Suspended from work

poe.tuesday

dmg24 wrote: »

I would send a letter to them on Monday, if possible sent by email and by Recorded Delivery. This letter needs to state that you strenuously deny the alleged offence, and the upset and stress that this has caused to you. You need to ask them to specify by which date their investigation will be completed, and if you don't already have it, you need to ask for a copy of their Disciplinary Policy and the Grievance Procedure.

I believe that you should hold off making any contact with your employer until you have found out the correct proceedure that you and they should be following, I am not saying that sending them a letter is the wrong thing to do, as I don't know if it is or not, but I would not give them anything at this present time, also, what would this letter actually achieve?

At present, your feelings are irrelivant to them, they believe they have a case against you, they are building up their evidence to prove this, a letter from you saying you didn't do it and that you are upset is besides the point, you need to concentrate on knowing what the proceedures are, ensure that they are followed to the letter of the law and have evidence to show that you have not done any wrong, if this can not be proved then you need to show that there may be other reasons why the printouts/evidence show that you have disconnected these calls, such as machine error etc, you need to show that there are other factors involved that could give them the perception that you were disconnecting calls, they have to prove without a shadow of a doubt that you are guilty, if you can prove that there is doubt then if they sack you, you have them for unfair dismissal, they have to be 100% proof positive that you are guillty.

Then and only then should your feeling be involved, this naturally has had an adverse effect on you and is something that you can get them for when you claim against them for unfair dismissal, until then it is irrelivant.

If, after their investigations they decide not to carry on with the dismissal and you are reinstated, I don't believe that you have any claim against them as regards to the emotional termoil the event has cased you, they have a right to suspend you pending a gross misconduct investigation - I know if it not fair but it is a proceedure that they are legally permitted to follow - I beleive I am correct in stating that you will have no claim against them if you are reinstated (as long as the whole proceedure was done correctly) howver I stand corrected if I am wrong as it was some time again I did a course on this

indeeptrouble

littlestar1981 wrote: »

If you are innocent then stand your ground, if you have been there 10 years I'm sure people will know you well enough to know you could not and would not do such a thing!

To people questioning these print outs, I work in a call centre and our telephone system can tell whether the customer or the operator ended the call. And all our calls are recorded - when the calls are listened to it come up on the screen in different colour dots dependent on who ended the call!!

Technology these days... but it isn't watertight I'm sure.

Good luck with it all x

The truth is I am probably the longest there - give or take a couple. Most only 'hack it' for a couple of years. Out of the 3 managers in question they had an average employment agae of about 12 months. Out of about 300 staff - about 250 have been there less than 2-3 years.

My employment record there is excellent but the longest serving manager is about 3 years. How on earth can you prove you never terminated the calls?? I can't get in to my system. I'd quite willingly ring the people myself and ask them. I wonder if my employers will??

poe.tuesday

amandada wrote: »

so there were 3 of them, and 1 of you....won't be looked on kindly by a union or acas.....

indeeptrouble has only been suspended pending the investigation, the employers have not broken any rules, however, they could have offered for indeeptrouble to have someone in with her as a whitness but this does not have to be offered, as an employee you can request this and it can not be denied but not many employees know that they can request this, the employer does not have to tell them either, all policies have to be available for all staff to see and read, it is not up to the employer to inform anyone of their rights, the employee has to find them out for themselves via the policies that are available

tanith

They must have a record of your service with them and surely if you had done this before it would be on your records... your records must show that there are no previous complaints or discipliniaries against you that will be all to your good if it goes further....

Keep posting as all the advice you are being given can only make you more confidant in dealing with 'management' . Sometimes they are following orders blindly and don't actually 'know' how to proceed and make mistakes.. which can only be good for you.....do not have any meetings with them unless you have someone , even a friend , with you and have them take notes ....

firesidemaid

hi there.

just wanted to add some support. acas is open on saturday mornings i think - so you could try them tomorrow. both their website and the unison and tuc websites can be very helpful.

it souns like they have been very heavy handed, although that may be their procedure.

as far as i know, every workplace with a certain no. of employees has to recognise unions - they are breaking the law if they don't.

as mentioned before, they will have to have a written and documented disciplinary procedure. if you have been there more than a year (it sounds like you have been there a long time), then you are fully protected.

if they do not follow any part of their own procedure, then they will regret it - of course they hope that employees do not know the law. and, often employers do not understand the law either.

hopefully, everything will be resolved and you will not have to go much further.

i take it you are being suspended on full pay. do you have a copy of the disc. procedure (hopefully they gave you one before you went).

they have to let you know in writing what allegations there are (if any), what they are doing about it, what meetings they are planning. they have to let you have copies all of all the evidence they have before any hearings and also give you time to collect any evidence you need - and give you access to get this.

don't remind them of your/their rights - let them get it wrong if necessary.

try not to worry too much. we on here and the likes of CAB and ACAS etc can help and support you. i have helped a family member and friends successfully get through several employment/disciplinary hearings and also get their jobs back after appealing dismissals.

hold on in there and take care for now.

mayb_2

Try writing down everything you can remember that happened that day while it is still fresh with you and gather as much evidence as you can. As I understand it the diciplinary procedure must be followed if the company wishes to avoid a later accusation of unfair dismissal - if the procedure has not been followed you would have a high chance of success with an industrial tribunal. Puting the phone down before the other caller is not proof that the call itself was not over and it doesn't prove you were rude to the customer either. Remember you have been suspended not dismissed so you need to check it out - 10 years with no complaints would mean that they would be hard put to justify their actions. Not that you want to go there if you can help it but it might not hurt to make some noises about it anyway just to let them know you are in there and fighting back. Even if your company does not officially recognise a union it is worth you joining one to protect you in such circumstances in the future. They will give you free support and advice and represent you if necessary. If what you say about them wanting to cut down on expensive staff has anything to do with it they may be hoping you are so upset that you either leave now or start looking to leave of your own accord.

Keep your chin up and don't let anger get in the way of dealing with this - stay focused and good luck.

dmg24

poe,

The purpose of the letter is to formalise things on the OP's part, and to give their expectations. If IDT doesn't ask how long the investigation will take, they may still be sat waiting in two weeks time, which is clearly unfair.

The comment as to the upset and stress that this is causing relates to the employers duty of care towards the employee. The employer has a duty to minimise distress to the employee, even while the employee is suspended.

The letter is not to discuss anything that has been alleged, simply to state the position of IDT.

I do have experience in this area Poe, both as an employee and an investigating manager (although the latter was not in a call centre environment).

poe.tuesday

dmg24 wrote: »

poe,

The purpose of the letter is to formalise things on the OP's part, and to give their expectations. If IDT doesn't ask how long the investigation will take, they may still be sat waiting in two weeks time, which is clearly unfair.

The comment as to the upset and stress that this is causing relates to the employers duty of care towards the employee. The employer has a duty to minimise distress to the employee, even while the employee is suspended.

The letter is not to discuss anything that has been alleged, simply to state the position of IDT.

I do have experience in this area Poe, both as an employee and an investigating manager (although the latter was not in a call centre environment).

I believe that there is no need for you to explain/justify your comments to me, I did not state that they were not valid, I just offered my opinion which, in this case, differered from yours, it is up to the OP to take what she wishes from our suggestions.

When you direct posts such as these directly to me I feel that you're diverting the issue from assisting the OP to defending your post, which in-turn can divert the subject away, I don't believe that that is your intention, so lets work together to give as much advice as we can to assist the OP in this difficult situation.

iceicebaby

I know in the call centre I work in they can tell whether a call has been "far end released" which is released by the caller or released by the employee. This is on a print out which also logs every single button pressed on the phone by the employee. A lot of people where i am were given warnings for call avoidance which is pressing not ready and then ready in order to keep putting yourself at the back of the queue for calls. So they will be able to prove who released the calls. they should also give you a copy of the print out though to back up their allegations. If they havent I would ask for it

katecheshire

indeeptrouble wrote: »

That day was a good day and I know I had no bad calls. I do know I had problems with my IT system that day. So much so I rang IT and had them look at my system. This is linked to my phone. How do I prove anything?? I'm sure even if I prove this they'll find something else just to 'keep face'.

Your IT department should have a log of your call. Also the fact that you said you had to move to another PC should be traceable - logging on etc.
You should be able to ask for this evidence in support of your case. As someone has said - write down everything you can think of to support your position. Is there anyone senior who would support you - after all you have been with them for 10 years so someone should know that you are a reliable employee. Don't let them bully you!
Good luck.