Suspended pending investigation

[Karen1983]

My husband & I work for the same large national company. He is a branch manager and I'm the PA to his Area Manager. My husband recently resigned due to sexual discrimination & has asked questions to the employee regarding equal pay.

I accompanied him to his grievance meeting which took place 10 days ago.

Today I arrived at work and have been suspended pending a full investigation. The reason given is that they have reason to believe I have divulged confidential information to my husband (which I haven't). I 100% support his grievance, male employees are treated different, their salaries & commission packages are lower, they work longer hours than women doing the same job and I'm constantly told to ignore applications from men when we post job opportunities.

I was planning on whistleblowing but was hoping to get a new job first, can I still whistleblower now I'm suspended? I'm a bit shocked I've been suspended, I've done nothing wrong. I feel I've been put in a difficult position with regards to the discrimination against men and when I've raised it informally I've been told that it's my job to turn a blind eye.

Stuck for what to do. I've worked for the company for 8 years and am good at my job. I feel like this is some kind of revenge for my husbands grievance?!

Any advice appreciated

Thanks

[charitynjw]

Re: Suspended pending investigation

Hi Karen1983, & welcome to LB

IMHO

If what you & your OH are claiming can be proven, it would appear that there could be a claim of both direct & indirect discrimination, as well as constructive unfair dismissal, re your OH, & associative discrimination, harassment & possibly victimisation* re yourself.

It would be an idea to contact ACAS asap for further info & help, including your raising a grievance yourself, which can run concurrently with the disciplinary but should be addressed first.

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1814

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2042

*As per the first ACAS link, you have supported your OH & have suffered detrimental treatment as a result.

I'll give @Openlaw15 a nudge for a second opinion

[Karen1983]

Re: Suspended pending investigation

Thank you for your response. I'll wait for my suspension letter (I presume I'll get one) and give Acas a call. with regards to proof, I have proof of women being paid more and having better commission packages along with working less hours (even though their contracts are the same). But I have no proof of being told to disregard male applicants as that was just verbally. I also have noticed that since my husband put the grievance in they've attempted to cover up some of the things he's alleged I.e they've changed spreadsheets with regards to pay increase & promotion opportunities for my OH after his grievance went in. I have copies of the originals and then the amended ones (I know I shouldn't have, and I haven't divulged the info to my OH, but I know the company & I knew I'd probably be victimised or They'd try and cover up the facts once his grievance went in). Should my grievance contain all the wrong doing I know about and would it be classed as whistleblowing?

[Openlaw15]

Re: Suspended pending investigation

My husband & I work for the same large national company. He is a branch manager and I'm the PA to his Area Manager. My husband recently resigned due to sexual discrimination & has asked questions to the employee regarding equal pay.

Husband

Hell Karen

Charity, the husband may have an equal pay claim under the Equality Act if he can prove that he is doing the same work as the women, if so the law can imply an equality clause into husband's contract to be back-dated 6 years from when a claim is made to a tribunal. The employer may have a material factor defence however if he proves the disparity is justified. The employee's material fact defence could be to say there are too many men in the company and the Equality Act is meant to ensure there is balance as women are a protected characteristic. Your husband's counter defence is that this should only relates to recruiting female staff and not whilst they're currently employed on different contractual terms/ benefits, ie better salaries to the serious detriment of men.

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1811

On the facts your husband may have claim for constructive type of unfair dismissal as he felt his work there was being undermined by women who were receiving fare more pay than the men in general.

"I accompanied him to his grievance meeting which took place 10 days ago."

Why did you go with your husband to the grievance, the problem with this is that the employer may argue you're too involved with your husbands interests than the company's and potentially, from the company's position, you could divulge confidential information if it were to your husband's benefit. He should have had an objective work colleague there or maybe a union official to avoid claims of nepotism.

"Today I arrived at work and have been suspended pending a full investigation. The reason given is that they have reason to believe I have divulged confidential information to my husband (which I haven't). I 100% support his grievance, male employees are treated different, their salaries & commission packages are lower, they work longer hours than women doing the same job and I'm constantly told to ignore applications from men when we post job opportunities."

Any employer and employee have a relationship of trust and an employee cannot divulge confidential information. What confidential information are you alleged to have divulged? The law under whistle-blowing is that an employee can disclose information about the company if it is doing something wrong, ie breaching health and safety for instance, without the employee being later mistreated. The burden is on the employer to prove the employee divulged information, I believe. There could be further grounds, as Charity says above, for claim of victimisation, and or discrimination against you as a female (protected characteristic), under the Equality Act 2010.

I was planning on whistleblowing but was hoping to get a new job first, can I still whistleblower now I'm suspended? I'm a bit shocked I've been suspended, I've done nothing wrong. I feel I've been put in a difficult position with regards to the discrimination against men and when I've raised it informally I've been told that it's my job to turn a blind eye."

What does the whistle-blowing concern, is this the equal pay thing?

Stuck for what to do. I've worked for the company for 8 years and am good at my job. I feel like this is some kind of revenge for my husbands grievance?!

Any advice appreciated

Thanks

You may have a claim for unfair dismissal if you leave, ie constructive dismissal owing to the way the company is making it difficult for you to continue working there or actual unfair dismissal if they terminate your employment, as Charity also said.

[Karen1983]

Re: Suspended pending investigation

Thanks for the reply. My husband has worked at company just under 2 years so I don't think he can claim constructive unfair dismissal. The reason I went to meeting was simply because he wanted someone there but didn't want to reveal to others the contents of his grievance. His job role, title etc is exactly the same as his comparator but the company have refused to answer any questions relating to her salary.

Whistleblowing would be in respect of being told to delete applications from men for certain positions (admin). Being told to remove sections from meeting minutes (I.e where she has passed an employee a piece of paper & told them to resign or they'll be sacked). Giving some staff more holiday than others (despite strict company policy re holiday entitlement). Allowing women to work less hours (no weekends) despite their contract being the sample e as men. I've raised all these issues informally previously & have been told it's my job to turn a blind eye and that its always been 1 rule for 1 and 1 rule for another there.I've really started to have a battle with my conscience over it recently as its getting worse. I don't know whether the above falls in to the whistleblowing criteria though.

There are more women than men in the area so that's not an issue (I.e 9 female branch managers and 3 male - but one of those male managers is the area directors son).

I don't know what info I am supposed to have divulged, I've received no information or correspondence, so I'm completely in the dark. I don't see any reason why they would suspect me of releasing information apart from that my husband has asked for salary info for a comparator and has put in a grievance about how he feels he was treated.

[Karen1983]

Re: Suspended pending investigation

Quick update. I've received my suspension letter which says that information came to light in my husbands grievance meeting which suggests I've divulged confidential salary info to him. This is not true, I haven't & I was in the meeting & nothing like that was mentioned.

On another note, my husband has received his outcome (whereas they find no evidence of discrimination and say they haven't breached any equal pay regulations). They haven't provided the minutes from the meeting but they have said in the letter that he had said he was given salary info by me. This categorically did not happen, nothing along those lines were said. So now I'm thinking I've been suspended either due to an error or for some kind of revenge!!

Also, in his outcome they've lied. They say he was due for promotion in April & a payrise to the same amount. As PA I know this is wrong, I did the spreadsheets and promotion proposals, yes he was due for a slight pay rise but not to the extent they are claiming and nowhere near the salary earned by the women in the same role. I know the dates of all salary review emails that would prove this is a lie or a cover up but what can I do? I get the impression they are going to dismiss me anyway (not a nice company to work for) so should I resign and give my husband the evidence he needs to prove they've lied & attempted to cover up the discrimination? I also know they have lied about there being no breach of the equal pay act. He's appealing of course.