Is this classed as Gross Misconduct ??

serious_saver

Uncertain wrote: »

But they cannot provide legal advice. They can provide little if anything more than can be gained from carefully reading their publications and downloads. These at least have the advantage of being checked by lawyers and are accurate. The apparently individual "advice" from the call centre is not checked on an individual basis.

Time and time again you see people posting here saying ACAS said XXXXXXXX when it is simply wrong. Obviously it is possible in some cases that the person has genuinely misunderstood what was said but the fact remains that they now have an impression from an "official" source that will end up putting them at a disadvantage.

I fully accept that one tends to notice the problems and that many people do get the correct information but there can be a real danger.

In a way it is a bit like NHS direct. It has its uses but it does not replace a face to face appointment with your doctor.

I'm not going to bother argueing. You're choosing to interpret what I've said one way. You might as well tell the OP to look for lawyer in the yellow pages and pick the first from the list!

Clearly your personal experience of dealing with acas couldn't be further from mine.

tomjonesrules

serious_saver wrote: »

I'm not going to bother argueing. You're choosing to interpret what I've said one way. You might as well tell the OP to look for lawyer in the yellow pages and pick the first from the list!

Clearly your personal experience of dealing with acas couldn't be further from mine.

That would be a more reliable means of securing accurate advice than ACAS, yes. A solicitor is a member of a regulated industry, with minimum standards of training. ACAS advisors are to all intents and purposes call centre workers with a bit of training and access to the internet.

serious_saver

tomjonesrules wrote: »

That would be a more reliable means of securing accurate advice than ACAS, yes. A solicitor is a member of a regulated industry, with minimum standards of training. ACAS advisors are to all intents and purposes call centre workers with a bit of training and access to the internet.

Again you fail to get my point! As with any service you don't just pick a solicitor at random. At least I B****y well hope you don't! If you don't have access to a union solicitor acas can tell you what to look for, where to go, how to find registers of reputable solicitors that genuinely specialise in this area.

Honestly I don't understand what people have against support that is easily avaliable.

Pete111

serious_saver wrote: »

Again you fail to get my point! As with any service you don't just pick a solicitor at random. At least I B****y well hope you don't! If you don't have access to a union solicitor acas can tell you what to look for, where to go, how to find registers of reputable solicitors that genuinely specialise in this area.

Honestly I don't understand what people have against support that is easily avaliable.

Nothing at all...as long as the 'support' doesn't end up compounding the problem..

tomjonesrules

serious_saver wrote: »

Again you fail to get my point! As with any service you don't just pick a solicitor at random. At least I B****y well hope you don't! If you don't have access to a union solicitor acas can tell you what to look for, where to go, how to find registers of reputable solicitors that genuinely specialise in this area.

Honestly I don't understand what people have against support that is easily avaliable.

The support you suggest is pretty useless - their advice is at best generic, and at worst blatantly wrong.

If someone cannot find a solicitor that specialises in employment law without having to refer to ACAS, I would question how they have ever managed to get a job!

serious_saver

tomjonesrules wrote: »

The support you suggest is pretty useless - their advice is at best generic, and at worst blatantly wrong.

If someone cannot find a solicitor that specialises in employment law without having to refer to ACAS, I would question how they have ever managed to get a job!

You must have had a very bad experience with them. Care to share it with us?

sho_me_da_money

Pete111 wrote: »

Ok look. I'm impressed by the way you have found an ET case that helps (but only helps) your argument but to state that you don't believe a 'well known National I.T. company' would have an I.T. policy is well...a bit silly really.

I am an IT guy.

I work for a tech company that has 10,000 centres in over 160 countries.

We DO have an IT policy

We DO NOT have any clause made with reference to Social Networking or comments made in the public domain.

The generic IT policy states things like - misuse of email, abuse of internet access at work, surfing !!!!!!, installing unauthorized software etc.

On a side note, I totally agree with Azari.

LOOK AT WHAT SHE SAID !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She did not say the company are S**T
She said she thinks It is S**T that COMPANYX are making people redundant.

Nothing in that comment brings the company in to disrepute.

Look at the 2 cases - which do you honestly think this comment/situation falls into?

It's a no brainer baby.

Uncertain

Calm down dear....

tomjonesrules

serious_saver wrote: »

You must have had a very bad experience with them. Care to share it with us?

I have had to clear up several messy situations caused by ACAS and their poor advice. The latest is ACAS advising an employer they did not need to attend a tribunal hearing because they were not defending the claim, which resulted in a 50% uplift in the claimant's award.

tomjonesrules

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

She did not say the company are S**T
She said she thinks It is S**T that COMPANYX are making people redundant.

Which would imply to a reasonable person that she thinks her employer is unethical, hence being a breach of mutual trust and confidence.