Disciplinary for Time-sheets Next Week Need Help Please

[pjasckson]

Hello

I have a close friend with an issue I'm wondering if you could give some advice. I will give you a run down of the current situation, and some points which with my little knowledge think need to be raised.

They have been given a letter asking to attend a disciplinary along with some "evidence". The main issue is an allegation of falsifying timesheets which have resulted in extra money being received. Copies have been given dating back to December 2016. Witness statements have also been supplied by staff members "unnamed". My friend disagrees with these claims.

• The witness statement says that this staff member has been altering the timesheets since December 2016 as they didn't think it was right that my friend has the hours which were put down. This staff member we believe is not management, so unsure why they would be changing anything without informing my friend or line management.
• My friend has said that she was not told to complete timesheets herself until the end of Feb 2017, of which she has been forgetting and other staff have been completing for her. So she knows for a fact any times Dec 2016 - Feb 2017 were not completed by her anyway, yet these are included in this. There is also no signature area on the timesheets to confirm who has submitted them, or any initials when amendments have been made.
• Also the witness does not say they have seen my friend fill in the timesheet, which would not have been possible prior to Feb 2017 as she was not completing them, yet corrections were being made.
• The corrections which have been done by this staff which they state they have done them all have different hand writing styles. Numbers have been crossed out and replaced. We would expect all amendments to be of the same handwriting style if its all supposed to be 1 person doing this but they are different.
• Although evidence has been provided my friend has not been asked for her account and she he been suspended and asked to attend a disciplinary on the 24th, I don't see how reasonable investigation could have been done with asking for her side?
• Along with this there has been an issue raised about work quality but there has been no written or verbal communication about this prior to this.
• It seems to be a bit a a witch hunt and personally based on the points I raised above I think someone has made changes to timesheets to make this allegation.

Any questions let me know.

Thanks

[pjasckson]

Re: Disciplinary for Time-sheets Next Week Need Help Please

Ok well had meeting and the timesheets issue were dropped. Friend was still dismissed but for poor quality of work and falsification of records, these records being signing that that had done a job when the company disagree it was done.

Falsification seems be a word they like to use I guess as gross misconduct leads to dismissal. The poor quality of work has no documentation about warnings, informing my friend of such nothing. Basically never appears anywhere until this meeting about timesheets and because that was proven to be false they moved it to quality of work.

I need to appeal for them but not sure what level of content I should put in the letter? Should I keep it brief or detail everything in full. At this stage I fear they will forge items to support their false claims.

Please help.

[ULA]

Re: Disciplinary for Time-sheets Next Week Need Help Please

Firstly, how long has our friend been employed by the company? Secondly if you are helping your friend to appeal then it needs to be as detailed as possible and done within any timescales that the company has given for receiving an appeal.

[pjasckson]

Re: Disciplinary for Time-sheets Next Week Need Help Please

2 years and have to appeal by next Monday.

[ULA]

Re: Disciplinary for Time-sheets Next Week Need Help Please

So the appeal needs to be detailed and where possible evidence provided.

In terms of the falsification it needs to detail the reasons why your friend felt the job had been done for them to sign off on it. If it was work against a specification or standard it needs to be detailed how the work on their opinion met those requirements.

With regard to the poor quality of work the appeal needs to be based around the fact that this is the first time anything has been mentioned and therefore no time has been allowed for an improvement to be made. The best practice course of action should be a performance improvement plan put in place over a period of time with measureable objectives for improvement in the quality of work. If the quality of work did not improve then this would be subject to disciplinary action.

[pjasckson]

Re: Disciplinary for Time-sheets Next Week Need Help Please

Thie own policy states they should be a formal hearing to discuss issues. Then set targets and arrange when to review.

None of this has been done so they are treating her differently to other staff.

They are saying everything was verbal and that anything that was documented they can not find.

I fear they will produce fake documents for the appeal which is going to be hard to argue against.

[ULA]

Re: Disciplinary for Time-sheets Next Week Need Help Please

If they have this within their own policy then you need to "quote" this in the appeal document. If they are saying that everything is verbal and nothing has been documented then it will look really strange for them to be able to suddenly produce something. It should have been available for them to rely on at the disciplinary and therefore have been provided to your friend when they were invited to the hearing so that they could have had time to prepare their defence based on what had information has been given by the firm.

In the meantime if your friend did not get a copy of the notes taken at the meeting with the letter confirming the outcome of the disciplinary hearing then ask for them ASAP. Get your friend to go through them and if there is any discrepancy in the company's version of the notes to their recollection of the hearing this needs to be documented.

[pjasckson]

Re: Disciplinary for Time-sheets Next Week Need Help Please

Yes I will request a copy of notes. I will update upon outcome of appeal.

Thanks

[mariefab]

Re: Disciplinary for Time-sheets Next Week Need Help Please

Send in a quick note stating that she would like to appeal. State also that she will provide more information, on the grounds for the appeal, after she receives their notes of the disciplinary hearing.

[mariefab]

Re: Disciplinary for Time-sheets Next Week Need Help Please

Study the letter that she received inviting her to the disciplinary hearing carefully.
Does it only refer to discrepancies in the timesheets and nothing else at all?
(You could quote a redacted copy of it here, if you like)

Because, if absolutely no suggestion of poor performance or uncompleted work can be found there, it should be easy to get the decision overturned at appeal.

Employers can't (legitimately) invite employees to a disciplinary hearing for one documented reason then, without notice, go on to dismiss them for an entirely different reason.

[pjasckson]

Re: Disciplinary for Time-sheets Next Week Need Help Please

Poor quality work is detailed in the disciplinary letter secondly to the timesheet fraud. But there is no mention of falsification of the work rota, which is what they have used as gross misconduct to dismiss her.

Study the letter that she received inviting her to the disciplinary hearing carefully.
Does it only refer to discrepancies in the timesheets and nothing else at all?
(You could quote a redacted copy of it here, if you like)

Because, if absolutely no suggestion of poor performance or uncompleted work can be found there, it should be easy to get the decision overturned at appeal.

Employers can't (legitimately) invite employees to a disciplinary hearing for one documented reason then, without notice, go on to dismiss them for an entirely different reason.