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

angchris

if i had intentionally gone to the till with the goods and knew that the lad involved was going to drop the prices then i`d hold my hands up and say "its a fair cop" but i walked in off the street like any other customer that night, i had no idea who was on the till...i was going to buy the stuff anyway in fact i didnt even know the lads name at that time as i have never worked with him before as we do different shifts. it wasnt untill he asked for the amount that i realised he had knocked it down further as i wasnt really paying attention to what he was doing,and by that time he already had my debit card and was putting it through. although in hindsight now i wish i`d questioned the amount and stopped the transaction:rolleyes: i have been honest from the beginning with this although i can see from the point of view of the shop it is "collusion" as they dont know what the conversation was at the till.
from now on im not attending any meeting without the union rep being present.
with regards to the other members of staff they are being pulled up about using supervisors numbers to put things through the till that dont scan, we are not supposed to have the supervisors numbers but it has been common practice for everyone to use them ever since i have been working there otherwise we would be dragging them out of the offices every 2 minutes for something simple we can sort out ourselves, staff are now being pulled over the coals for using these numbers when in fact if we werent supposed to use them then we shouldnt know them!! simple as that! it should be the supervisors that get into trouble for letting us use them not us. its just very convienient that they choose this time and not the 8 years previous to clamp down on it :mad: oh well i guess i`ve just got to bite the bullet and see what happens from now on, it just infuriates me that we are getting diciplinaries (sp) because of the way the shop has been run which isnt our fault at all.

Beamish

I agree with everyone else, seek help asap.

I would strongly advise you to write everything down now, e.g. The date, time you went into Managers office, the names of those who interviewed you, also try and remember as much as you can about the conversation, also remember to take note of the other members of staff who were disciplined today.

The reason I say this is that if you call in C.A.B. they will want to know exactly what happened and what was said, it's better to do it now whilst its still fresh in your mind, also it will be useful for the Union Rep as well.

Good luck...fight it all the way

Beem

looby75

I know the company you are talking about very well...I worked for them 8 years ago, and my sister worked for them for a year or so. They make out that they are a caring company but they aren't, it's all marketing and media hype.

My sister died 2 years ago, she had a heart transplant 7 years before she passed away and was fit and well until a few weeks before she died. The Co in question knew of her condition as she told them about it at her interview. She also informed them that she had to attend hospital appointments every 3 months at the hospital where her transplant took place ( over 100 miles away from where she lived) and that she had to be there in before 7am as she had to have blood taken before she took her daily anti rejection drugs. At first they were ok about arranging her shifts around her hospital appointments but very quickly they started to make a fuss about her needing the time off and told her that she would have to make the time up when she got back from her appointment. This meant that she had to get up at 3 am to make sure she got to the hospital in time for her bloods, have all the tests, wait for the results then travel back home, arrive at around 5pm then work from 6pm to 10pm.

Just before she died she had what we thought was a chest infection, which we now know was the early stages of rejection. She was off work for a couple of weeks and the co-op pestered the life out of her to go back to work, even when she was admitted to hospital with suspected pneumonia they still kept asking her dh when she was going to be back. At about that same time she was also accused of Gross Misconduct, even though it was just 6 weeks after she had been promoted to Supervisor.

Coincidence?

angchris

oh looby thats awful! in her situation harrassment to go back to work was the last thing she needed, it really leaves a bitter taste in your mouth that people/companies can sometimes be so unfeeling and heartless especially in a time of worry/anguish and pain that your sister/bil was going through. it doesnt hurt to give a bit of slack now and then not everyone is trying to pull a sickie sometimes they legitimately are sick and a bit of give and take is needed. about 5 years ago i developed trigeminal neuralgia and physically could not work standing at a till with pain raging through my face forcing a smile at the customers, it was absolutely awful but i still was expected to turn up every day and pretend like nothing was wrong, i felt extremely guilty if i took time off because it looked like i was messing them around as it was a day here a day there even though i really needed a few months off till the dentist/docs discovered what it was and my medication kicked in, luckily after 2 years of suffering it subsided to a general niggle in my face but i will never ever forget the feeling of being obliged to go into work even though i had had no sleep and was in severe pain.
i wish you/your family well looby xx

Hanxx

OK, so does the guy who sold the goods to you have authority to reduce them to the best of your knowledge? If so, don't worry too much. Don't be bullied into leaving, as this sounds like a desperate attempt to cut the redundancy bill.

The fact is that you have over 12 months of service with this company - this means that you have full employment protection and can make a claim of unfair dismissal against the employer if they dismiss you. You have not yet attended a disciplinary hearing by the sound of things, as a suspension on full pay is not disciplinary action. If you do get told to attend a disciplinary hearing (a hearing where they are making a decision on whether to dismiss you or give a warning) you have a right to take a colleague or Trade Union Rep in with you. Don't panic.

Call Acas on 08457 47 47 47 for impartial advice on this or visit https://www.acas.org.uk. This is a government department (I happen to work for them) and calls to the helpline number given are charged at a local rate. Do take advice from people who are trained in Employment relations, as often advice given by others (whilst in good faith) is a little misleading.

looby75

Just wondering if you have been able to contact your union rep yet angchris?

angchris

i went into work today and asked for the union telephone number, the supervisor in charge went into the office where there were bigbods involved in discussions and he returned not with the union number i had asked for but with a number for another store:mad: they obviousely arent gonna be of any help to me whatsoever :rolleyes: i`ll find it off my own back, unfortunately i moved house not so long ago and have no idea where my union paperwork has gone , but if its the last thing i do i will have spoken to them by tommorrow

droopsnout

Stick to your guns, angchris, and good luck.

stellagypsy

Hi Angchris - sorry to hear of your problem.

As soon as I read your original post, I knew you were talking about the co-op. My mum worked for co-op for many years, she was a store manager - she could write a book about the co-op!!

I hope you don't mind but it all rang a bell with me, I told her about your predicament and she said "typical of them". She reminded me that they are sh*t scared of the union - she said WHAT EVER ELSE YOU DO, INVOLVE THE UNION!!!! She had a run in with a superior manager who was stealing butter (??????? - don't ask why!!!!!) and she blew the whistle on him but somehow he turned it back on her. Now, my mother is a woman of steel and stuck to her guns (another good tip when dealing with the co-op, IMHO). The other manager made her life hell for a while BUT the union helped her and he was ultimately sacked. It helped that my dad was a shop steward (albeit for a differnt union) but with she said in her experience the co-op they will cave in if you have the courage to follow it through with the appropriate backing. Have the courage of your convictions and take it to the next level - why should you lose your job because of an incident you had no control over?

They are blagging you with regard to the union phone numnber. If necessary look it up on the internet (google "USDAW" or whatever they are called these days).

HTH, Stella xx

angchris

i must say thanks to everyone regarding your help it really has given me encouragement to fight it all the way. today whilst at work trying to get the union number i asked 1 of my colleages to write a list of staff and to try and find out what happened to them all as i am now out of the picture and dont really know whats going on regarding the other staff. it would be helpfull if we

the staff could all pull our resources and tackle them together rather than individually! as far as i know i think 4 have resigned so far, i obviousely dont know what the conversation was between the company and them but it would be interesting to find out.