Please help, anyone - OH dismissed

CountryGuy

I can't find anything for this country like the other link.

Try the ACAS site and see if that comes up with anything.

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2174

pjcee

Thats what sent my head spinning yesterday, went round and round on the links.

Sammi - i love my OH very much, I dont like him all the time (roll back to sunday morning), but he is a great husband. He is a fool sometimes, but show me someone who isn't.

I also have a very strong sense on fairness, and standing back, this seems grossly unfair.

CountryGuy

pjcee wrote: »

Thats what sent my head spinning yesterday, went round and round on the links.

Sammi - i love my OH very much, I dont like him all the time (roll back to sunday morning), but he is a great husband. He is a fool sometimes, but show me someone who isn't.

I also have a very strong sense on fairness, and standing back, this seems grossly unfair.

I know what you mean pjcee.

I've found this:

Employers are more likely to use a breach as a reason for instituting disciplinary action and/or justifying dismissal, or, when there has been a breach of implied duty of confidentiality, as a means of obtaining an injunction against the employee to prevent further breaches.

Practical pointers

Before putting an employee on garden leave, consider the length of the notice period and the nature of his/her skills sets. The longer the notice period and the more skilled the employee, the more likely it is that the employee could challenge the requirement to stay at home and 'garden'.
There is a legal argument that an express contractual term which entitles an employer to terminate an employee's employment will override the implied duty not to terminate in these circumstances.
The UK courts have suggested that the provision of counselling service will go a long way to assisting an employer to show that it took such steps as were reasonable practicable to prevent harm to its employee's psychiatric health.

http://www.grb.uk.com/implied-terms-for-employers.0.html

pjcee

yes I read that, but the way my head is atm i cannot work out what it actually means in terms of defining whether there actually has been a breach which could not be handled in another way in this case.

CountryGuy

Basically his employer is saying your oh has broken the trust between him and the employer by using the internet for his own personal use and so his employer can no longer trust your oh to have access to a computer.

Does your oh need a computer to do his work?

pjcee

yes he does, but if that was the case why did they leave him working for so long, during which period (not knowing he was under investigation) he did not commit any misuse. And the misuse was caused because of the stressful workload, and mental state, this is what the Occ Health report says. I asked OH why he stopped the misuse, he said because it stopped helping him cope, so he took to going out of the office for a short walk or to get a coffee, or any other distraction to clear his head. He told me yesterday that for six weeks during the period of the second report he was convinced he had bowel cancer (which his mum died of) and spent some of the time checking health websites for symptoms. He was obviously in a bad place, just foolishly would not acknowledge it.

CountryGuy

pjcee wrote: »

yes he does, but if that was the case why did they leave him working for so long, during which period (not knowing he was under investigation) he did not commit any misuse. And the misuse was caused because of the stressful workload, and mental state, this is what the Occ Health report says. I asked OH why he stopped the misuse, he said because it stopped helping him cope, so he took to going out of the office for a short walk or to get a coffee, or any other distraction to clear his head. He told me yesterday that for six weeks during the period of the second report he was convinced he had bowel cancer (which his mum died of) and spent some of the time checking health websites for symptoms. He was obviously in a bad place, just foolishly would not acknowledge it.

That is where you might stand a chance of winning. If they knew he was using the internet for his own personal use all that time ago and yet continued to allow him access to a computer, then can his employer really cry 'breach of trust'?

This might be the part you need to focus on. Do you have it in writing that he was under investigation long before they pulled him for it?

pjcee

oh yes, we know the first investigation was completed by 17th Dec. He did not receive the letter until March. For some reason they added a supplimentary report covering into Jan which was when he view the images, for a total of 6 mimutes. So if the had told him of the investigation in Dec (procedure says employee must be advised immediately that a breach is known) he would not have comitted the more serious offence. This is why i think they are using breach of trust, because their case is so weak.

jonnyd281

OP the case is not about the pictures he was looking at, from what you say it sounds like he was using the internet for personal stuff more than he should have been. The breech of trust might well have come about because of this and the fact he is in a key role. Sorry but from what you have said in your later posts I don't think this is about the pictures.

CountryGuy

pjcee wrote: »

oh yes, we know the first investigation was completed by 17th Dec. He did not receive the letter until March. For some reason they added a supplimentary report covering into Jan which was when he view the images, for a total of 6 mimutes. So if the had told him of the investigation in Dec (procedure says employee must be advised immediately that a breach is known) he would not have comitted the more serious offence. This is why i think they are using breach of trust, because their case is so weak.

and the breach of trust is very weak too. They should have acted as soon as they knew, not months later. They can't say they can no longer trust him for something he did months ago but never acted upon it.

I'd say they are clutching at straws.

I know it is difficult but please do try and give yourself a break from all of this for a while before you crack under the pressure.

A nice relaxing bath with some calming music.

Please look after yourself.