investigated for gross misconduct or resign.. what do i do?

angchris · 12 November 2006 at 1:08AM

i have happily worked at a food shop doing the same job for 8/9 years, the huge company who shall remain nameless :rolleyes: (but proffess to be working for the benefit of the community they trade in and are active in selling fair trade produce i think you can guess who it is!;) ) anyway to cut a long story short out of the blue last week they announced that this particular convienience store was to cease trading beginning of dec, it all happened so quick the staff didnt even have time to get the union involved :mad: we were all promised that they would relocate us to thier other stores etc as redundancy wasnt an option and we would be looked after and our jobs would be safe:rotfl: since this announcement everything in the store has been reduced to clear to get shot of it, i picked up several items that were reduced got to the till happy to pay what the price the shop was asking and the lad at the till reduced them quite abit further off his own back with no prompting from me i might add as he was so hacked off at the way we had been treated by said employer.
anywayyyyyy today i was phoned at home and asked to go in immediately where i was led into an office where 2 of the managers were sat down and promptly got a big grilling over it anyway the outcome was i could either resign immediately or be investigated for gross misconduct, can they do this as it wasnt my fault the lad reduced the stuff further??

as i previousely said i was more than happy to pay what was being asked by the shop for the goods but i ended up paying what the lad asked me as thats what he totted it up to be.... i decided to be investigated and have now been suspended on full pay awaiting investigation, i left the office only to bump into some of the other staff only to find that today at least 5 of us have been dragged in 2 had resigned not sure of the other 2 they are either under investigation the same as me or have already resigned and this is only what i have heard about so far!!!!:mad: :mad: now there are only 17 staff in this particular shop and im sure that there will be more than i have heard of dragged in and offered "resignation or investigation" so far 5 out of 17 is quite a high % of staff being found fault in, it all stinks of "the shops shutting, lets try our hardest to get shot of them all as they have served their purpose and are no longer needed" they seem to be really nitpicking to whittle the staff down:mad: :mad: if they frighten us all into resignation now then its less work for them as we are all obviousely surplus to requirements now :rolleyes: does anyone know what my rights are? where do i stand with buying this stuff? do they have a case against me as it wasnt by my doing i am in this mess

tomstickland · 12 November 2006 at 1:14AM

Stand up and be investigated. You paid what the shop worker asked, so I don't think you have done anything wrong.

Absolutely don't resign. Make as much trouble as you can; they're just looking for an easy, hassle free life.

barnabee · 12 November 2006 at 1:18AM

Oh for the love of god (Victor Meldrew voice!) - resign and take a course in punctuation whilst looking for your next employment.

nelliebag · 12 November 2006 at 1:19AM

I'm not a lawyer but surely they would have to 'investigate' first to assess whether you are actually guilty of anything. Sounds a bit fishy to me - I would suggest ringing your local citizen's advice first thing on Monday and at least they can give you some idea of the next step or who else to speak to.

Poppy9 · 12 November 2006 at 1:21AM

You mention in your OP your union. Contact them and refuse to be interviewed again without the union present. I think they should have warned you that you were being invited in for a disciplinary hearing, which is what it was in effect.

Do not resign as you will lose entitlement to redundancy pay, tell your colleagues who have been forced to resign to contact the union immediately too. If you are not in a Union contact a solicitor.

Good luck.

tomstickland · 12 November 2006 at 1:21AM

barnabee wrote:

Oh for the love of god (Victor Meldrew voice!) - resign and take a course in punctuation whilst looking for your next employment.

What are you trying to acheive with this post? The OP's abililty to punctuate is entirely separate from their honesty and correct payment for goods.

droopsnout · 12 November 2006 at 1:22AM

angchris wrote:

it all happened so quick the staff didnt even have time to get the union involved

Perhaps now would be a good time to give them a ring urgently. (Assuming you're a member). Good luck.

Edit: We're all posting at the same time. Just seen poppy9's post and agree fully. Barnabee, sorry but your post is just crass, apparently showing the same kind of attitude as angchris' employers. Here is someone asking for help in a crisis, and your reply is adding insult to injury.

John_Davros_Cooper · 12 November 2006 at 1:31AM

I would back up that the Unions must be involved. I would also ask who told the store closure was "too quick" for the unions to be involved? It can never be too quick for a union to be involved - everyone has rights for a reason!

regards
John

angchris · 12 November 2006 at 1:37AM

thanks for your quick replies, i never was very good at english:o it doesnt help with the fact that i am sat here alone fuming and the post all kinda came out in one emotional blurb

had i of realised thats what i was being called in for today i would of got the union rep to go with me, but i guess that is what they wanted, to catch me unawares as it were :mad: so i had no time to really think about what i was saying, they just kept asking me did i want to resign now forcing me to make a choice.
after coming home and having time to think about what was said i think they were really out of order :mad:

John_Davros_Cooper · 12 November 2006 at 1:38AM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onelife/work/rights/law_redund.shtml

I would draw your attention to this, whilst apreciating you are being "relocated" it also sounds like the company are just trying to find any excuse to get rid of people. If they can do it on trumped up charges then they don't have to pay out - if , on the other hand, they do have to get rid of you legally then they will have to pay you off if you are a good employee.

I would also suggest jotting down the details of this interrogation etc as that is some serious harrasment from the company - who knows you may just need to take them to an employment tribunal for harrasment and stress.

http://www.employmenttribunals.gov.uk/claim/making_a_claim.htm

read the guidance here and ensure that you, and all your colleges know your rights at the moment and then future rights. Then, if things go wrong you've covered all your basis to start with so won't be laughed out on a technicality.

ULTIMATLY : ENSURE YOUR UNION IS INVOLVED AND IF YOUR LOCAL REP IS USELESS TRY AND CONTACT THEIR REGIONAL SUPPORT LEADER
*Note : I speak in capitals not to annoy but to underline the severity of the situation *
(I'm guessing you are USDAW and here is the link to their workers rights page and booklet (free to download)

http://www.usdaw.org.uk/getactive/resource_library/1082730063_14469.html

Regards
John

tomstickland · 12 November 2006 at 1:40AM

It does seem like they've just hoped to pressurise people into resigning under threat of "investigation".
What a bunch of !!!!!!s.
Sadly for them, you have some basic rights as an employee. Get the union involved first thing on Monday.
Make sure that this whole thing turns into a lot more effort than they expected.
Talk to the Citizens Advice. There's nothing people like this hate more than people knowing their rights.

investigated for gross misconduct or resign.. what do i do?

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