Resigning before being sacked?

donnaessex

Hi experts.

I am asking this for my sister who today has been suspended on full pay until an investigation has taken place (up to 28 days).

She is employed by an NHS department as a support worker of sorts and one of her clients was taken into hospital for 3 weeks. Whilst in there, she asked my sister to get her some money out, which she did. She knows now that she was stupid, but said at the time she didnt think anything of it. The client made a comment in passing to her manager and another support worker who was visiting her yesterday. There was no complaint made, but still what she did can be taken as gross misconduct as she was told in a meeting this morning.

She knows she will be sacked. Her department are already on a redundancy consultation and she is also last in (been working there 11 months) and even though that cant be used for criteria on redundancy situations, it doesnt look good.

Her question is - if she resigns in 2 weeks or so, will they have to pay her notice pay? And another question was - as she needs enhanced CRB checks for this type of job, will the disciplinary still take place if she's given her notice in?

DVardysShadow

The disciplinary should not be relevant to a CRB! What will be relevant is if a complaint is made to police, in which case it will be added as tittle tattle. This will not be avoided by avoiding the disciplinary. If she is in a union, she should get her rep involved ASAP. And even though she has been told it is Gross Misconduct, that does not necessarily mean it is.

donnaessex

DVardysShadow wrote: »

The disciplinary should not be relevant to a CRB! What will be relevant is if a complaint is made to police, in which case it will be added as tittle tattle. This will not be avoided by avoiding the disciplinary. If she is in a union, she should get her rep involved ASAP. And even though she has been told it is Gross Misconduct, that does not necessarily mean it is.

Thanks DVardyShadow. She wasnt sure just how indepth the CRB checks were. I presume though that if she is sacked for gross misconduct that would be put on the check?

I doubt very much whether they will get the police involved - there have been no allegations of stealing etc - I hope they dont anyway. She was told it would probably be gross misconduct as it was seen as taking advantage of a vulnerable adult?

MrsManda

CRB checks cover criminal activity. If the police are not involved it won't be included on her CRB check.
Just one thought about resigining is that if she wants to claim benefits she may be sansationed for voluntarilly leaving her job.

SarEl

But resigning does not mean that she can get out of the disciplinary, nor that it won't be mentioned in references. If she resigns the employer can strill expect her to turn up at a disciplinary during her notice period, and she can still be sacked during that time. Then, since the allegations have been made, any reference can state that she resigned whilst under investigation for gross misconduct (and that is always read as "resigned because she was guilty" by potential employers), or, if a disciplinary allegation is made, "resigned pending a disciplinary for gross misconduct" (read the same way)! So really, at this stage, it doesn't matter what her CRB says because her reference will probably say it all - and very definitely will say it all as far as any job working with vulnerable people in the future is concerned. So she may as well stay and defend herself; and if she had genuine cause not to realise that what she was doing was wrong (no training or instructions to the contrary etc) and there was no question of impropriety or theft on her part, at least try to present an appeal / tribunal case if she is dismissed on the basis that the outcome was disproportionate to the offence (assuming she can get another 4 weeks employment - might be a good time to go sick with stress for a couple of weeks and insist on a postponement of any disciplinary due to her sickness - and that must be supported by the GP to be effective). She has no more to loose by sticking it out, and may have less to loose if she stands up for herself.

Uncertain

I agree with much of SarEl's comments.

Don't resign!

With a large ponderous organisation like the NHS she should be able to stall and mess them around for weeks with a bit of care. I'm sure the stress of all this will take her to her doctor etc etc.

Might also be a good time to complain that she was authorised / instructed to do this by a senior person and generally stir up a hornets nest!

Even if the outcome is the same, she will then be over the magic year so can make a claim which they may very well settle for a modest amount regardless of the rights and wrongs. In the meantime she is on full pay and accruing paid holiday.

donnaessex

Thanks all for your input.

SarEl - I said this to her myself. She has never had any training on the job apart from one day being trained on the database - no vocational training to explain the procedures etc of the department. Her manager said in the meeting this morning that she should have asked her client to sign a financial disclosure form or something and my sister didnt even know what that was?

I'll tell her to try and stick it out and see if she can appeal against the decision if it comes to it.

SarEl

donnaessex wrote: »

Thanks all for your input.

SarEl - I said this to her myself. She has never had any training on the job apart from one day being trained on the database - no vocational training to explain the procedures etc of the department. Her manager said in the meeting this morning that she should have asked her client to sign a financial disclosure form or something and my sister didnt even know what that was?

I'll tell her to try and stick it out and see if she can appeal against the decision if it comes to it.

If this is the case then she may stand a reasonable chance of arguing a dismissal as unfair at a tribunal, but you may have to help her!

Savvy_Sue

Agree with SarEl, and there's another reason for staying to argue that she had not received appropriate training.

When the ISA Vetting and Barring scheme comes in (if it ever does, I guess!) then employers will have a duty to notify the ISA of any behaviour which causes concern in relation to children or vulnerable adults. I don't know the exact wording, but I fear that being sacked for GM in relation to finance would be the kind of thing the ISA would expect to know about.

Now, one offence shouldn't make her unemployable, but she could do without it, because it may follow her around if she stays in this line of work!