Disiplinary

massey_2

Hi Guys
Sorry to be long winded but here goes i got a phone call yesterday to ask me to make my way to the office i am an assessor i asked why and the manager said that something has come up in audit and we need to talk about it.
wheni arrived i was taken in a room and was told that 4 pieces of the same work has been submitted for four different learners to the IV . can you tell me why i really can't we have had a lot of issues with laptop because we have switched over to Windows 7 learners work has been lost and ended up in different files on the computer. i have worked for this company for 4and a half years and i have not had any problems.
they are disciplining me for further investigations they will probably look in my learners file and see if any of the work is the same. two other assessors work have gone missing and one assesor's ended up with my learners work on her file.
i have wrote all this down to present at the hearing.
Just wondered how i stand i feel this is just down to pressure and laptop issues
they said it could take up to two weeks and they will be in touch with me.
i thought you should of had a point of contact, which i haven't had.
hope you understand this i just need some advise just to give me piece of mind. i can't cry because i feel i haven't done anything wrong purely down to pressure and working over my 35 hours probably working 60 hours.


Also it is one of the Assessors wedding next week i am allowed to go because they said i had not to contact any members of staff. i have paid to stay over.

Any comments will be gratful Thanks and sorry for being patient.

DVardysShadow

massey wrote: »

Also it is one of the Assessors wedding next week i am allowed to go because they said i had not to contact any members of staff. i have paid to stay over.

Any comments will be gratful Thanks and sorry for being patient.

On this part alone, advise them in writing that you will be attending - and that they should contact you and arrange to reimburse any expenses if this is unacceptable.

The employer does not have any power to interfere in your social life - by proceeding in this way, they do have the option to prevent contact at their own expense.

Acc72

Hi OP,

Firstly, are you in a Union ? (if not, see your rep and join straight away).

I don't fully understand your post, so cannot help with the specifics - however, please be sure that during any investigation and/or disciplinary hearing you don't say anything like "i can't cry because i feel i haven't done anything wrong purely down to pressure and working over my 35 hours probably working 60 hours" as this almost implies that you have made a mistake (and they will not be interested in why you made the mistake - just that the mistake was made).

I have experience of a family member going through the sytem whilst employed at a college and seen comments such as this twisted.

Other than the above, my advice would be :

-if in doubt say nothing
-do not trust any of your colleagues / manager
-do not post anything on facebook etc.
-have you got anything (eg an e-mail) from you informing your boss that there have been problems with your PC etc ?


Sorry to be negative and cynical, but please join a union and watch your back.

Sambucus_Nigra

This is very serious as the awarding body could close the training provider down and the provider could lose funding - there was alot of this years ago when providers were flinging people through NVQs for the funding.

Firstly - was the same piece of evidence used for 4 learners? If so, is there an explanation for this ie did they build a wall together and hence the evidence is applicable for all 4 people.

Was this work that had been printed off and in folders, and signed off by you or was it stored on computers? I'm assuming that if it had gone to IV then you would have signed it off as an assessor and [forgive me if I'm wrong] during your assessor training this would have been covered and during any induction with the company it would also have been covered.

It is a very serious allegation but you can't blame computers if you have signed it off. Because it's not just gross misconduct it's can be construed as fraud.

You need to work out the situation here, before you proceed. As an assessor you would know the work that your candidates have compiled so you really need to be clear on how it happened.

KiKi

Sounds to me like it's exactly the same assignment for all 4 learners which has been signed off by the assessor and submitted to the IV.

I really don't understand how one learner's assignment - in a computer transfer / move - could have ended up suddenly appearing in 4 other learner's folders, with their names / numbers on. OP, IMO it's more likely that you either made an error saving files, or signed off identical assignments. If it was the PC transfer, then you should have evidence - either the IT person or the emails where the assignments are submitted. If you go back to those you can see if they're the same or not. But this is what the investigation will look into, so if it's a PC error it should be found.

KiKi

massey_2

Thanks for the advice but i do not know how this has happened, i agree it looks bad,
even the regional manager can't believe it he even said was it pressure because of the laptop issues but found 2 pieces of evidence before the change over. i really do not know how this happened all i think of his when the learners been doing work on my laptop from the pen drive i have saved the wrong piece of work before change over imy laptop was broken and they lent me another. mistakes do happen. i really do not know what to think now i do not commit fraud it generally been a mistake i just don't want to lose my job.

Acc72

Is it an admin/computer error that somehow the same single piece of work has been allocated to 4 seperate learners ?

Are any of your colleagues experiencing the same problems ?

Did you ever inform your manager (or anybody) of these problems ? (any evidence - eg. e-mail ?)

Has this also happened to other pieces of work ?

Firstly, do all of the 4 learners actually exist ?

Did they all submit individual work ?

Are you able to access the individual pieces of work ?

Sambucus_Nigra

massey wrote: »

Thanks for the advice but i do not know how this has happened, i agree it looks bad,
even the regional manager can't believe it he even said was it pressure because of the laptop issues but found 2 pieces of evidence before the change over. i really do not know how this happened all i think of his when the learners been doing work on my laptop from the pen drive i have saved the wrong piece of work before change over imy laptop was broken and they lent me another. mistakes do happen. i really do not know what to think now i do not commit fraud it generally been a mistake i just don't want to lose my job.

If there is even a chance of this then why wouldn't you go through the work with each learner before it is submitted.

HAS it been actually submitted to the IV? Or were they just going through files prior to IVing?

Acc72

massey wrote: »

even the regional manager can't believe it he even said was it pressure because of the laptop issues

As I said before, please forget about this and do not under any circumstances repeat this in any investigation/disciplinary meeting as you are effectively admitting making a mistake.

If the 4 students exist, and you can show that they all submitted their own individual work, and your colleagues are experiencing the same problems caused by the changeover of software or whatever - then this is a better "defence".

mrcow

You can't possibly blame this on a computer mix up.

You would have had to printed this off 4 times and then each candidate would have had to have signed the work off as their own with you countersigning it and dating it on each piece of work. You would then have had to cross reference it into their folder.

They would have known it wasn't their own work. And so would you.

Tiredness doesn't come into it. The awarding body could shut you down for this. You need to come up with a valid explanation (if there is one?).

massey_2

the work doesn't get printed off it just gets attached to a visit. i am well aware of them shutting us down but i really have not done this. the learner does not sign it and neither does the assessor the feedback is completed on the dicatphone
Thanks for your comments.