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Disciplinary Hearing - How long is reasonable?
viktory
Posts: 7,635 Forumite
Warning...Vey long post. I have tried to keep it as short as possible.
My husband is currently in the throes of a disciplinary hearing at work. It is taking his company an age to come to any decision. Is there a time frame (even a reasonably elastic time frame?) that exceeded would be considered too long?
Bit of background...
My husband has worked for the company in question for approximately 3 years. The company is owned and run by a family group who belong to a certain religious group (not a 'mainstream' religious group for want of a better phrase). The work place is separated into warehouse and office. There are six people working the warehouse, including my husband.
At the start of the year my husband was suspended on full pay for allegedly failing to carry out a reasonable request. The suspension lasted a week before he was invited back to work. The disciplinary was not being handled appropriately (lack of note takers at the meetings and no minutes offered, plus other stuff) so we lodged a grievance.
The grievance cited harassment & bullying against three of the managers (all brothers) and included a list of witnesses that could confirm what my husband was complaining about. The grievance was dealt with very quickly - no one was suspended, none of the witnesses were interviewed. The brothers cited in the grievance were interviewed once, denied the claims and so the grievance was closed. We were offered the opportunity to appeal but they company refused to interview the witnesses and so there was no point. We also asked for an external HR company to be brought on board to ensure impartiality. They said no.
The disciplinary, at this stage, appeared to die a death although there was no resolution. We did write to the company and ask them to deal with the matter as it was unfair to leave it hanging over his head.
Fast forward to May. My husband and a colleague were suspended with allegations of bullying and harassment being lodged against them. On the same day he was suspended for this allegation he received a letter stating that the old disciplinary was being dropped.
The person that has lodged the new complaint is a member of the same faith as the owners and Directors of the company. He was allowed to have his initial grievance meeting at home, with his wife present. He was interviewed a total of six times. All the witnesses were interviewed multiple times - a couple of the interviews were after my husband had his disciplinary hearing.
We pretty much trashed their 'evidence'. Turned out the only witnesses were the person making the complaint and the Manager of the warehouse. However, the Manager's statement consistently change (he made three in total). For example, in his first statement he says that he cannot remember a key person being present, in his second he says that this person might have been present and in his third he definitely remembers him being there. There is also a huge amount of unsubstantiated and unwitnessed conversations that apparently took place (they didn't). This has all been added to add bulk to what is a very weak case. The two other warehouse members of staff gave two statements each confirming that they had not seen or heard any bullying or harassment. Two other members of staff were also cited, but then gave statements to say they also heard and witnessed nothing.
Anyway, the company finally wrote to my husband on 17th June enclosing more statements and saying that they are ready to make a decision and he should submit any additional documents by 24th June. We did this - and to date have heard absolutely nothing. Granted he is still being paid but it has been nearly eight weeks! The company is not big - approx. 20 employees - and most of them work in the office and therefore have got nothing to do with this.
So...have the company been unreasonable in taking so long to make a decision?
My husband is currently in the throes of a disciplinary hearing at work. It is taking his company an age to come to any decision. Is there a time frame (even a reasonably elastic time frame?) that exceeded would be considered too long?
Bit of background...
My husband has worked for the company in question for approximately 3 years. The company is owned and run by a family group who belong to a certain religious group (not a 'mainstream' religious group for want of a better phrase). The work place is separated into warehouse and office. There are six people working the warehouse, including my husband.
At the start of the year my husband was suspended on full pay for allegedly failing to carry out a reasonable request. The suspension lasted a week before he was invited back to work. The disciplinary was not being handled appropriately (lack of note takers at the meetings and no minutes offered, plus other stuff) so we lodged a grievance.
The grievance cited harassment & bullying against three of the managers (all brothers) and included a list of witnesses that could confirm what my husband was complaining about. The grievance was dealt with very quickly - no one was suspended, none of the witnesses were interviewed. The brothers cited in the grievance were interviewed once, denied the claims and so the grievance was closed. We were offered the opportunity to appeal but they company refused to interview the witnesses and so there was no point. We also asked for an external HR company to be brought on board to ensure impartiality. They said no.
The disciplinary, at this stage, appeared to die a death although there was no resolution. We did write to the company and ask them to deal with the matter as it was unfair to leave it hanging over his head.
Fast forward to May. My husband and a colleague were suspended with allegations of bullying and harassment being lodged against them. On the same day he was suspended for this allegation he received a letter stating that the old disciplinary was being dropped.
The person that has lodged the new complaint is a member of the same faith as the owners and Directors of the company. He was allowed to have his initial grievance meeting at home, with his wife present. He was interviewed a total of six times. All the witnesses were interviewed multiple times - a couple of the interviews were after my husband had his disciplinary hearing.
We pretty much trashed their 'evidence'. Turned out the only witnesses were the person making the complaint and the Manager of the warehouse. However, the Manager's statement consistently change (he made three in total). For example, in his first statement he says that he cannot remember a key person being present, in his second he says that this person might have been present and in his third he definitely remembers him being there. There is also a huge amount of unsubstantiated and unwitnessed conversations that apparently took place (they didn't). This has all been added to add bulk to what is a very weak case. The two other warehouse members of staff gave two statements each confirming that they had not seen or heard any bullying or harassment. Two other members of staff were also cited, but then gave statements to say they also heard and witnessed nothing.
Anyway, the company finally wrote to my husband on 17th June enclosing more statements and saying that they are ready to make a decision and he should submit any additional documents by 24th June. We did this - and to date have heard absolutely nothing. Granted he is still being paid but it has been nearly eight weeks! The company is not big - approx. 20 employees - and most of them work in the office and therefore have got nothing to do with this.
So...have the company been unreasonable in taking so long to make a decision?
0
Comments
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Not necessarily - it can take some time and this isn't by any means a lengthy period compared to some. There is no reason why you cannot write and ask what is taking so long - but otherwise at this stage there is little to do but wait, I'm afraid.0
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Thanks, SarEl, as I thought. I had better suggest he starts painting the downstairs loo - we could be in for a long haul.0
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And the dole.
Why is their religion relevant out of interest?
Fortunately if he is sacked we can manage on my wages - and we have been advised we would have a very good case as a Tribunal, so we are prepared.
The faith aspect is relevant because they have clearly treated him very differently to that of his colleague who is of the same faith. The stark differences in the way they have treated the grievances, for example.
I have really given a very, very potted history so I appreciate it will be difficult for MSE'ers to fully understand.0
He may have a lot of time on his hands. This discussion has been closed.
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