Gross Misconduct

jim_walton

When you say got caught, you weren't working for somebody else whilst on the sick were you??? Something doesn't add up here.. If you were caught why fill in a self cert??

ohreally

If you were in receipt of occupational sick pay for the period concerned, offer to pay it back and be contrite.

How long were you off, was it one day and if it was, why did you self cert for a single day?

gettingready

Why don't you give ACAS a call?

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1461

Taken a friend with you is not as good as taking an Union Rep - are you in any Union?

If they class it as GM - they can sack you or even if they do not, that will stay on your HR file for 2 years so will make it very difficult for you to find an alternative employement.

I was stiched up at work some time ago and had a disciplinary and GM on my file for 2 years. I had a job offer from another place that was witheld because of the GM on my file.

I will not go into details as who knows who reads this here but just be very, very careful with this.

What I was accused off was much less then your case , I had Union Rep and the "company" still "won" and put GM on my file.

All the best and let us know how you get on.

psychopathbabble

Sorry for delay in replying. We have to fill in a self-cert before we talk to the office about our absence, it's procedure and if I had know they knew then I wouldn't have filled it in. I am taking a union rep in but im not part of the union.
Im just expecting the worst as then I can't be disappointed.

Bayblue

My opinion I suppose could be seen as view from the 'other side' but as a manager who has dealt with staff sickness over the years, and an employee myself, I tend to think that these things are not always cast in stone. After all you are still dealing with human beings and we all make silly mistakes after all.

The result of something like this often depends on things like..

Whether this has happened before;
Have you ever given them reason to suspect that you've lied about illness in the past?

How good someone is at their job, what their work record is like and how reliable and conscientious they have been in the past;
The fact is even in this economic climate good employees can be hard to find and take time to train up. No sensible employer would be willing to lose a decent employee over one single stupid mistake, unless it involved something like theft.

So in some circumatcnes there may well be room for negotiation.

Perahps things are not as totally straightforward as a one off mistake though. I don't mean to sound blunt but this action seems a bit severe for a one off, are you sure that this isn't the result of a culmination of things? You mention thought that you 'got caught'- how did that happen, why were they trying to catch you out, would they have any reason to doubt what you told them?

I'm also curious about the changing of the rotas at the last minute and why you couldn't just say that you'd already made plans? I'd like to think that they will be lenient, but I don't think that we've got the full picture here, so it's difficult to say.

Of course, they could just be a company which adheres to very strict principles reagrdless in which case I would advise you to hope for the best whilst at the same time making plans for the worst.

Good luck.

psychopathbabble

Thanks Bayblue sorry to be a little vague but as I've already said I don't want to go into too much detail as you never know who looks at these things. Due to the nature of my job, I can't change shifts at the last minute or I would have done. They rang me and stupidly I picked up the phone without thinking, hence catching me. I could have possibly talked my way out of it but just preferred to come clean.
And no I wasn't working for someone else. If you read the previous posts, I did it so I could attend one of my closest friends leaving party. Also, only have had 2 sick days this year I'm pretty sure I'm not on their hit list, I've only been late once to work this year too. It was a genuinely stupid thing to do and I regretted it as soon as I put the phone down after calling in sick and didn't particularly enjoy the event I went to, so I've definitely learnt my lesson.
Anyway got the meeting this week so all I can do is wait and hope and in the meantime make a plan of action.
Thanks for all the posts everyone.

Savvy_Sue

psychopathbabble wrote: »

Due to the nature of my job, I can't change shifts at the last minute or I would have done.

I think we can all appreciate this, BUT what you said at first was that THEY changed YOUR shifts at short notice.

If you had already said you were going to the leaving do and they changed your shift after that, then I think many of us feel that the correct response would have been "Sorry, I can't do that, I've got plans."

Now, there may be reasons why you can't do that, but employees are entitled to a private life! And it's difficult to have one if you never know from one day to the next when you are due to work.

So if the employer regularly or unreasonably changes shifts at the last minute, and does not ever accept "Sorry, I've made plans", then you might be able to use that chopping and changing as mitigation. I'm no expert, however ... just clutching at straws for you!

psychopathbabble

Sue, it's the nature of my job.... flexible one way (us for them) but not the other way (them for us)
however
I have been given a final written warning which I'm very happy about as at least I still have a job. Definitely learnt my lesson, and hopefully I'll never get in this situation again. Thanks for all your input an support!

bendix

As is always the case in things like this, it will be up to the employer. They do have grounds for gross misconduct, I'm afraid, and if they want to get rid of you generally you have given them the perfect inroad. If, on the other hand, they generally value you, they would obviously let it slide.

I think you have to face facts - many firms are trying to get rid of people at the moment and redundancy is expensive, and performance management is long and tiresome. If you're on the radar for any reason at all, employers will jump on an opportunity like this with passion. Sorry, but from what you've posted, it sounds to me like they are doing just that.



Edit: Just seen you got a written warning. Well done. Don't expose yourself like that again.