unfounded work alligations, my rights?

mighty_hammers

my work managers came to see me today and said i had been named in an official complaint, from the head of the school, i work in a service department. The complaint was unfounded and it turned out another member of staff had been dealing with the member of school staff. We look nothing alike but they chose to name me. My bosses are clear it wasn't me, but in my initial relief it did not occur to me to ask them to investigate why i was accused. I had a 25 minute, minuted interview and the actual member of staff about 5 mins and it put down as a misunderstanding between her and the member of staff. My OH says i should take it further, as i am sure if i had had the misunderstanding i would now be on an official warning. I do not know if i have the right to have a copy of the complaint made against me and their findings. Or what to do next, hence i can't sleep for worrying.

stevemLS

I don't know what you seek to achieve.

You could, in theory make a subject access request under the Data Protection Act to for a copy of the complaint.

They would have the right to redact the details of the complainant.

They could also use the exemption available under s31 of the Act - the purpose of investigating the fitness of any person to carry out any profession or other activity.

But, the school had a complaint in which you were named, they had an obligation to investigate it and having done so with you were satisfied that you were not in fact the subject of the complaint.

You have absolutely no right to any information whatsoever into the findings in relation to the member of staff who was in fact the subject of the complaint.

What to do next? Nothing, in my view. I can't for the life of me understand why you are now losing sleep over it.

mighty_hammers

Really, you do you best in a job, get accused by people you work for, when they know it's not you. and of no redress to ask why.

stevemLS

I think you may have misunderstood me (or me you)

They had a complaint that named you. So they had to look into it.

Maybe it is the hour, of course I understand it must have been distressing at the time to go through, but what do you want now.

vegasvisitor

I can understand you are concerned as to why they named you. It sounds like you think it shouldn't have been an easy mistake - is it possible it was just a mistake? If you don't feel it was a simple mistake you could informally query why the mistake was made.

While you may think someone had a 5 minute meeting, it may be possible that the meeting was adjourned awaiting someone to accompany them - union rep or similar after the initial accusation was made. So it may not be as it seems if you only witnessed the person being taken away for 5 minutes.

As someone else stated, you probably won't be privy to any information since it has been discovered the matter is personal to someone else and not you.

I do understand your distress, but if you can't just informally ask if everything is ok now at your end, or how it could have been mistaken then maybe best let it drop. If you feel the person has deliberately falsely accused you and that it's serious then a grievance may be appropriate.

Flyonthewall

mighty_hammers wrote: »

We look nothing alike but they chose to name me.

Maybe they got mixed up with names? It happens.

It would be stupid to make a serious complain and deliberately give the wrong name.

The reason it ended up being your name could be numerous reasons. They don't know the other persons name, your names are similar, they'd been talking to you that day or before making the complaint and got confused or they're just really bad with names.

My bosses are clear it wasn't me, but in my initial relief it did not occur to me to ask them to investigate why i was accused.

Known mistake or not you were named. They have to investigate and show to be following procedure and make 100% sure.

They did that and you should be glad that they look into complaints fully. If ever you had a complaint you'd want them to do the same thing.

I had a 25 minute, minuted interview and the actual member of staff about 5 mins and it put down as a misunderstanding between her and the member of staff.

Are you sure that's the only interview they had and that it was a full interview and not that they've postponed the interview?

Perhaps as that staff member was involved they told their side and it was just a quick and simple explanation. It may not be the end or it may have been that that's all it took to resolve the issue.

Yours was longer because you weren't involved and they had to make sure to cover everything to be 100% sure of that fact.

My OH says i should take it further, as i am sure if i had had the misunderstanding i would now be on an official warning. I do not know if i have the right to have a copy of the complaint made against me and their findings. Or what to do next, hence i can't sleep for worrying.

Why? It's over.

The company did their job properly. It was never about you, it's still not about you, nothing happened because of that, nothing will happen. What happens with the other person is nothing to do with you.

Whether the outcome would be the same had it been you is not something you could ever know, nor does it matter because it wasn't you and you still don't know for sure the outcome with the other person. They may have had an official warning, but no-ones going to tell you that as it has nothing to do with you.

Not sure what you're worrying about or why, but what you do now is carry on with the job as you were doing before and forget about this.

mighty_hammers

Thanks, for your comments. The other member of staff came into my meeting to confirm what i had said, so i know what happened. They were on their way out of work, to go home. so where as i had a sit down for a minuted meeting, they were grabbing their stuff, confirmed it was them not me, and off they went home. (Oh it was all a mistake.) she was not asked like i was if she had been rude, etc.
I know i did nothing wrong, this is the second time i have been falsely accused by the same member of school staff. Known each other for 18yrs, so no mistaking me.
i have been told i did nothing wrong, but OH was asking for an apology from the school staff member when he said to take things further, which i have since found out i can't ask, as they are not my employers. I just don't want to be put in the same position again, with the comments here we are again.

DandelionPatrol

mighty_hammers wrote: »

Thanks, for your comments. The other member of staff came into my meeting to confirm what i had said, so i know what happened. They were on their way out of work, to go home. so where as i had a sit down for a minuted meeting, they were grabbing their stuff, confirmed it was them not me, and off they went home. (Oh it was all a mistake.) she was not asked like i was if she had been rude, etc.
I know i did nothing wrong, this is the second time i have been falsely accused by the same member of school staff. Known each other for 18yrs, so no mistaking me.
i have been told i did nothing wrong, but OH was asking for an apology from the school staff member when he said to take things further, which i have since found out i can't ask, as they are not my employers. I just don't want to be put in the same position again, with the comments here we are again.

True enough, you cannot take this further through your employer. But you can take it up directly with the member of school staff or with the school itself.

Before you do that, I would recommend that you send a brief note to your employer along the lines of

Dear <Employer>

I refer to the meeting of <date> where I was questioned concerning a complaint against me from <member of school staff> and it was clarified that the complaint was against another person.

I would advise you that

• <member of school staff> has known me for 18 years
• this is the second time that <member of school staff>has wrongly accused me.

I understand that this cannot be addressed by <Employer> since <member of school staff>is not employed by <Employer>. As a matter of courtesy, I am advising you that I am taking appropriate advice and I may proceed to deal with <member of school staff> either directly or through the school, without further reference to yourselves.


Yours sincerely


<mighty hammers>




And if you take it up with the school, I suggest a very mild letter enclosing a photograph of yourself


Dear <School>


I am employed by <Employer> as <role> at <School>. On <date> I was questioned concerning a complaint against me from <member of school staff> and it was clarified that the complaint was against another person.

I would advise you that

• <member of school staff> has known me for 18 years
• this is the second time that <member of school staff> has wrongly accused me.

For the avoidance of any further confusion, I enclose a photograph of myself. I would be grateful if you would show <member of school staff> this photograph and advise them that my name is <mighty hammers> in order to aid <member of school staff> not to repeat earlier mistakes.


Yours sincerely


<mighty hammers>

Flyonthewall

mighty_hammers wrote: »

Thanks, for your comments. The other member of staff came into my meeting to confirm what i had said, so i know what happened. They were on their way out of work, to go home. so where as i had a sit down for a minuted meeting, they were grabbing their stuff, confirmed it was them not me, and off they went home. (Oh it was all a mistake.) she was not asked like i was if she had been rude, etc.
I know i did nothing wrong, this is the second time i have been falsely accused by the same member of school staff. Known each other for 18yrs, so no mistaking me.
i have been told i did nothing wrong, but OH was asking for an apology from the school staff member when he said to take things further, which i have since found out i can't ask, as they are not my employers. I just don't want to be put in the same position again, with the comments here we are again.

Twice in 18 years isn't too bad, although a little odd. To mistakenly say your name twice is odd, but if they wanted to cause problems then twice in 18 years makes no sense. Were the two incidents close together or years apart?

Do they often get confused, especially with names? Do they do anything to suggest they've something against you?

I'm not sure there's really anything you can do to prevent it happening again and trying to find out the reason could lead to issues/trouble.

You're really best off just forgetting it. If it keeps happening I imagine the bosses will have something to say about it anyway as they're false accusations and it's wasting everyones time.

mighty_hammers

Love the idea of handing in a photo.

mighty_hammers

both, have been this year by same person, about 8 months apart.