Disciplinary Help!!!

no-oneknowsme

MrRedundant , no-one said that unpaid suspension was illegal . It does howevr have to be stated in the contract regarding whether any periods of suspension will be with/without pay.

Hence why i asked the OP to check her Husbands contract . Its bad enough being suspended but if he should be getting paid whilst suspended then surely thats something he should be asking his employer about ?

Once again...taken from the business link website :

Suspending an employee while an investigation takes place

For certain serious offences you may need to suspend an employee while you investigate the matter. They should continue to receive their full pay.
You can only suspend an employee without pay if this is allowed in their contract of employment. However, try to avoid unpaid suspension as it may appear to penalise an employee before any disciplinary hearing has taken place.

stephbond89

they get around the suspension as he is simply "de allocated from shifts" meaning he isnt given work, but he isnt "suspended"!!!! Very cleverly worded. Trust me the company are NOT up on their law...but they clearly got a clever lawyer to write theiur contract. The manager himself is a prat who couldnt find his way out of a paper bag. Hence why he has to ajourn the meeting to get some legal advice about the fact my husband is on anti depressants which he clearly forgot about.

No we have no personal legal cover, we dont own our home, its rented so have no buildings insurance only contents which legal cover didnt come with. Our car is insured by my mother, she doesnt have the lawyer either.

MrRedundant

stephbond89 wrote: »

You cannot OPT OUT of the 11 horus between shifts. You can opt out of the 48 hour working week, whuich he has done and was happy to do and is not disputing.

As I said, 1% of people get the drowsiness...it had never affected him before, he personally thought he was simply tired from the working hours, it wasnt until he spoke to his doctor that he realised it was actually his meds...he would have immediately told his work IF he hadnt already been dismissed for it. As I say, it came on of a weekend, doctors are not open then...it was Tuesday beforehe could see a doctor by which time, he had already been suspended.

As far as Im concerned its disability discrimination if he is fired as he told them he was on anti depressants from the word go, they didnt take note clearly, they ignored it and put him onto high stress working hours, which eventually caught up with my husband.

Any legal reference material to back any of this up beyond your opinion?

I would also add I dont see what you hope to achieve from the above. None of it mitigates the misconduct.

stephbond89

Depends which part your talking?? The no opt out of the 11 hours between shifts. Yes we spoke to ACAS who were the ones who told us this!

And as far as I am concenred, it DOES mitigate falling asleep in work, mitigating circumstances are anything which lead to the incident occuring. They can be anything. A new baby is a mitigating circumstance. The fact she was ill the weekend in question and had been awake all night all weekend is a mitigating circumstance. The fact that my husbands medication had clearly began to stop working is a mitigating circumstance. Him been so overtired from the work he was doing so soon after having such an extensive leave is a mitigating circumstance. Simply being overtired is a mitigating circumstance. So yes there ARE mitigating circumstances! He didnt go off from his desk and lie down in a quiet corner, he dropped off for 10 minutes unintentionally!!!

liney

Security Guards are one of the exceptions to the WTRegs: In these cases, instead of getting normal breaks, you are entitled to 'compensatory rest'. This is rest taken later, ideally during the same or following working day. The principle is that everyone gets a minimum 90 hours rest a week on average. This is the total of your entitlement to daily and weekly rest periods, although some rest may come slightly later than normal http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/WorkingHoursAndTimeOff/DG_10029451

I really can't see an ET accepting that your DH fell asleep because of meds he's been taking for 3 years, when you just happen to have a new baby and it's never happened before. Falling asleep is of course Gross Misconduct, and your DH should be waiting to bow and scrape and hope for a final written warning.

As for the 'suspension', I am guessing he's on a zero hour contract, and that therefore they are neither obliged to pay him for this time, nor provide him with hours to work?

stephbond89

Depends which part your talking?? The no opt out of the 11 hours between shifts. Yes we spoke to ACAS who were the ones who told us this!

And as far as I am concenred, it DOES mitigate falling asleep in work, mitigating circumstances are anything which lead to the incident occuring. They can be anything. A new baby is a mitigating circumstance. The fact she was ill the weekend in question and had been awake all night all weekend is a mitigating circumstance. The fact that my husbands medication had clearly began to stop working is a mitigating circumstance. Him been so overtired from the work he was doing so soon after having such an extensive leave is a mitigating circumstance. Simply being overtired is a mitigating circumstance. So yes there ARE mitigating circumstances! He didnt go off from his desk and lie down in a quiet corner, he dropped off for 10 minutes unintentionally!!!

stephbond89

thanks you seem to be the only person who knows about the WTR and this explains more to me whats going on a bit more I dont want to go in there and seem a prat coming out with things which arent correct, thats why I started the post in the first place to get my facts 100% right before going to his boss with it! It has never been about getting one over on them, my husband did wrong, we know that. But we dont want him to lose his job iof course we dont, NOBODY wants to lose a job and we will obviously think of all we can to try and ensure he doesnt get fired.

The doctor did say that my husbands work and the fact we have a new baby are all factors in his sleepiness but that his medication is another factor in it, and i think its only fair his employersd are made aware of that.

MrRedundant

Haha so someone tells you what you want to hear and they know what their talking about. Still waiting for something other than a phone call with someone working in a call centre to back up your claim the 11 hour cannot be opted out of and was breached here.

Maybe your OH should apologise and come up with solutions to ensure it doesnt happen again rather than trying to create hassle and get out of this situation by blaming them.

Torry_Quine

I just wanted to say that I feel for you at this difficult time. The anti-depressants are a factor but they are always marked with advice such as can cause drowsiness and if affected changes may need to be made such as not driving or operating heavy machinery. I am therefore not surprised that with a young baby he fell asleep. The drowsiness though is more acute when the medication is new or the doseage changed rater than when he'd been on it for a while.

Sadly this could easily be seen as a reason for dismissal even if no previous problems.

Has his work mentioned anything about Occupational Health as because he has his health as a mitigating factor they need to get him medically assessed?

prosaver

MrRedundant wrote: »

Pro-Saver. What are you on about? Care to back up any of your post with legal argument?

Re the suspension. Unpaid suspension is not illegal; the case law however does limit this from being excessive. The OP has unpaid if not allocated shifts so its half right. What is the discliplinary process?

I am suspecting it will cover them. the company seems to be quite on with their behaviour from a legal stance.

what are you on about you mean... what qualification have got got eh?
health and safety act ,duty of care. read it- and learn or shall I say weep