My employer is accusing me of fraud as he is retaliating me of raising whistleblowing

duchesspink1

an HR department wouldn't be scared of any manager in any job, they are above the managers in that they are there as impartial people to mediate in disagreements, ensure employee wellbeing, staff contracts, disciplinary hearings, handling of employees records etc, I don't see how an HR person can be afraid of a manager when that manager can't sack them?

I think you are panicking way too much over something and nothing.

You need to forget what you've read online about people in police cells etc etc, the police wouldn't be one bit interested unless you were embezzelling thousands from the company or something.

chill out and go to HR with the simple facts, no drama or panic and raise a grievance if you need to.

marybelle01

Terrified wrote: »

Thank you Evilm. Appreciate your response.

I have spoken to HR but they are not helpful as they are themselves scared of this manager but do not want to say anything as it could affect their jobs. We all know how difficult it is to find jobs outside.

The increment letter was signed by the manager and I know the manager has a document that shows all the increases he gave to his employees. Now, he claims that overall document showed that I was not entitled to any increments. I don't have that overall document as it belongs to my manager. I was not involved in the transaction. I did not transact the amount into my account as I don't work in payroll or in finance. I happily got the increment in January and nothing happened after that. It was after I raised concerns about how he was continuously treating other employees unfairly based on their whistleblowing and grievance and I said humans should behave as humans and we should be fair to everyone. At that point, he started accusing me. My manager got the company lawyer to send me so many letters and I had to get my lawyer to send back the letters. It has cost me a lot. I am sure my manager must be laughing a lot now knowing the state of mind I would be in. I just want a decent job. Why is he accusing me? If he wants to terminate me, he can easily treat me bad and I would then force myself to resign. Why put me through these false accusation? I just cannot read his mind on why he is doing it.

Was I wrong in discussing all the grievances with him? Was I wrong in telling him how I really felt? Was I wrong to say the truth?

There are employees in the company who are supporting me mentally but of course, they will not support me physically by going against my manager. I understand why and it is because they don't want to end up like me in this situation.

I am so heartbroken as I dont want to leave the company. I love the company and the employees there.

Do you think I can fix the problem and stay back at the job? Probably not and probably I am just asking myself this stupid question which I know will not happen.

I am sorry, but this is beginning to sound like a soap opera. Are you genuinely suggesting that everyone in the company - HR, the Board of Directors, et al - are either afraid of this guy or in cahoots with him? And that all of them, including the Board of Directors, are willing to risk the entire company to cover up some "whistleblowing" - that we haven't been able to establish has actually happened? If everything you have said is true - how can you possibly love your job since it consists of lying on behalf of a dictatorial boss? One who has falsely accused you of fraud?

There is just too much drama here.

Forget the rest of it. If you didn't do what you are accused of then they have no evidence. Do as Evilm has said - calm down and sort it out.

But sorry - managers can't get the company lawyers to send out loads of letters just like that. Have you any idea what this costs a company - and what damage it does to both the company and the lawyers to send out letters that don't stack up in law? Managers don't just get to phone up the lawyers and demand a letter. The lawyers balance out the risk to the company and advise them accordingly - and if they think it's going to get the company into trouble then they tell the employer - not the manager - exactly that. Because they are paid to keep the company out of trouble. They don't give a !!!! about the manager - their job is to ensure the company do not land in trouble.

Sambucus_Nigra

Sorry - I was hoping that it would come to light but....

What exactly was it you 'whistleblowed'?

Any

I still don't get how were you supposed to fake the increment letter. You say you got your letter, how did it get applied? The manager must have told the payroll somehow, so unless you told them personally on his behalf, it's all rubbish!! There must be track of it being applied!!

marybelle01

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Sorry - I was hoping that it would come to light but....

What exactly was it you 'whistleblowed'?

You probably missed it. The OP didn't. S/he accuses the manager of fixing the investigations into others whisteblowing (and please don't go there and ask whether they did or not!) and told the manager that they din't like the fact that they were lying (according to the OP) about peoples complaints.

Honestly? I think the OP works in HR or something closely akin, and hasn't realised that their job is to protect the employer - not to play fair.

ktothema

Any wrote: »

I still don't get how were you supposed to fake the increment letter. You say you got your letter, how did it get applied? The manager must have told the payroll somehow, so unless you told them personally on his behalf, it's all rubbish!! There must be track of it being applied!!

This is my thought too. Payroll and finance don't tend to work off copies of letters, and if they did there would still be some process of how they filter through. So somehow OP has forged a letter and somehow distributed it correctly through all the correct channels, with all the coreprect forged sign offs. Also, if the manager knew this is January then why the hell has he let OP be paid for another 6 months at this level? Hes obviously not very good as he hasnt even informed his biard of directors. If this is genuinely what he's claiming, and even if he's altered the electronic documents he holds, anybody with any nous could see through it.

Sambucus_Nigra

marybelle01 wrote: »

You probably missed it. The OP didn't. S/he accuses the manager of fixing the investigations into others whisteblowing (and please don't go there and ask whether they did or not!) and told the manager that they din't like the fact that they were lying (according to the OP) about peoples complaints.

Honestly? I think the OP works in HR or something closely akin, and hasn't realised that their job is to protect the employer - not to play fair.

Aah - I see. So the manager is winding them up a little [obviously knowing that they are a bit of a panicker].

Evilm

Terrified wrote: »

The increment letter was signed by the manager and I know the manager has a document that shows all the increases he gave to his employees. Now, he claims that overall document showed that I was not entitled to any increments. I don't have that overall document as it belongs to my manager. I was not involved in the transaction. I did not transact the amount into my account as I don't work in payroll or in finance. I happily got the increment in January and nothing happened after that.

THIS is what you need to stick to. Somehow Payroll have been told to up your salary and you don't have access to the documentation that shows it. So go to HR and ask them EXACTLY how you were supposed to have affected this matter.

HR shouldn't be scared of this one person and I'd be calm and ask them to put the information down on the table to prove your involvement in the matter. Good chance this is all bluster and bullshiat. If they won't talk go up the chain to higher management.

As for commiserating with/standing up for other people that are in trouble I'd stay away in future. Its not nice but its politic and sensible in a situation where it could turn into something else.

Firefox1975

I think they (i'm guessing she) is/are the Managers P.A.

hence the reason they type up the managers correspondence.

Either way, even if you "did" falsify the letter (not suggesting you did, just pointing out a fact) and the manager signed it, it is binding on the company and their is no fraud. Potentially a mistake, which the company "could" recuperate from you, but I doubt this as im guessing the raise was a standard percentage of your salary which was given at the same time as other employees so they would be hard pushed to say that your own letter was a mistake! i;m afraid the fact it occured in January and has been ongoing ever since wont protect you from having to repay if it is found in their favour.

You need to leave this company, I would think your manager will want this anyway, make sure when you leave you negotiate a reference that does not mention this issue whatsoever.

Terrified

Thank you all for your replies. I may not have been very clear in my earlier messages. The salary increment was signed by my manager and I then acknowleged the salary increment by signing my name underneath. I then passed the letter to the payroll/finance team. This is not a big company so that is how it works. Everything was ok. I received the salary increment and all was fine. Then from Feb onwards with a number of grievance cases and whistleblowing cases, my manager was suddenly faced with all that. Not only that, business overall is not doing well too. I was told to be the investigator for the grievance cases and the whistleblowing cases which I did. I concluded that there were facts and proof to show that the grievance cases and the whistleblowing cases were all genuine. When I told my manager, he told me to change the outcome. When I challenged him, he became angry and so I changed the outcome. But right after that, he found excuses to terminate those who raised the grievance cases and whistleblowing cases. I was saddened to see that. Then there were another 2 grievance cases and 1 whistleblowing cases, again the same thing happened. This time, I told my manager that he was not right in doing so because what we should be doing is to fix the problem and not sweep it under the carpet. He was upset because also his boss was looking at my manager's business results which has been terrible. So how best for the manager to solve this is to restructure the business and guess what, whoever raised the grievance and whistleblowing cases were made redundant. My manager also told me he did it on purpose. So, when I challenged him, he said I am the next one to go if I don't like. When I challenged him on that, he said he will find ways to do so. Then suddenly, he says that I falsified my own increment letter. No, I did not. As I said, he approved. He signed it. I then signed to acknowledge. I then took a copy and gave it to payroll/finance. My manager now claims I changed the percentage of increase in the letter which is of course not true.
He has got his lawyer to write to me. My manager's boss is not getting involved. The board of directors are not getting involved. I guess they find it expensive to terminate him plus with bad business results, if they terminate my manager, there is a risk that business results may even be worse. So, my manager's boss and the board of directors are very quiet plus I do not have access with them.
My HR department is not really HR. She is more of an admin who only looks after the office premise, does paper document filing and organises job interviews etc. So, she told me she does not want to be involved as she is scared to say anything.
Many of the employees are supportive of me. But when I ask them if they would jointly write to my manager's boss and the board of directors to raise the concerns, they all go quiet. I understand as some of them have told me that they have families and these difficult times they don't want to leave as there are not many jobs out there.