Grievance at work...

mantaskmita

marybelle01 wrote: »

It appears that there is a mismatch between your understanding of "almost perfect performance " and your employers. You have had half a dozen disciplinaries, all for things your have not done or are not responsible for. And managers keep pulling you up over things that are not to their approval. In other words, a long way off almost perfect in their book. Sorry but I am skeptical. If they really were out to get you several disciplinaries in three years, plus a range of other issues that they could have taken formal rather than informal action over...well they could have had you by now. Do I detect an odour of "well I'm leaving anyway and wonder if I could make a claim for something because I don't see why I should leave with no money ". Because that is very much what it sounds like .

CFC wrote: »

They aren't tremendously common in this kind of situation but they happen sometimes. Can you evidence any of the 'unfairness' that you are referring to? I think you may find it difficult to prove that the disciplinaries were unfair, judging from what you have said.

If you felt that the person who held your appeal was biased, why did you not submit a grievance procedure?


A Compromise agreement can be used in a variety of situations but they commonly fall into the following categories;

• Where there is, or is threatened to be, a legal dispute between the employer and the employee and the employer is prepared to pay some compensation to the employee to settle or prevent the claim being pursued in the Employment Tribunal.
• Where the employee is being made redundant and the employer is offering an additional or enhanced payment over and above statutory or contractual entitlements
• Where there is a difficult situation in the workplace or things are just ‘not working out’ and the employer and the employee are able to agree mutually acceptable severance terms to resolve the matter.

Well all of this drama has made me consider my future...I haven't got my heart set on leaving just yet due to financial reasons, the reason why I haven't thought 'screw this' and just resigned. I feel it would be better for both parties if I resigned but I feel like after all this victimisation, and my length of service to the company, and the fact there is absolutely no issue with my productivity, I shouldn't just be forced out. I feel like I have been singled out for all of the things I have had action taken over me, because there are certain people who are a lot worse (eg. poor performance, do a lot worse than what I have supposed to have done) and have either had no action taken against them or just had an 'off the record' warning. I feel like they should have gone down that route with me but they decided to give me the biggest punishment possible. So I guess I understand why you would assume that. I just want a resolution that is best for both of us. I do have a grievance pending for the bias against me in the appeal but my Union reps have advised me to meet with the regional manager before-hand. So I suppose I will have to wait and see what happens.

dickydonkin

marybelle01 wrote: »

Not being funny here, but at least two of the managers are bullying you and the General Manager doesn't like you; managers keep pulling you up for things you have done wrong (because if there are things that could have been resolved informally in your opinion, that kind of suggests that there actually are things to resolve); you have gathered up the minutes of every disciplinary you have had over the last three years, which sort of suggests that there are quite a few... Are you quite sure that the problem is with them and not with your performace? It isn't bullying and harassment for managers to be dissatisfied with an employee.

I was wondering if the company have annual appraisals and if so, if there are any performance related issues this could be discussed at such a meeting. Indeed, it would also provide the opportunity for the OP to discuss the issues that have prompted this thread.

Most recent incident was when another employee purposely pushed a steel pallet towards one I was holding, almost resulting in an accident. This was also caught
on CCTV.

Did the manager agree this was a deliberate act or could it have been interpreted as an accident?

You say 'purposely' but could it be argued that it was accidental?

You were 'not happy' that this incident was formally investigated, but the company would have acted irresponsibly by not investigating a near miss where someone could have been injured.

Now, this is where it gets stupid...I receive a letter in the post asking me to attend a disciplinary hearing over the incident. Claiming I was the one who was unsafe in the incident, saying I didn't follow the marked walkways in the area
(which weren't marked) and that i was entirely at fault for the incident.

This is a difficult one to comment on without knowing the site layout or the tasks you were doing.

However, were you working or walking off the pedestrian walkway? - I ask this because if you were a pedestrian and encroached into a working area, then again, the company could argue that you should not have been there and you placed yourself at risk - which it appears is what they have done.

Are the walkways defined - such a hatching, signposts or just painted lines?

If not, then you could argue that there are no defined walkways and there is insufficient segregation from pedestrians and working activities - but again, without seeing your site and its policies and procedures, it is difficult to make a judgement.

It is no good pressing the argument that some colleagues breach procedures and are not disciplined - that will get you nowhere as two wrongs never make a right.

I hope you don't think I'm portraying a negative response, but by playing Devil's Advocate, I hope you can see that there may be some problems in proving some of your points.

mantaskmita

dickydonkin wrote: »

I was wondering if the company have annual appraisals and if so, if there are any performance related issues this could be discussed at such a meeting. Indeed, it would also provide the opportunity for the OP to discuss the issues that have prompted this thread.



Did the manager agree this was a deliberate act or could it have been interpreted as an accident?

You say 'purposely' but could it be argued that it was accidental?

You were 'not happy' that this incident was formally investigated, but the company would have acted irresponsibly by not investigating a near miss where someone could have been injured.



This is a difficult one to comment on without knowing the site layout or the tasks you were doing.

However, were you working or walking off the pedestrian walkway? - I ask this because if you were a pedestrian and encroached into a working area, then again, the company could argue that you should not have been there and you placed yourself at risk - which it appears is what they have done.

Are the walkways defined - such a hatching, signposts or just painted lines?

If not, then you could argue that there are no defined walkways and there is insufficient segregation from pedestrians and working activities - but again, without seeing your site and its policies and procedures, it is difficult to make a judgement.

It is no good pressing the argument that some colleagues breach procedures and are not disciplined - that will get you nowhere as two wrongs never make a right.

I hope you don't think I'm portraying a negative response, but by playing Devil's Advocate, I hope you can see that there may be some problems in proving some of your points.

Yeah I do get annual one to ones where my performance is discussed and every year I am told my productivity is spot on and just give me targets for the next year which is basically 'keep it up'. So there are absolutely no qualms about my performance.

And yeah there are areas where that are taped off but the area I cut across had no markings. I mentioned this in both the hearing and the appeal and they weren't even considered. I was basically collecting equipment and moving it into my working area when the collision happened. Of course I can't prove it was deliberate but I find it very peculiar that I had action taken against me when I clearly wasn't the one at fault. Especially when these things are witnessed day in day out by management and no action is taken. If they are going to enforce these rules every time someone broke a minor health and safety breach, half of the work force would be having action taken against them. I just find it amazing that they concluded I was at fault when it was clear the near miss was at fault was with the other guy acting reckless towards me. Of course he claimed it was accidental when it was investigated but he also didn't claim I was at fault either. He agreed to sit down with me informally with managers present and apologise, which I had agreed to but somebody had got involved and decided to take me down the disciplinary route.

I know it will be hard proving any of these points, because at the end of the day they have every right to take action against me, technically but I feel like these things could have been dealt with in a different manner as they have done with others in the past.

I appreciate that you are looking at this from both perspectives. I just want to be treated equally, like everybody else is. And also there are a lot of comments being made about me which obviously I cannot prove, but this along with other incidents have made me feel very unwanted and I think it's understandable that I would want this situation resolved.

DVardysShadow

OK, I am having a slightly different take on this.

I might be wrong, but I am wondering whether you are hated because you do too much and too well? In other words you are not fitting in with the 'ethos' of the other workers - and in turn they are stirring it with you for management? And management are not under real pressure to get certain results but feel that your productivity is actually showing them up to be poor managers? To a fair extent you come across as aware of your job and aware of visible situations but unaware of political type games.

I don't know what difference this makes - but if there is anything in this, it needs thinking about differently

micflair_2

The OP has had loads of run ins with the bosses, leading to many sit down formal meetings. The OP is blaming everyone but themself.

Sorry, but the OP might want to consider taking a look at there own attitude at work. No smoke without fire..

Angelicdevil

DVardysShadow wrote: »

OK, I am having a slightly different take on this.

I might be wrong, but I am wondering whether you are hated because you do too much and too well? In other words you are not fitting in with the 'ethos' of the other workers - and in turn they are stirring it with you for management? And management are not under real pressure to get certain results but feel that your productivity is actually showing them up to be poor managers? To a fair extent you come across as aware of your job and aware of visible situations but unaware of political type games.

I don't know what difference this makes - but if there is anything in this, it needs thinking about differently

That is what I was thinking.....

OP, where you have been accused and disciplined over things you claim you have not done but were the fault of others, get the evidence and do as your union rep suggests - go for grievance.

If I were in your shoes and I had absolute evidence because I was not at fault, I'd be fighting all the way to clear my name!

mantaskmita

DVardysShadow wrote: »

OK, I am having a slightly different take on this.

I might be wrong, but I am wondering whether you are hated because you do too much and too well? In other words you are not fitting in with the 'ethos' of the other workers - and in turn they are stirring it with you for management? And management are not under real pressure to get certain results but feel that your productivity is actually showing them up to be poor managers? To a fair extent you come across as aware of your job and aware of visible situations but unaware of political type games.

I don't know what difference this makes - but if there is anything in this, it needs thinking about differently

Angelicdevil wrote: »

That is what I was thinking.....

OP, where you have been accused and disciplined over things you claim you have not done but were the fault of others, get the evidence and do as your union rep suggests - go for grievance.

If I were in your shoes and I had absolute evidence because I was not at fault, I'd be fighting all the way to clear my name!

I would say that you're not very far off there. It's a strange situation because I feel that my face doesn't fit anymore and I feel there's a certain group of people who do like to 'stir' it and it has built up this strange perception of me. And I think once a perception has been made it's very hard to change that perception no matter what you do. I agree that I am very aware of visible situations and and I would say I have an idea on the political situations which doesn't help at all. Either way I am going to present all my evidence to the regional manager and go from there. I have nothing to lose at this point so I am going to fight tooth and nail to get my name cleared.

mantaskmita

Okay, I have an update on my situation...I'm afraid it has got worse.

My regional Union rep has had words with the regional GM about my grievance and has been told he will get back to him ASAP...2 weeks later, no word. But that's not the worst of it.

Today I was picking orders. Kitchen ware. And as I was checking a box, I noticed that a rather large knife had been taken out of its packaging and taken out of it's box. I picked it up intending to put it in the area where damaged stock had gone, when my Team Leader appeared behind me to ask me something. I put the knife in my picking tray and carried on working.

Then, about 5 minutes later I got a paper cut on my finger, and went to the team leader and asked for a plaster. After she gave me the plaster, I went about my business and got called into the office. 2 managers sat down and started to do what appeared to be an investigation meeting of some sort, only it wasn't. The investigating manager didn't read out a template of any sort or ask if I wanted to be accompanied by anybody. Then the other manager sat next to him was taking minutes on the conversation.

They asked me how I cut my finger and I explained that it was a paper cut blah blah blah. Then they asked about the knife I had found. I explained the knife and they adjourned the meeting.

Then I was called in again, same procedure but this time was asked if I wanted to be accompanied by a Union rep which I said yes to. They asked me did anyone see me with the knife and to confirm I hadn't cut my finger on the knife. I thought this was a bit stupid and they were wasting my time and their time but confirmed that what I said was the case.

I had asked what this meeting was because it definitely wasn't a formal investigation as they was no template read, they clearly weren't following site rules.

After every question, The investigating manager kept leaving the room and re-adjouring the meeting and coming back in and continuing.

Then an operations manager came in and told me I was being suspended on full pay pending investigation. I asked why, and he said my team leader had reported that I was using the knife to open boxes as I did not have a safety knife. Which is false, i did have a safety knife, she just happened to come up to me as I found the knife and presumed that was what I was doing. Even though she never said anything to me at the time, which is what she should have done.

Pretty stupid huh?

Anyway, I contacted my Union office and he has decided to push the grievance through as he has not received any feedback off anybody there and he is furious with the way the whole thing was handled. I can't believe I have been suspended for that. I have had a previous grievance a couple of years ago with this team leader after she was continuously rude and snappy towards me, so I also suspect she had done this as some sort of revenge, I don't know, but it doesn't look good haha.

I know that it is her word against mine, but I just don't know whether they will just sack me because they believe I was doing what they thought I was doing.

I'm not sure what to do at this point. At the moment I feel this is a blessing in disguise but then again I have worked for the company for 8 years now so having a gap I can't name on a CV could make me un-employable. So any one who knows about these things are welcome to comment, good or bad haha.

Sambucus_Nigra

What are you actually suspended for? Word for word...

mantaskmita

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

What are you actually suspended for? Word for word...

All the operations manager said is 'I'm suspending you to be safe' and I asked why, and he said that the team leader said she had seen me opening a box with the knife. Which is false. I don't know what terms I'm actually being suspended for but I would guess it's health and safety