Facing disciplinary - advice on circumstances please

nodebtdream

Hello, i am currently due (or overdue) a disciplinary hearing at work for having 3 occasions of absence in 12 months.

My last absence which triggered the disciplinary was 17th of December and i had a return to work interview and recieved 24hours notice of a disciplinary on the 24th of December.

Obviously with Christmas the next available date for a disciplinary was the 31st of Jan, no disciplinary was held on this day.

The following weekend (7/8th Jan) the union representitive at work was off sick so because there was no union rep the disciplinary didn't go ahead.

On the 14th of January the Union rep was off sick again, obviously this again was out of my control and no disciplinary was held that day.

On the 15th of January there was a Union rep available so we went in for the disciplinary. However the Line Manager in the disciplinary said they couldn't do it because they didn't have and couldn't find any of my previous return to works or disciplinary hearings and my absense card did not match with the computor database, her exact words were 'this is an embarrassment' she said she would try and find the information through the week and do the disciplinary the following weekend.

The following weekend arrived and no disciplinary took place, they have since blamed this on the fact that we had a stock check on the Saturday and couldn't do it. Sunday was a normal day and no disciplinary was carried out that day either.

Then on the 28th of January my supervisor approached me telling me that it was my fault that the disciplinary was still outstanding, we had a heated discussion and i stated the above facts and she changed her tune and said the disciplinary will go ahead next Saturday even if there is no Union representitive available, my Union rep has told me if there is no one to accompany you simply do not go into the disciplinary.

I'm not quite sure where i stand at the moment, the company in my eyes have acted very unprofessionally, it has been 5 weeks since i was given 24 hours notice of a disciplinary, i have been into one disciplinary but they couldn't do it because they had lost/couldn't find relevant information.

Any thoughts or advice on the matter will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Sambucus_Nigra

Do what your union rep says - that's what you pay them for.

What does the sickness procedure say about sickness triggers and the resulting warnings? Did your letter say what would be the result of this and does it match with their procedure?

daveboy

Sounds like the sort of thing Tesco would engage in to me. They want to shoot and kill people if they are off more than 3 times in 12 months. Even when people have surgery and are not throwing a sickie.

Union rep is spot on, if there is no representative available you definitely DO NOT enter the discplinary hearing on your own. Once you do that you have severely weakened your position.

Whilst not sure legally, if this has been dragged out and you are given some form of warning and accept it, I would be seeking it to be backdated.

Say, for instance, you are given a verbal warning and this remains active for 12 months. I would be pushing for them to backdate that to the end of December. You've already had this hanging over you for a month - I know if it was me I wouldn't accept anything unless they agreed to that. (I am assuming here that there is nothing wrong legally with that as how long a disciplinary action is active is down to company policy).

I hope whichever company you work for you find as many holes in their case as possible.

DVardysShadow

nodebtdream wrote: »

Then on the 28th of January my supervisor approached me telling me that it was my fault that the disciplinary was still outstanding, we had a heated discussion and i stated the above facts and she changed her tune and said the disciplinary will go ahead next Saturday even if there is no Union representitive available, my Union rep has told me if there is no one to accompany you simply do not go into the disciplinary.

I'm not quite sure where i stand at the moment, the company in my eyes have acted very unprofessionally, it has been 5 weeks since i was given 24 hours notice of a disciplinary, i have been into one disciplinary but they couldn't do it because they had lost/couldn't find relevant information.

Any thoughts or advice on the matter will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

No rep, no disciplinary hearing. And in your position, I would be telling them that as they had mislaid papers previously, they should be dropping the matter.

SarEl

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Do what your union rep says - that's what you pay them for.

It isn't what you pay your money for if the unions advice was stated as quoted here by the OP. The correct thing to do would be to inform the employer that your rep is unavailable and ask for a postponement until a rep is available - or even better for the union rep to do it which is what you pay them for.

However, whilst I agree that the employers approach to the hearing was shambolic, I ought to point out that two of the missed meetings were as a result of the union rep - the employer is only required to accept a certain amount of "no union rep available" before they go ahead without one. The union is more than a single rep - if the rep cannot attend then they must have provision for cover?

You certainly should not simply fail to turn up - if you do you could be disciplined in your absence and that is entirely within the employers authority to do.

lucyb1988

I thought you had to legally have 2 people doing a disciplinary and you can also have a rep, like someone with you, just to make it so you dont feel intimidated ect. Good luck

pelirocco

lucyb1988 wrote: »

I thought you had to legally have 2 people doing a disciplinary and you can also have a rep, like someone with you, just to make it so you dont feel intimidated ect. Good luck

You have the option to be accompanied , one person chairs the disciplinary one takes notes ( and has no input )

And you have to be given 48hrs notice , in writing

SarEl

lucyb1988 wrote: »

I thought you had to legally have 2 people doing a disciplinary No
and you can also have a rep, And also no - a work colleague or trades union rep only - nobody else
like someone with you, just to make it so you dont feel intimidated ect. Good luck

pelirocco wrote: »

You have the option to be accompanied Ditto - work colleague or union rep only , one person chairs the disciplinary one takes notes ( and has no input ) No

And you have to be given 48hrs notice , in writing Also no

But other than that it's all correct!