights.

Thank you for reading my message and sorry for taking so much space. I'd also like to apologize for the convoluted explanation, as I am a bit upset. Sorry if my first post isn't the most positive and cheerful there is.

[ULA]

Sorry to hear about the situation with your relative.

To be honest I am not sure how helpful a solicitor will be a this point given the length of service and that a lot of employment rights, unless your relative has a protected characteristic, require 2 years service.

A starting point I would suggest is what outcome does your relative want to try to achieve and in that is the question of whether they really want to stay with a company where the initial treatment has been as you have described.

I am also trying to understand the difference between training and a full-time employee? I am guessing that your relative is a full time employee however the job title / description has some reflection of it being a training position, am I correct?

The courses having to be completed "diversity, harassment, inclusion and conflict management" sound like they are general training relevant to all employees as part of any induction programme into a new company. However I guess your relative is also keen to understand what job specific training is planned.

Has your relative considered speaking with HR?

[Kartis]

Sorry to hear about the situation with your relative.

To be honest I am not sure how helpful a solicitor will be a this point given the length of service and that a lot of employment rights, unless your relative has a protected characteristic, require 2 years service.

A starting point I would suggest is what outcome does your relative want to try to achieve and in that is the question of whether they really want to stay with a company where the initial treatment has been as you have described.

I am also trying to understand the difference between training and a full-time employee? I am guessing that your relative is a full time employee however the job title / description has some reflection of it being a training position, am I correct?

The courses having to be completed "diversity, harassment, inclusion and conflict management" sound like they are general training relevant to all employees as part of any induction programme into a new company. However I guess your relative is also keen to understand what job specific training is planned.

Has your relative considered speaking with HR?

Good morning and thank you very much for your reply!

My relative is partially deaf, so I guess that this does class her as being part of a protected group. The outcome is to be left alone, as she does love her job and would like to keep it. I know that it sounds a bit irrational, but my relative had to go through a very long and arduous application process and likes the job; it would be a pity for her to have to give up within 3 months... Also, she doesn't want to be unemployed, which is never a pleasant situation.

Regarding her status as a trainee, she does get paid for the time she spends training, as full time employees who have passed their probation would be classed as idle for not performing certain tasks, as there is software that measures performance metrics. Yes, you are definitely correct in your assessment - sorry for the convoluted explanation!

You're also right in that the courses she's doing are part of basic training, but the issue is that she wasn't required to start this training 3 months ago, and her "training" was basically to be thrown into the deep end? Why start all over now that she is productive? Also, she has been told that one of her colleagues will be in charge of assessing whether she is competent, but should a supervisor or manager be in charge of that, and be able to justify it?

Finally, what parameters will be used to assess her competence? Isn't it bizarre that her manager has refused to tell her where she's supposedly failing, because there aren't any targets, metrics and standards? If she isn't failing to reach any requirements and standards because allegedly there are none, how can she be failing at all?

I think that she will have to speak with HR, but we'd like to explore all possibilities first - I have found the National Bullying Helpline and I think I will give them a call.

Thank you once again for your reply. I'm really grateful for it, as it is helping me to understand how to navigate through things a little better.

Have a lovely day!

[Kartis]

Sorry, I have tried to reply to you 3 times ULA, but my replies do not appear at all. Which is strange, because I am not using inappropriate language, divulging personal information from third parties or compromising anyone's integrity. I do apologize for the confusion, but I just waned to let you know that I am grateful for your help.

[ULA]

Firstly, I presume that your relative has told their employer that they are partially deaf, as this will potentially mean they are considered disabled under the Equality Act 2010 and her employer needs to act accordingly.

Secondly, I would suggest that they do go and see HR, on the basis of:

1. Having it on record what has gone on to date.
2. Whether a colleague is really qualified to supervise from the perspective of the training and assessing competencies.
3. The fact that the performance criteria for whether she is meeting those competencies have not been provided.