Emplorer harassment and now fabricated disciplinary hearing please help

uttermadness

My partner has just been issued with an invitation to a disciplinary hearing in which her company seem to be looking to dismiss her for abusive and threatening behaviour.


They have managed to concoct a story between the HR manager and an apprentice who was in the office at the time of a discussion in which the apprentice states that she was scared and intimidated by my partners behaviour.
The thing is my partner knowing how her company operates took a recording device in with her which shows clearly that it was the HR manager being aggressive. Can she use this recording as proof either now or if she is dismissed and goes for unfair dismissal.
This is not the first attempt the company have made to discredit her work and they have been piling pressure onto her for the past 3 months in attempts to make her leave her job presumably because they are struggling and she has been there 9 years and they don't want to pay the redundancy.
She has other recordings of meetings in which they deliberately use bullying tactics to try to get her to change her workload and in one she has a recording taped while she was out of the room after breaking down in tears in which the HR head calls her a !!!!! for arguing her case and says she will have to play her at her own game.
Thing is can any of these recordings be used or has she been set up with no comeback. She has already been off once due to the stress of this and was percilessly pressurised when she returned, although she told them she was ill with stress they forced more work onto her at her return to work meeting. She is now so ill with worry that she is off again and suffering major panic attacks. Any advice would be gratefully received.

maninthestreet

Get her to write down a transcript of the relevant 'conversations' she has recorded, and take them with her into the disciplinary meeting.

Undervalued

She needs to be very careful here.

It is not illegal (i.e. not a criminal offence) to secretly record any conversation she is party to. However making use of such recording can give rise to civil claims under some circumstances.

Recording a conversation when she was not present "bugging" could however be a criminal offence.

Transcripts from covert recording have sometimes been allowed as evidence at employment tribunals but this is up to the judge to rule on the particular circumstances. Even if they are not admitted they can still be a powerful incentive for the employer to tell the truth as, if they don't, the recordings could be proof of the serious criminal offence of perjury.

Making the recordings might, in itself, be a disciplinary matter so she needs to check her employment particulars carefully.

Initially it may be best just to have notes of the conversations as if she made them immediately afterwards.

Another_not_new_user

I agree with the previous comments. And secretly recorded conversations cannot be relied on as being acceptable evidence - it isn't a criminal act (usually) but it may breach civil law.


But ignoring all that, because that is a long way down the road yet - an employer is entitled to change someone's workload; and her interpretation that an HR officer was being bullying does not (a) mean they were, or (b) that her own behaviour did not intimidate or scare the apprentice who gave a statement.


You are presuming a lot for which you present no evidence. The employer says that she was abusive and threatening. They must state what she said. Does the recording (obtained lawfully or not, and I assume not) bear out their version or hers?

zzzLazyDaisy

How long has she worked for this employer? This could be crucial to the advice offered.

Another_not_new_user

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

How long has she worked for this employer? This could be crucial to the advice offered.

Nine years - it says. So employment protection is in place.

patman99

Yes, but she could claim that the transcripts were in fact a record of the events written-up from notes taken at the time.

Another_not_new_user

patman99 wrote: »

Yes, but she could claim that the transcripts were in fact a record of the events written-up from notes taken at the time.

Recordings - if they evidence what people think they do (because they sometimes fall into the category of saying what people want them to say) - are mostly useful outside court procedures as a means of forcing settlement (in other words, after you don't have a job). Without the recordings themselves, which may not be accepted as evidence, transcripts alone become part of the "he said, she said" scenario - no proof of their veracity if an unlawfully obtained recording is refused to be accepted into evidence.

PHILANTHROPIST

For what its worth I have used tape recordings to catch out many employers in tribunal cases. Yes, the Judges give me a slap on the wrist, but if the evidence is probative, then it is generally admissible in a Tribunal setting. Most employers lie. An (untampered) tape does not.

As ANNU and others say, if nought else, the transcript thereof may prove to be an excellent negotiating tool.

uttermadness

Thank you all for your replies, i'm away from the computer a lot so only get chance to log on intermittently although I can read the forum on my phone. it looks like the outcome may be moot as all this has made her so unwell it looks unlikely that she will be fit enough to defend it. Can the company hold a disciplinary hearing in her absence if she is certified as too unwell to work or will they have to wait until she is fit enough to return to work.

uttermadness

Just to clarify the recording shows the HR manager shouting at her as soon as she walks into the office and her replying not abusively but firmly The HR manager can be heard typing throughout the recording and does not seem intimidated in any way.
My partner has worked for the company for 9 years and has never been disciplined for any misconduct in that time. The company also did not suspend her for this but was quite happy for her to go out on her appointments in fact they were insistent she went out for her appointments.