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Hello All
I have been thinking about posting here for a few hours now after coming across this forum during my online research attempts!
My reluctance is due to this being quite a complex situation but after many hours trying to accumilate information to write these appeal letters I have decided to give it a go in the hope that someone can give some advice.
I am trying to help my mother and father who have both been dismissed from the same company as of this Tuesday (7/1/2014).
They both worked in a newsagents which is part of a small chain. My mother was the manager and my father a part time shop assistant.
My mother had worked there for approx 15 years initially part time but for at least 10 years as manager. She is now 65.
My father had worked there since retiring in 2008. He is almost 70.
The shop has changed hands a number of time in the time my mother has worked there so her current contract runs from February 2008.
Can I just mention that I actually live in Greece and they are back in the UK. I am all they have to help with this. Understandably they are both devastated by these recent events and I feel still in shock.
As far as procedures go it seems that they were followed correctly by the company although there are some aspects which do come into question. Both were suspended on full pay (12/12/13) followed by an investigation meeting (17/12/13) and then a disciplinary hearing on 23/12/13. Confirmation of Summary was dated 07/01/14. You may notice it took over two weeks for the dismissal notice to come through putting them both through a very tough time over christmas and new year.
I will list the reasons for dismissal below with responses. There are a few against my mother but for now I will just list the main two which are classfied as gross misconduct. My father only has one.
Reasons for dismissal against my mother:
1. She is accused of fraudulently producing a letter without authorisation requesting monies be paid back to the company.
This was a letter sent to an ex-employee who had been overpaid.
Actual wording in dismissal - The reason for your dismissal is that you fraudulently produced a letter without authorisation on company letterhead on the 3 December 2013 requesting monies be paid back to the company which has therefore brought the company into disrepute.
What actually happened:
My mother contacted the payroll department to notify them that the employee had left the company and also that they had been overpaid a number of hours. The chap in payroll advised her to send the letter and request a cheque for the overpaid wages.
There was also a second call made to the same person to confirm who the cheque should be made payable to.
The person in payroll has then denied that he gave any advice on recovery of wages.
Arguments/Questions:
Why would she send such a letter without consulting with head office? What has she got to gain by this?
The reason for sending the letter was to reclaim money for the company afterall.
How does this bring the company into disrepute?
This is a case of one persons word againt another without stronger evidence.
2. She is also accussed of dismissing the same employee without authorisation.
Actual wording in dismissal - In regards to the dismissal of Jane Doe, I conclude that after the phone call you had with the husband of J Doe, you told him that she should not return as you could not wait the two or so weeks she had requested leave for, due to her fathers ill health, and as the Company has not recieved any form of resignation letter - it would appear the facts make it clear you dismissed the employee. This is out of your authority as stated in the staff handbook.
What actually happened:
The employee left of her own accord. In recent months the employee had quite a low attendance record due to family ill health. She had a number of days off and at one point she disappeared for about 2 weeks being totally out of contact. During her absences any contact was mostly made by her husband who acted as a spokesperson for her on a number of occasions. Eventually after she had been off for another week and was due back the husband called to say she is not able to come to work for a further two weeks. He then said that they would understand if my mother felt it would be better to resign from the job due to her family commitments. My mother responded by saying yes it probably is better to do that for now and we can see how things go in the future when the employee is able to work properly again. He agreed and this was taken as a resignation.
The one main error here on my mothers part is her not requesting anything in writing although in her defence when she spoke to payroll they also did not question this even though the person in payroll claims that he did. If this was in fact the case my mother would have instantly realised the error and requested a letter of resignation at the same time as requesting the overpaid wages.
Arguments/Questions:
Another case of one persons word against another with no stronger evidence.
How do the facts make it clear? What facts?
If you look at the (apparently fraudulent) letter that was sent to the employee by mother you can tell by the context and tone that my mother was once again sympathetic to the employees situation. Particularly the closing paragraph which says:
"On a more personal note I am sorry to hear that your Dad's condition has worsened and of course I totally understand that your priority is to him and your family, and I hope he improves soon. You have been a much valued member of our shop and hope you will pop in and see us to let us know how you are getting on."
This does not strike me as a letter sent to somebody who has just been dismissed.
Reasons for dismissal against my father:
My father was originally being investigated for allegations of 'offensive and bullying behavior'.
His disciplinary was eventually based on allegations of gross misconduct namely theft.
He was accused of taking money from the shop till.
Actual wording in dismissal - After much deliberation I have come to a conclusion that you are guilty of gross misconduct. You admitted taking the money from the till to pay for a family members driving lessons even though you admitted it was returned promptly I cannot allow this to happen, in both the witness statement and your original statement the stories collaborate.
What actually happened:
A driving instructer came in to collect monies owed to him from my mother. She was not present but was due shortly. Only my father and a supervisor were on shift at the time. As my father did not have the cash on him he called my mother to notify her. She told him to take ask the supervisor to give him the cash from the till and she will return it in a few minutes when she arrives. The supervisor then gave him the money from the till which was then given to the driving instructor. Within 5 minutes my mother arrived and it was returned.
In her statement the supervisor has given a totally different story. She claims that my father went to the back office and took the money himself. It also seems that this supervisor instigated the alegation from reading a letter/witness statement she has submitted.
Unfortunately, during the investigation process my father accepted what was put forward in the witness statement without contending it. We can only put this down to his state of mind at the time due to the stress of the situation.
Arguments/Questions:
Originally in the disiplinary invite they classified this as gross misconduct theft but the dismissal does not state this.
Can it be theft if the money was returned and therefore not missing at the end of the day which is confirmed.
As he was operating under the orders of his manager (my mother) can he still be held accountable.
More importantly, it was actually the supervisor who removed the cash from the till. She is second in command to my mother and in charge/responsible when my mother is not present
Finally and most important of all, the driving instructor appeared yesterday after hearing what has happened. He was present in the shop when the money was taken from the till by the supervisor and handed to my father who in turn gave it to him. He has written a witness statement to that effect.
Overall it feels like there is some sort of conspiracy going on or at least collaboration between the other three members of staff. This includes the supervisor mentioned above, Jane Doe mentioned above and a third member of staff who recently had issues with her job.
They have all submitted letters/statements accusing my parents of many other things.
Anyway, I could go on.. I have a million questions in my head at the moment but alas not enough money to get them answered!
If you have managed to get this far I thank you.
I look forward to any help whatsoever.
CD
I have been thinking about posting here for a few hours now after coming across this forum during my online research attempts!
My reluctance is due to this being quite a complex situation but after many hours trying to accumilate information to write these appeal letters I have decided to give it a go in the hope that someone can give some advice.
I am trying to help my mother and father who have both been dismissed from the same company as of this Tuesday (7/1/2014).
They both worked in a newsagents which is part of a small chain. My mother was the manager and my father a part time shop assistant.
My mother had worked there for approx 15 years initially part time but for at least 10 years as manager. She is now 65.
My father had worked there since retiring in 2008. He is almost 70.
The shop has changed hands a number of time in the time my mother has worked there so her current contract runs from February 2008.
Can I just mention that I actually live in Greece and they are back in the UK. I am all they have to help with this. Understandably they are both devastated by these recent events and I feel still in shock.
As far as procedures go it seems that they were followed correctly by the company although there are some aspects which do come into question. Both were suspended on full pay (12/12/13) followed by an investigation meeting (17/12/13) and then a disciplinary hearing on 23/12/13. Confirmation of Summary was dated 07/01/14. You may notice it took over two weeks for the dismissal notice to come through putting them both through a very tough time over christmas and new year.
I will list the reasons for dismissal below with responses. There are a few against my mother but for now I will just list the main two which are classfied as gross misconduct. My father only has one.
Reasons for dismissal against my mother:
1. She is accused of fraudulently producing a letter without authorisation requesting monies be paid back to the company.
This was a letter sent to an ex-employee who had been overpaid.
Actual wording in dismissal - The reason for your dismissal is that you fraudulently produced a letter without authorisation on company letterhead on the 3 December 2013 requesting monies be paid back to the company which has therefore brought the company into disrepute.
What actually happened:
My mother contacted the payroll department to notify them that the employee had left the company and also that they had been overpaid a number of hours. The chap in payroll advised her to send the letter and request a cheque for the overpaid wages.
There was also a second call made to the same person to confirm who the cheque should be made payable to.
The person in payroll has then denied that he gave any advice on recovery of wages.
Arguments/Questions:
Why would she send such a letter without consulting with head office? What has she got to gain by this?
The reason for sending the letter was to reclaim money for the company afterall.
How does this bring the company into disrepute?
This is a case of one persons word againt another without stronger evidence.
2. She is also accussed of dismissing the same employee without authorisation.
Actual wording in dismissal - In regards to the dismissal of Jane Doe, I conclude that after the phone call you had with the husband of J Doe, you told him that she should not return as you could not wait the two or so weeks she had requested leave for, due to her fathers ill health, and as the Company has not recieved any form of resignation letter - it would appear the facts make it clear you dismissed the employee. This is out of your authority as stated in the staff handbook.
What actually happened:
The employee left of her own accord. In recent months the employee had quite a low attendance record due to family ill health. She had a number of days off and at one point she disappeared for about 2 weeks being totally out of contact. During her absences any contact was mostly made by her husband who acted as a spokesperson for her on a number of occasions. Eventually after she had been off for another week and was due back the husband called to say she is not able to come to work for a further two weeks. He then said that they would understand if my mother felt it would be better to resign from the job due to her family commitments. My mother responded by saying yes it probably is better to do that for now and we can see how things go in the future when the employee is able to work properly again. He agreed and this was taken as a resignation.
The one main error here on my mothers part is her not requesting anything in writing although in her defence when she spoke to payroll they also did not question this even though the person in payroll claims that he did. If this was in fact the case my mother would have instantly realised the error and requested a letter of resignation at the same time as requesting the overpaid wages.
Arguments/Questions:
Another case of one persons word against another with no stronger evidence.
How do the facts make it clear? What facts?
If you look at the (apparently fraudulent) letter that was sent to the employee by mother you can tell by the context and tone that my mother was once again sympathetic to the employees situation. Particularly the closing paragraph which says:
"On a more personal note I am sorry to hear that your Dad's condition has worsened and of course I totally understand that your priority is to him and your family, and I hope he improves soon. You have been a much valued member of our shop and hope you will pop in and see us to let us know how you are getting on."
This does not strike me as a letter sent to somebody who has just been dismissed.
Reasons for dismissal against my father:
My father was originally being investigated for allegations of 'offensive and bullying behavior'.
His disciplinary was eventually based on allegations of gross misconduct namely theft.
He was accused of taking money from the shop till.
Actual wording in dismissal - After much deliberation I have come to a conclusion that you are guilty of gross misconduct. You admitted taking the money from the till to pay for a family members driving lessons even though you admitted it was returned promptly I cannot allow this to happen, in both the witness statement and your original statement the stories collaborate.
What actually happened:
A driving instructer came in to collect monies owed to him from my mother. She was not present but was due shortly. Only my father and a supervisor were on shift at the time. As my father did not have the cash on him he called my mother to notify her. She told him to take ask the supervisor to give him the cash from the till and she will return it in a few minutes when she arrives. The supervisor then gave him the money from the till which was then given to the driving instructor. Within 5 minutes my mother arrived and it was returned.
In her statement the supervisor has given a totally different story. She claims that my father went to the back office and took the money himself. It also seems that this supervisor instigated the alegation from reading a letter/witness statement she has submitted.
Unfortunately, during the investigation process my father accepted what was put forward in the witness statement without contending it. We can only put this down to his state of mind at the time due to the stress of the situation.
Arguments/Questions:
Originally in the disiplinary invite they classified this as gross misconduct theft but the dismissal does not state this.
Can it be theft if the money was returned and therefore not missing at the end of the day which is confirmed.
As he was operating under the orders of his manager (my mother) can he still be held accountable.
More importantly, it was actually the supervisor who removed the cash from the till. She is second in command to my mother and in charge/responsible when my mother is not present
Finally and most important of all, the driving instructor appeared yesterday after hearing what has happened. He was present in the shop when the money was taken from the till by the supervisor and handed to my father who in turn gave it to him. He has written a witness statement to that effect.
Overall it feels like there is some sort of conspiracy going on or at least collaboration between the other three members of staff. This includes the supervisor mentioned above, Jane Doe mentioned above and a third member of staff who recently had issues with her job.
They have all submitted letters/statements accusing my parents of many other things.
Anyway, I could go on.. I have a million questions in my head at the moment but alas not enough money to get them answered!
If you have managed to get this far I thank you.
I look forward to any help whatsoever.
CD
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