employment - disciplinary meeting.

Catseyez

avfc78 wrote:

mystery shopping is a hobby, thats my clasification anyway - the vast majority of the time (and in this instance) i only get expenses reimbursed, not a fee. ....so i do not have dual employment?

People who do mystery shopping have to declare it to their tax man (even if the vast majority ipf the time you only get expenses) and it is therefore considered to be a form of employment. I've taken the following from a Mystery Shopping website's FAQs:

Q – What about payments and tax?
A – All work done by shoppers has to be invoiced and settlement is usually the following month. All shoppers are classed as self-employed and are responsible for declaring payments and paying any tax due to the Inland Revenue.

Your above post makes me wonder whether you are declaring this to the tax man.

You really need to start taking responsibility for your own actions and stop blaming everyone else around you.

Gabs_3

I have to ask how your employers knew to contact the mystery shopping company to ask about your eye test. Who told them that you had had an eye test through mystery shopping? Also have you spoken to anyone at the mystery shopping company about why they discussed your personal details with someone without your permission? It strikes me that this is in contravention of the Data protection act. Did they provide any wirtten evidence to your employers? What evidence did your employers present to you?

Did your employers refer you to the relevant policies and procedures that you are supposed to have contravened? Have they made copies available to you?

If you PM me copies I'm happy to have a look at them for you - although I'm not an expert, just a very experienced trade union rep.

avfc78

please advise - i may be getting waaaay ahead of myself - and i hope that this can all be resolved amicably, and the warning removed..... but my manager leaves the company tomorrow. i honestly believe that she has a vendetta / has victimised me - what with the (in my opinion) silly disciplinary case - promotion of less able colleagues to senior positions etc etc
i have read elsewhere that tribunal cases (if it ever went in that direction) are more successful when employees that have been bullied or victimised have brought this up prior to getting to the tribunal. Would it be sensible - alongside or before the appeal - to instigate a grievance claim against her. I have read online about bullying in the workplace, and practically every descriptive thing it said can be seen in the way she treats me. it may be subtle, but it is bullying.

would my friends here reading this suggest this as a good move? As she is leaving the company tomorrow - how would this affect any grievance procedure that i instigated against her?

please advise......

avfc78

letter sent today stating intention to appeal......

L,

Thanks for meeting with me today. I am writing to you to exercise my right of appeal against the 'first written warning' given to me via letter dated 25/01/2007.

Having duly contemplated my options in recent days, our meeting today has helped me arrive at this decision. I do not want my employment record to be blemished - especially as you indicated that the warning was a major factor in my salary package not being upwardly adjusted - this being in spite of the fact of the demonstrable improvement in virtually all tangible areas of my working life performance in the past four months - the thing that you had requested when we last met on the subject in September 2006.

To assist me with the preparation of my formal response, please provide me with a full and unedited audio tape that recorded the disciplinary meeting in question. As soon as I am in safe possession of the said recording, I will lodge my appeal, and the grounds under which I contest the decision in an as timely manner as is possible.

I look forward to resolving this matter quickly, so that all my energies can be channelled into sales and growth within (company name), and thank you, in advance, for your help.

Kind Regards,



D

Gabs_3

If your manger leaves tomorrow it won't matter if you file the grievance now or after the appeal. As you've indicated that their manager and you have a good relationship I would wait and see how the appeal goes. You haven't explained whether you had actually paid £18 for an eye test (I'm surprised your employers reimbursed you without a receipt) or how they got information from the mystery shopping company so it's hard to advise further.

avfc78

jus to clarify - my line manager / immediate manager who i dislike (and in my opinion bullies/belittles me) leaves tomorrow - this is who i am considering the grievance against....

I physically went and had an eye test, paid for it in cash - with a view to submiting a report to a mystery shoping company and being reimbursed. for whatever reason this did not happen, and i claimed this back from work having submitted a copy of the receipt to them.

My employers snooped on my personal emails, thtought they saw that the test was outside work - again, without my knowledge or consent - a company representative contacted the MS company who informed my company that i had done the test for them - this was not the case.....

I am appealing to the branch director - who is the manager of my manager. I am contemplating the grievance against my manager.

Gabs_3

I understood you were considering your grievance against your immediate manager and my previous advice stands - leave this for now. I know she's leaving - it's not what is important at the moment.

Thanks for the clarification about the eye test - on this basis their case against you is unfounded. The fact that they snooped on personal emails will depend on company policy - mine says anything we mark as personal they won't look at unless they suspect unlawful activity or breaking other policies. You need to see what yours says. However irrespective of this the basic accusation is (base on the info you have given) unfounded. I assume you can prove this at your appeal and therefore should be successful on this matter. I'm aware there were some other matters - you may also be successful on these if they are not matters that should have been the subject of formal proceedings particularly if they have not previously been raised with you e.g. as areas to improve upon.

Two questions - why were you employers checking your emails?

What have the mystery shopping company said to you - I assume you've spoken to them.

avfc78

thanks gabs, i know that you are saying drop it re the manage for now, and i will take that on board - my belief is that the manager was hoping to find something that she could then beat me with. i do not believe that there is any reason why she / they should have been through m computer.....

i have not contacted the MS company - half as i do not want to bite the hand that feeds, but secondly i do not know what approach to take.... they have discussed me and my data and business with a third party without my permission, and also communicated false info - both of which are wrong....

Gabs_3

Are you sure that the MS company did this and that your manager wasn't just fabricating her evidence? Have you been given any proof of what the MS company said. Given what you've said about your manager I wouldn't take her word for it.

jobbingmusician

In my view, anything on the company's computer is their property. I don't think you will have any success in any action that presumes they don't have the right to read your personal emails held in a company account. Sorry for the bad news!

The MS assignment sounds a bit mysterious to me as well. If your employer has found emails between you and the MS company applying for this assignment and/or accepting it, they are behaving as reasonable employers (an important point were this case ever to go to tribunal) in believing that you did do the assignment. However, I do not see the moral issue of claiming from your company something you were being reimbursed for from them as fraud any more than it is fraud for you to get a free cup of coffee from them if you were mystery shopping a coffee shop! To my mind it is simply extra reimbursement from the MS company. If your company wants to stop such 'fraud', they should require their employees to have their eye tests at a specific opticians, IMHO.