I've been suspended!

[geoff0880]

Hi Guys/gals

So as the title states, I've been suspended well not personally but my OH has however I think my employer (who is a person, by no means corporate) has made a few errors and was hoping to get some clarification.

1st of all my job is one that I could do on a self employed basis thus it's in my contract that I'm not allowed conduct similar services outside of my employment. Pretty standard stuff.

Now what has happened is that I had been in conversations with another employee about setting up a business doing similar services and had only got as far as registering a domain. No services have been offered or carried out.

My employer found this information out as this other employee had their PC 'open' with their personal facebook page open. My employer happened upon it and proceeded to scroll through the personal facebook messages between this employee and myself.
This was all prior to me being suspended, but to me this constitutes an "investigation" or work thereof all of which took place prior to me being suspended. So any evidence gained during this time can not be used in any hearing. Am I right on this point?

I would argue that my employer was in breach of this other employers privacy and has implicated themselves in a whole other issue.

As I understand it any investigation has to be conducted after suspension hence being suspended pending an investigation. I feel that this is very 'murky' and not very clear cut and my employer doesn't really have any grounds for a gross misconduct outcome should they reach one.

what are your thoughts?

TIA

[Kati]

Re: I've been suspended!

tagging [MENTION=51026]Ula[/MENTION] xx

[ULA]

Re: I've been suspended!

Sorry your post is a bit confusing who has been suspended your or your OH. Do you both work for the same company? Who is setting up the new company you or your OH? If you both work for the same company but it is you speaking to another employee about working in a new company you are setting up not sure why your OH has been suspended.

Also what policies does you employer have in place about personal use of computers/internet etc. during working time.

[geoff0880]

Re: I've been suspended!

Sorry your post is a bit confusing who has been suspended your or your OH. Do you both work for the same company? Who is setting up the new company you or your OH? If you both work for the same company but it is you speaking to another employee about working in a new company you are setting up not sure why your OH has been suspended.

Also what policies does you employer have in place about personal use of computers/internet etc. during working time.

Yeah sorry for the confusion. It's not me although I've written it as if it is. It's my partner she is the one that has been suspended. I don't work there.
It was a Facebook chat that has been read on an unlocked work PC. In order to read the chat that has been read you would have to scroll back through the history.

The chat was only a conversation about setting up a company, no company has been set up. My OH was speaking to another employee and they were talking about doing the start up together.

[jaguarsuk]

Re: I've been suspended!

My initial thought not as someone with knowledge of employment law, but just from what's said is that the looking at the Facebook messages is not an investigation. The employer has been looking and happened upon the information, they have now suspended your OH and an investigation should be conducted.

At the investigation they will not doubt produce the conversation and ask your OH to explain at some sort of interview and make a decision from there.

On the privacy issue, that's all well and good, but the employee whose Facebook has been seen might be falling foul of the employers social media usage policy if they have one and therefore not wish to make any complaint about it.

From a personal experience, everyone in you OH's office will be telling her just how they support her and how they'll help her, when it comes to the crunch none of them will. She shouldn't discuss anything about this with colleagues and just prepare for what she's going to say when asked to account for the conversation.

Oh, plus anything you say online should be treated as being shouted to a bar full of people regardless of privacy settings. If you want to keep it private or only discuss it with one person, don't publish it.

[ULA]

Re: I've been suspended!

As I and [MENTION=104499]jaguarsuk[/MENTION] have said there may be some social media/personal use of the internet/personal use of computer equipment type policies that the company may have in place which means that use of them in this manner during business hours may be in contravention of these policies. Also if they have monitoring of emails and general communication as being something the company does as part of a policy then it would not be wise to carry out "personal stuff" on work computer equipment. It would be worth getting your OH to check what policies of this type they have in place.

Since there is a clause in your OH's contract about not being allowed to conduct similar services outside of the current employment then I would suggest this will be the focus of the investigation and where they will use the evidence from the Facebook chat. They may also ask the person concerned to write a statement. They may as part of the investigation ask to have a meeting with your OH but this does not always happen.

What will then happen is either they will decide, following the investigation, there is nothing to pursue in which case your OH should be allowed to return to work or if they feel there is case to take disciplinary action then your OH will be invited to attend a disciplinary meeting.

One thing I forgot to ask is what is your OH's length of service?

[geoff0880]

Re: I've been suspended!

My initial thought not as someone with knowledge of employment law, but just from what's said is that the looking at the Facebook messages is not an investigation. The employer has been looking and happened upon the information, they have now suspended your OH and an investigation should be conducted.

My way of thinking by way of way scrolling through messages is an act that would constitute investigating as to investigate is to explore, to discover and scrolling through messages is a deliberate act with an intent to find information and irrespective of company policy is a breach of privacy as defined by the Human Rights Act. As I say this is my opinion albeit very nit picky. The small company requires it's staff to use Facebook (personal also) as it uses the messenger service as it's main group communication method. So in this instance you'd expect a greater degree of respect for ones privacy seeing as though you have to use your own account or a account.

From a personal experience, everyone in you OH's office will be telling her just how they support her and how they'll help her, when it comes to the crunch none of them will. She shouldn't discuss anything about this with colleagues and just prepare for what she's going to say when asked to account for the conversation.

Totally agree.

Oh, plus anything you say online should be treated as being shouted to a bar full of people regardless of privacy settings. If you want to keep it private or only discuss it with one person, don't publish it.

As mentioned above, the messages weren't in the public domain. I did fail to mention the facebook account that was open wasn't my OH it was the other suspended party.

- - - Updated - - -

Since there is a clause in your OH's contract about not being allowed to conduct similar services outside of the current employment then I would suggest this will be the focus of the investigation and where they will use the evidence from the Facebook chat. They may also ask the person concerned to write a statement. They may as part of the investigation ask to have a meeting with your OH but this does not always happen.

What will then happen is either they will decide, following the investigation, there is nothing to pursue in which case your OH should be allowed to return to work or if they feel there is case to take disciplinary action then your OH will be invited to attend a disciplinary meeting.

One thing I forgot to ask is what is your OH's length of service?

It was only a conversation discussing plans of a business but no work was ever done.

She has been with her employer for 5 years.

Thanks for everyones replies so far