Me VS The Company

paulmapp8306

My POV - which is not really grounded in employment law - just how I see it.

1. Shouting and Swearing in the workplace is wrong and could be held against you. The underlying reason is not relevant to this - its just unacceptable behaviour and could be grounds for discipline action.

2. The fact you have taken longer from work than you were medically entitled to (the weeks you state) without WRITTEN notification from your employers to not return MAY become an issue.

3. If there is evidance of Bullying, Harrasment or any other ilegal activity by the employers, the fact that you came by the information because of position and therefore a breach of confidentiality is not relevant. You have a duty of care to bring it up regardless. IF you told other workers then yes it is a breach, however if you used the information and reported it through the propper channels - and if that failed by going outside the company then you have done nothing wrong.

I cant comment on timeframes for the hearing as I have no cluse - but the main issues seem to be your behaviour, the compaints against the company, the confidentiality of your position and potentially the time you took off.

I wouldnt think any of them are sackable offences (provided there is not history of warnings) and if they did - especially on the confidentiality - you may have grounds for unfair dismissal. The shouting/Swearing may well warrant a written warning though.

crazyguy

amartin1908

paulmapp8306 wrote: »

My POV - which is not really grounded in employment law - just how I see it.

1. Shouting and Swearing in the workplace is wrong and could be held against you. The underlying reason is not relevant to this - its just unacceptable behaviour and could be grounds for discipline action.

2. The fact you have taken longer from work than you were medically entitled to (the weeks you state) without WRITTEN notification from your employers to not return MAY become an issue.

3. If there is evidance of Bullying, Harrasment or any other ilegal activity by the employers, the fact that you came by the information because of position and therefore a breach of confidentiality is not relevant. You have a duty of care to bring it up regardless. IF you told other workers then yes it is a breach, however if you used the information and reported it through the propper channels - and if that failed by going outside the company then you have done nothing wrong.

I cant comment on timeframes for the hearing as I have no cluse - but the main issues seem to be your behaviour, the compaints against the company, the confidentiality of your position and potentially the time you took off.

I wouldnt think any of them are sackable offences (provided there is not history of warnings) and if they did - especially on the confidentiality - you may have grounds for unfair dismissal. The shouting/Swearing may well warrant a written warning though.

I didnt take the extended time off voluntarily. I was told by them to stay at home as they didnt think fair for me to return to an uncomfortable situation until such time as the investigation was completed and the situation resolved. Surely they cannot hold this against me when it was their decision. And no I have had no previous disciplinary action against me whatsoever

Jarndyce

paulmapp8306 wrote: »

I cant comment on timeframes for the hearing as I have no cluse - but the main issues seem to be your behaviour, the compaints against the company, the confidentiality of your position and potentially the time you took off.

I wouldnt think any of them are sackable offences (provided there is not history of warnings) and if they did - especially on the confidentiality - you may have grounds for unfair dismissal. The shouting/Swearing may well warrant a written warning though.

Agree with most of that until your last paragraph. ALL of them are potentially fair reasons for dismissal. And all three together certainly are.

amartin1908

Jarndyce wrote: »

Agree with most of that until your last paragraph. ALL of them are potentially fair reasons for dismissal. And all three together certainly are.

ACAS disagree. They have said that I have not breached confidentiality whatsoever. Whether I am in a position of responsibility or confidentiality is irrelevant.

paulmapp8306

amartin1908 wrote: »

I didnt take the extended time off voluntarily. I was told by them to stay at home as they didnt think fair for me to return to an uncomfortable situation until such time as the investigation was completed and the situation resolved. Surely they cannot hold this against me when it was their decision. And no I have had no previous disciplinary action against me whatsoever

I get that - but unless you have it in writing they "could" just say you misunderstood and they didnt mean for you not to come in at all. Its your word against theirs if it comes to it.

paulmapp8306

Jarndyce wrote: »

Agree with most of that until your last paragraph. ALL of them are potentially fair reasons for dismissal. And all three together certainly are.

Really?

i thought you had to pretty much have a written warning before you could be sacked these days - unless what you did is illegal like theft from the company or such.

I also agree the confidentiality COULD leed to dismissal IF prooved, but as I understand it the OP lodged a formal complained of bullying/harrasment that she became aware of via the confidentiality iof her position. She must do this surly - duty of care to those in her trust, protecting the company from potential issues by highlighting them etc. I agree if she started talking about the issues to other staff member not in the propper chain there would be an issue - but that does not seem to have happened.

Jarndyce

amartin1908 wrote: »

ACAS disagree. They have said that I have not breached confidentiality whatsoever. Whether I am in a position of responsibility or confidentiality is irrelevant.

ACAS eh? I'm impressed.

Just remember ACAS helpline is a call centre staffed by bored, underpaid, unqualified casual staff who really don't give a stuff about you. Did you tell them about the shouting and stomping about? No, thought not.

This is what you said in your first post:

They are also stating that i have used confidential information to further my own purposes. Their explanation being that I was only able to cite certain allegations in my complaint, due the confidential nature of my position and i have therefore breached their confidentiality agreement.
I am livid. Nowhere in their code of conduct policy does it state you can only blow the whistle as long as the information is not confidential.

So you are not actually denying that you used confidential information gained in your position as a manager to inform your complaint. If this is a genuine whistle blowing issue then you might just get away with it, but from what you have said it is not. It is clearly therefore a potential misconduct issue, and depending on how significant the information is, a potential dismissal issue, and that's before we even consider your emotional behaviour.

Listen to ACAS if you like, because they are telling you what you want to hear, but I can tell you this board is littered with people who have regretted following their advice, and that of the CABx come to that. If you want a proper, qualified opinion about your case, the only way to get that is from an employment lawyer.

amartin1908

Jarndyce wrote: »

ACAS eh? I'm impressed.

Just remember ACAS helpline is a call centre staffed by bored, underpaid, unqualified casual staff who really don't give a stuff about you. Did you tell them about the shouting and stomping about? No, thought not.

This is what you said in your first post:



So you are not actually denying that you used confidential information gained in your position as a manager to inform your complaint. If this is a genuine whistle blowing issue then you might just get away with it, but from what you have said it is not. It is clearly therefore a potential misconduct issue, and depending on how significant the information is, a potential dismissal issue, and that's before we even consider your emotional behaviour.

Listen to ACAS if you like, because they are telling you what you want to hear, but I can tell you this board is littered with people who have regretted following their advice, and that of the CABx come to that. If you want a proper, qualified opinion about your case, the only way to get that is from an employment lawyer.

Erm in fact I did tell Acas about my behaviour (shouting and stomping) no point in getting an opinion if its not based on full information.

Also, I am NOT a manager, and I do not feel that the information was confidential. What I blew the whistle on was mistreatment of other employees including myself. And also he falsified information in a disciplinary against a member of staff in order to further his point. That employee ended up on a final written warning due to his falsification

Anyway disciplinary over and I got a final written warning.

bobajob_1966

amartin1908 wrote: »

Erm in fact I did tell Acas about my behaviour (shouting and stomping) no point in getting an opinion if its not based on full information.

Also, I am NOT a manager, and I do not feel that the information was confidential. What I blew the whistle on was mistreatment of other employees including myself.

Anyway disciplinary over and I got a final written warning.

I'm glad to hear you did not get dismissed. However, I would prepare yourself for being one of the redundancies, far easier to get rid of you that way, especially given your (now) poor disciplinary record. Not saying it is fair, but sometimes doing the right thing can well and truly backfire on you.

(Have to agree with Jarndyce about ACAS, chocolate teapot springs to mind.)