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

John_Davros_Cooper

tomstickland wrote:

Sadly for them, you have some basic rights as an employee. Get the union involved first thing on Monday.

Mobile phones were created for these sorts of situations. Phone your union rep NOW and leave a message. They will get back to you when they can - if on monday, by lunchtime, they haven't got back then phone again. It is more than likely the rep will give you a preparatory call over the course of the w/end.

If they moan it is late and you woke them up, politely point out you were expecting to leave a message but wanted to alert them as soon as possible.

Regards and Good Luck!
John

everythingblogcast

Take it that the managers are thick or smiple and cant figure out that everyone will loss their jobs so everyone is !!!!!! off with them. Stay you ground dont let them bully you. Also ask for money for coming in today as it was remembers day, and you were anger at that after all you have to remember the people who give up their lives for us to have are freedom. Also you had to get there etc..

ABN

angchris wrote:

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

Knowingly done so guilty as charged.

tomstickland

Guilty of what?
If you went to a shop and the shop worker said "oh you can have another discount on them" then it's not the customer's responsibility.

The OP is not guilty of anything.

bobsa1

Do you have a policy about how you paid for goods. eg if staff were buying from the shop did it have to be rung through/witnessed by a manager or anything like that and if so did you follow the policy?

If not and you just paid what was asked I would imagine that there is a minor issue of knowing that the goods were being underpriced but speak to your union asap.

dmg24

Knowing that goods are deliberately being underpriced is fraud, and therefore not a minor issue. It is irrelevant that it was not you that set the price.

Whilst I do sympathise with your situation, and I do think that they are using this issue to get rid of people, unfortunately you were in the wrong by taking the goods at the incorrect price.

I would try to mitigate your circumstances, write a letter of apology saying that at the time you did not realise that it was wrong, and that you are very sorry, and will of course pay the relevant difference in the price of the goods.

To be gross misconduct you need to know that you were actually doing something wrong, so such a letter should go a long way in mitigating your circumstances.

Though I hope they would not take it this far, this is something that people have been prosecuted for in the past. In this situation it was a holiday that was knowingly mispriced, so on a much bigger scale, but it is still the same principle.

I do hope you get this sorted, but I do think that admitting your mistake is the best course of action.

On another note, the company were wrong in calling you in without prior notice, and the opportunity to be accompanied. However, companies are notoriously good at getting around this, by offering to start the disciplinary process again, but with different people investigating.

Let us know how you get on x

Shazmar_2

First get your Union involved immediately. If your workplace is to close the union should have been contacted by the company and involved in talks by law. Further you should have been informed of your right to be accompanied by your union rep when you were called in to the office and given time to organise this, again by law. Your company is in breach of the law as much as you possibly were and any union will wipe the floor with them. Please inform all your colleagues of this and tell those who resigned to rescind it immediately a raise a charge of bullying and intimidation against the management. Don't delay any further in getting the union involved.

tomstickland

Knowing that goods are deliberately being underpriced is fraud

So what about the misprice offers that people use on there then?

dmg24

tomstickland wrote:

So what about the misprice offers that people use on there then?

Completely different situations.

The Tesco R&R scenario is that actually people are paying more than the advertised price for an item, and then taking advantage of Tesco's own policy to get the item for free.

If you are referring to other general misprices, then the difference is that the company is still offering to sell you an item at this price, not the individual behind the till.

Furthermore, in the situation described by the OP there is collusion, of which there is not in a general misprice situation.

The comparisons do not stand up.

If you walked into Tesco (or any other supermarket), and were served by someone that you knew, who said 'I'm going to give you this for a lower price just because it's you, and it is against the rules' then this would be fraud, as you are aware that the supermarket itself are not willing to sell you the good at the price you attempt to buy it at. This is the situation that the OP has in effect described.

I really do have sympathy for the OP's situation, but I would still be inclined to hold my hands up and state that I didn't realise that what I were doing was wrong, but that I now accept that it was and apologise.

tomstickland

What if someone behind the till just said "it's less than the listed price? It's happened to me before, at a car parts place. The price almost halved. Was I committing a fraud? I didn't know the worker, they just gave me a discount or the part was reduce price. I don't know why but I wasn't going to argue.

I don't think the OP should admit to anything. They were served by someone who gave them a discount.