Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

[Tigs]

My question to members
I do believe that I have been unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy because I dared to complain about bullying. What might I need to show to demonstrate that this is the case?

Circumstances
a) I experienced bullying by a line manager in early March 2012; I reported to HR in mid-April, but the bullying escalated through to mid-July when I was signed off sick due to stress. An investigatory interview happened on 14/06 and the decision letter arrived on 20/09 when my complaint was not upheld. The Occupational Health reports strongly support the impact of the bullying on my health, and they urged management to resolve work place issues which were having a detrimental effect on me and my health.

Issues (which form the basis of my recent Appeal:-
1. There were process failings in the management of the grievance investigation, mainly around timescales for managing the process and the provision of updates to me.
2. Despite repeated requests, I was denied the opportunity to view the investigatory report.
3. My one and only witness was never approached for an interview.
4. Whilst on sick leave, I was not included in the Job matching process (this is an NHS body which is in the process of transferring staff to several receiving bodies), and as a result,
5. I have been told that I am to be made redundant.

Additional Context
I have looked at the structures of the receiving bodies and I can see where my job would have gone, if I had been involved in the job matching exercise. The other members of the team have been job matched, but it's difficult for me to get information as to their own specific circumstances. Therefore I do not believe HR's reasons for excluding me are valid, which they present as as follows:-

"People were able to job match into new structures when they met the following criteria: - When the post is in a defined ‘function’;- The post has to match the current salary banding;- Where the job role remains substantially the same i.e. at least 51% is the same".

I do not believe that the my current role did not me any, if not all the criteria above". I do believe that I have been unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy because I dared to complain about bullying.

Thank you for your time.

[sairlp]

Re: Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

Really sorry to hear about this, so stressful and unfair on you, I must say that unfortunately this doesn't surprise one bit! I am a CPN also going through some battles with the NHS (see thread being interviewed by fraud department)
A very similar thing has just happened to a close colleague of mine, she has been bullied by a line manager for couple of years, she eventually with the support of her team, decided to take out a grievance. Like yours this took months to happen, she wasn't given the opportunity to put her points across, the accused manager was given the chance before hand to give her take on it all. She had several supporting and witness letters to add to her case, none of which were looked at, and surprise surprise, the outcome was she didn't have a case!!!!
This lovely and brilliant clinician has been seriously let down by her employers and her Union, and having had this manager ruin every aspect of her working and personal /mental health, now has to find the strength and the finance to fight this truly despicable and outrageous Trust and their managers.
wish you lots of luck and strength
OH of Sairlp

[MissFM]

Re: Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

Can't help you in any practical way Tigs but just wanted to express immense sympathy.

[Tigs]

Re: Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

Thank you for taking the trouble to outline this for me Sairlp, and I'm sure others out there who might be going through the same predicament....and thanks for the good luck wishes.

[Tigs]

Re: Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

Thank you MissFM, I appreciate it.

[Eloise01]

Re: Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

I think you are making the mistake of attempting to prove a connection between two different things which you cannot connect. You may believe they are connected. You may be right and they are connected. But what you lack is any evidence that they are in fact connected. And since you are very unlikely to ever be able to evidence any connection, mixing the issues up is undermining your own position in terms of the argument you are putting. You are arguing that you have been made redundant because you complained of bullying. There is no evidence for that. The actual reason you were made redundant is because you were not included in the job matching exercise, and unless the employers policy states that people on sick leave are not included in the job matching exercise, which I very much doubt it does, then that should be the basis of your appeal - either that the job matching was not carried out, or carried out incorrectly (I am not sure which it was, based on what you said). By basing your appeal on the bullying allegations, you are leaving yourself wide open to your appeal failing on the grounds that there is no evidence that the grievance was consdiered at all in relation to the redeployment. Whereas by basing your appeal on the basis that the process adopted in relation to the redeployment was wrongly carried out, you have better grounds and the possibility of successfully claiming unfaor dismissal on faliure to follow process.

The issue of the alleged bullying is an entirely seperate matter and should be treated as such unless you are actually able to prove a connection. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the grievance, then you should be submitting a seperate appeal on this matter. In relation to this part of your post, I would comment:

I seriously doubt that the Occupational Health report says that bullying has impacted on your health. They have no grounds to substantiate that bullying has ever occurred - their job is to consider your health and wellbeing, not to determine what has caused it. I am fairly certain that if you read the report again, you will find that the words they use are much less precise that you indicate. They may have commented, for example, that you exhibit the symptoms of situational stress, which is consistent with work related problems. Or that your perception of bullying from a manager has led to your condition. Or something along these lines. What I would bet it does not say is that you have been bullied and that your medical condition is a result of this bullying. It is then generally commonplace for OH to conclude such a comment by saying that issues in the workplace need resolving - that is not the same thing as saying that they must be uphold your grievance, or resolve them to your satisfaction. You need to be very careful when reading things, and make sure that they say what you think they say, and not what you want them to say. I am quite sure that if you re-read the OH report again, what it says will be consitent with what I have told you here - not with what you suggested it said.

In relation to your issue about timescales, I think you will find that if you read the policy the timescales stated are guidelines. It is the norm to state that employers will try to complete various stages within certain timescales, or words to that effect. There is seldom a guarantee that they will meet those timescales, and in many circumstances where the complaint is complex or disputed, the timescales are not realistic. I doubt you would get anywhere with this point unless you can show that the employers poliy obliges them to complete within a particular timescale - I have certainly never seen an NHS one that does.

I think it is entirely unlikely that policy entitles you to see the investigatory report. The report is not limited to information about you, but also includes details about other people and what they have said. It is entirely consistent with the law for an employer to refuse to disclose such details.

[wales01man]

Re: Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

Wow?
Shows how complex employment law is i think for a layman to read so many things into the situation is maybe a mistake,if the OP feels they are right in what they are thinking they should take some legal advice,although the advice offered may be similar.time now to move on find another job before the stress of the situation becomes overbearable,whilst i would never condone bullying it does happen and those bullies should be held to account ,but without strong evidence they will get away with it,
To the Op i would say move on as many on here hve known we all may get in a situation not of our doing where we feel we have been wronged and have found there is no remedy just a future free from the stress.Good luck job hunting.

[Eloise01]

Re: Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

Wow?
Shows how complex employment law is i think for a layman to read so many things into the situation is maybe a mistake,if the OP feels they are right in what they are thinking they should take some legal advice,although the advice offered may be similar.time now to move on find another job before the stress of the situation becomes overbearable,whilst i would never condone bullying it does happen and those bullies should be held to account ,but without strong evidence they will get away with it,
To the Op i would say move on as many on here hve known we all may get in a situation not of our doing where we feel we have been wronged and have found there is no remedy just a future free from the stress.Good luck job hunting.

I would agree that bullying is immensely difficult to prove - and even harder to successfully litigate. However, I am assuming, based on what they have said about transferring to another body - although I admit that it is an assumption - that the OP works in public health - and is therefore not likely to be in clinical practice. On this basis, other employment may be very hard to come by because job opportunities in the public sector (the most likely source of alternative employment) are not being created, and many existing positions are frozen and not being recruited to. If I am correct in this, their primary concern needs to be to retain their employment status for the foreseeable future, because redundancy will not simply impact on salary, but also other benefits such as pensions. Whilst public sector cuts have an impact across the entire sector, those in clinical practice would probably find it slightly easier to obtain other employment.

[Gurraaaagh!]

Re: Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

Hello Tigs

I cannot be of any legal help, but I have been a Psychiatric Nurse - CPN for many many years and have helped treat too many people than I would like to think of who have suffered with depression, anxiety or other mental health issues as a result of bullying from many walks of life and every part of the hierarchy.

I have never been bullied myself per se but several attempts have been made but in my case the old adage about sticking up to the bully/bullies has stopped it in it's tracks.

I spent several years (approx' 13 years ago) as bullying and Mental Health issues being a particular interest of mine. As in one year with a staggering amount people referred to me by GP's regards this issue.

As you will be aware it is an extremely complex, subtle and emotive subject.

One thing that seemed to resonate with people is the fact that no bully ever acts out of a position of strength, it is always from a position of weakness and insecurity. They may not realise this themselves as in the case of people with narcissistic or grandiose personalities.

One of the most helpful resources we used was Tim Fields web site Bullyonline.
I had the pleasure of discussing with him several ideas and advice many years ago which were so helpful.
http://www.bullyonline.org/
or just search: Tim Fields, Bullying

Hope this is of some help
All the best

Gur....... (just joined, OH of Sairlp)

[Tigs]

Re: Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

Dear Eloise01

• Thank you for your detailed post. When people come to this site, they do so to seek help from others more knowledgeable and capable of giving advice in various specialisms. I certainly have been fortunate enough to receive some very good and constructive advice from some incredible individuals who subscribe to this site, and have gone on to cultivate valuable friendships without whom I would not have been successful in previous proceedings. You are clearly knowledgeable in the very area in which I'm seeking advice and help. But I'm not sure your post is coming across as someone offering help and advice. But I suppose knowing a subject area extremely well is one thing, giving advice is quite another. The tone of your narrative makes me wonder if you should be contributing to this site at all. What is the purpose of possessing an expertise if you can't communicate it in a way that helps the recipient? I'm thinking of the time it took you to develop this piece and whether you have achieved your intended objective.

• PS: To all the other responses, thank you very much for taking the trouble to reply. Even though not offering practical help, I'm grateful nontheless for the empathy.

[Eloise01]

Re: Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

Dear Eloise01

• Thank you for your detailed post. When people come to this site, they do so to seek help from others more knowledgeable and capable of giving advice in various specialisms. I certainly have been fortunate enough to receive some very good and constructive advice from some incredible individuals who subscribe to this site, and have gone on to cultivate valuable friendships without whom I would not have been successful in previous proceedings. You are clearly knowledgeable in the very area in which I'm seeking advice and help. But I'm not sure your post is coming across as someone offering help and advice. But I suppose knowing a subject area extremely well is one thing, giving advice is quite another. The tone of your narrative makes me wonder if you should be contributing to this site at all. What is the purpose of possessing an expertise if you can't communicate it in a way that helps the recipient? I'm thinking of the time it took you to develop this piece and whether you have achieved your intended objective.

• PS: To all the other responses, thank you very much for taking the trouble to reply. Even though not offering practical help, I'm grateful nontheless for the empathy.

What a very ungrateful response. If you only wanted empathy instead of a very considered and detailed legal opinion, perhaps you should have specified that advice wasn't welcome, only sympathy. And how dare you suggest that I have less right to post here than others - are you a member of the site team that you get to decide who posts and who doesn't?

It seems your manager is not the only bully around - there's you to fill in at bullying when further aren't around.

[Inca]

Re: Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

[QUOTE=Tigs;324387]Dear Eloise01

• Thank you for your detailed post. When people come to this site, they do so to seek help from others more knowledgeable and capable of giving advice in various specialisms. I certainly have been fortunate enough to receive some very good and constructive advice from some incredible individuals who subscribe to this site, and have gone on to cultivate valuable friendships without whom I would not have been successful in previous proceedings. You are clearly knowledgeable in the very area in which I'm seeking advice and help. But I'm not sure your post is coming across as someone offering help and advice. But I suppose knowing a subject area extremely well is one thing, giving advice is quite another. The tone of your narrative makes me wonder if you should be contributing to this site at all. What is the purpose of possessing an expertise if you can't communicate it in a way that helps the recipient? I'm thinking of the time it took you to develop this piece and whether you have achieved your intended objective.

• PS: To all the other responses, thank you very much for taking the trouble to reply. Even though not offering practical help, I'm grateful nontheless for the empathy.

[/QUOT

How incredibly rude and ungrateful is that??? Some people just can't handle the truth.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

deleted

[Sapphire]

Re: Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

CC much as well all know and love your sense of humour, I think that maybe just this time its better that you don't come in with your usual wit, charm and sarcasm please hun.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Unfairly and selectively marked for redundancy following complaint about bullying

CC much as well all know and love your sense of humour, I think that maybe just this time its better that you don't come in with your usual wit, charm and sarcasm please hun.

OK

I just wanted to agree with Eloise...