What More Can I do To Help My Son?

Chr1s

Hi Nightingalesgarden,

1) All our son wants is to have the same support he was originally given once his difficulties became aware i.e. a team of 4, not a team that consists of just him, which results him spending his entire shift, except for the final 30 minutes on his own. To be given the benefit of the doubt rather than have everything blamed on his disability, to be treated as equally and as fairly as his collegues regarding training opportunities and transfers.

2) We want the company to be made accountable for the way the managers in our sons case, have treated him. The Personnel Manager as well as other managers were made aware of the problems he has been having for a while. Their response was to destroy letters that were handed in and should have been filed, to strip him of any help within the warehouse, they ignored his requests regarding additional help with his ever expanding workload, by filing 2 false allegations of gross misconduct against him, by subjecting him to a 5 hour meeting in which he was bribed/tricked/forced into dropping 2 grievances etc etc. What does he want? He wants to go back to work like anybody else, and be treated with respect without having people taking the micky out of him. He wants to be compensated for the damage that has been caused as a result of the mistreatment he has suffered and above all he wants people to know what he has been going through. He hopes that doing this will encourage other people who are in the same situation to speak out.

I think the union are backing away as they are mentioned within the ET1 form.

Chr1s

I don't mean to ignore the following comments, but I hope the comment reagrding the union being mentioned in the ET 1 Form, helps clear up the questions that relate to them.

Chr1s

Mr Snuggles you are completely right. He shouldn't have lied, but unfortunately he did and this is where we are 5 years later. His disability doesn't affect him the way his company are trying to say it does. They are saying that the verbal abuse is down to his disability, we are disputing this, because the allegations are false.

Details of allegations. He became verbally abusive towards 2 managers, the Personnel Manager and a senior Manager;
Circumstances surrounding allegation 1:
My son had been told by a co worker that the senior manager, who had previously told my son he has no commonsense, asked him if he was as stupid as he sounded, has spent since the new year going into the warehouse just to intimidate him etc. had gone through his bag. My son went and questioned this, afew hours later the allegation was made.

Second allegation, same day, regarding same incident. My son was accused of being aggressive and leaning through a cage. There is CCTV in both areas, and when we have asked for it numerous times, we were been told that the CCTV's weren't working.

No this has been going on a long time and my son has been told by a manager that they have his card marked and they want him out. Thankfully he does have a witness statement to back this up.

Chr1s

Thank you McKneff.

Chr1s

No we have not requested a full time officer. All we have is a solicitor who is dealing with the ET. Nothing else.

Googlewhacker

If the company have cut back to only one person in the warehouse then I can't see much wrong with that (i.e if your son was not disabled would he still be the only one left and from what you have put I would say yes).

The rest though...

Ultimately if he is going through a tribunal then of course the company will want to get rid of him because he will be seen as a trouble maker now.

Chr1s

Sorry I should correct myself. They are implying that the false allegations of verbal abuse are down to his disability.

Chr1s

Even if when he was moved in there there was a team of four?

Googlewhacker

Chr1s wrote: »

Even if when he was moved in there there was a team of four?

Times change within business, it could be doing less business than before and thus needs less people.

I saw a place go from 6 warehouseman to 1 because of this and the company restructured

nightingalesgarden

Chr1s wrote: »

Hi Nightingalesgarden,

1) All our son wants is to have the same support he was originally given once his difficulties became aware i.e. a team of 4, not a team that consists of just him, which results him spending his entire shift, except for the final 30 minutes on his own. To be given the benefit of the doubt rather than have everything blamed on his disability, to be treated as equally and as fairly as his collegues regarding training opportunities and transfers.

So, you want to ensure your son has support from a team - Why? I presume so that there are people around that he trusts that he can ask questions from/coach and support him into doing a good job. Not an unreasonable request if the reasons are those but you can't demand the company puts back the team if they have a good reason not to do so e.g. cost/rota/new working practices. It's not your place to demand they organise tasks/work in a certain way - only that your son is safe and his disability accounted/adjusted for within thier working practices.

So you need to ask for adjustments that could work for the situation - so it may be that you want his tasks written down for him, a weekly review against these tasks and/or a regular reminder of the rules that he has to comply to. That way both parties can track performance (perhaps written so he can bring this home to discuss). He may need to have easy access to a way to ask questions in an safe environment - mediation with his managers may reach agreement to what method he could use. A whiteboard to write messages,

I've used traffic light reports in a similar situation - monthly meetings with a manager to discuss green (Great work - do more of) amber (good working/normal duties done well) and red (stop doing - dangerous) Then your son would be able to judge when he is working in a way that does not comply with company rules - maybe he needs 2 informal warnings instead of 1 that is acceptable with normal process - but you need to accept that a company does need to ensure compliance.

Chr1s wrote: »

2) We want the company to be made accountable for the way the managers in our sons case, have treated him. The Personnel Manager as well as other managers were made aware of the problems he has been having for a while. Their response was to destroy letters that were handed in and should have been filed, to strip him of any help within the warehouse, they ignored his requests regarding additional help with his ever expanding workload, by filing 2 false allegations of gross misconduct against him, by subjecting him to a 5 hour meeting in which he was bribed/tricked/forced into dropping 2 grievances etc etc. What does he want? He wants to go back to work like anybody else, and be treated with respect without having people taking the micky out of him. He wants to be compensated for the damage that has been caused as a result of the mistreatment he has suffered and above all he wants people to know what he has been going through. He hopes that doing this will encourage other people who are in the same situation to speak out.

I think the union are backing away as they are mentioned within the ET1 form.

Okay - I understand and that's why I asked the question. ET's will not tell the employer what to do or penalise the management involved - they certainly won't/can't suggest changes to working practices. All you will get is a legal decision of whether the allegations were legal/illegal and which acts were discrimination. They can highlight areas of improvement - but not force compliance.

So if just getting that decision will bring you satisfaction fine - but ET findings do not drive change in an organisation nor do they really penalise an organisation.

I'm not going to comment on the bullying/details of your case but I'm sure other people will have a view.

All I am trying to do is to give you fair advice on how to mediate with your sons employer in order to create a productive working environment for your son following your meeting.