Being Forced Out

DocBrown2015

Hello,

I'm posting on behalf of a friend. I'm going to have to keep some details private for fear of being recognised.

My friend has worked at the company for over five years. He was injured whilst at work two years ago, the injury is life changing. He no longer has the use of one of his limbs. He was injured by another employee whilst they were both using the same machinery. My friend is taking the company to court, it's a very long and slow process which started over a year ago.

Since the injury he no longer does the job he originally did as it would not be safe for him or others and he also could'nt even if he wanted to. He now has an office based job on a lower salary. Recently he has been given a new responsibility on top of his normal work. Even more recently he was told that he is to be given a new job title and has been given a new contract with different hours to sign. He is refusing to sign the new contract.

In a nutshell he was told in no uncertain terms today by his manager that if he does'nt sign the new contract over the weekend then they will try all they can to get rid of him. He was told this by his manager outside whilst the manager was having a cigarette, no witnesses.

The job role the company want him to do is something that will have ALOT of comeback on him if he misses anything. He feels that basically he is being setup as the company want him out and that the new role would give them the ammunition to start this. It's a shame I can't go in to too much detail but basically the new job would involve doing lots of checks on machinery before it goes back to the customer.
As it is at the moment alot of work that goes back to the customers is often returned due to poor work being carried out. He was recently called in to the office and given a telling off because a piece of machinery had gone back to the customer with something missing, although he checked the machinery he only checks certain areas which are listed on a check sheet. The area that had the part missing was'nt on the check sheet and furthermore, it would have been impossible to check without getting under the machinery which is totally impossible for him to do.

He has been doing the checks listed as part of his new, extra responsibility but if he signed the new contract it would pretty much be his full time job. He feels as though he would be the fall guy for anything missed and poor work carried out by others.

He's not too sure what to do as he does'nt want to sign the contract but is coming under a lot of pressure. Any advice would be very helpful. I tried to post originally in the citizen's advice forum but I could'nt start a new thread. If Admin can move it to there please do so.

Also, the HR dept. are not helping my friend at all. He has spoken to them but they have been of no help.

I really want to help my friend as he's been through a hell of a lot the last few years

Takeaway_Addict

DocBrown2015 wrote: »

Hello,

I'm posting on behalf of a friend. I'm going to have to keep some details private for fear of being recognised.

My friend has worked at the company for over five years. He was injured whilst at work two years ago, the injury is life changing. He no longer has the use of one of his limbs. He was injured by another employee whilst they were both using the same machinery. My friend is taking the company to court, it's a very long and slow process which started over a year ago.

Since the injury he no longer does the job he originally did as it would not be safe for him or others and he also could'nt even if he wanted to. He now has an office based job on a lower salary. Recently he has been given a new responsibility on top of his normal work. Even more recently he was told that he is to be given a new job title and has been given a new contract with different hours to sign. He is refusing to sign the new contract.

In a nutshell he was told in no uncertain terms today by his manager that if he does'nt sign the new contract over the weekend then they will try all they can to get rid of him. He was told this by his manager outside whilst the manager was having a cigarette, no witnesses.

The job role the company want him to do is something that will have ALOT of comeback on him if he misses anything. He feels that basically he is being setup as the company want him out and that the new role would give them the ammunition to start this. It's a shame I can't go in to too much detail but basically the new job would involve doing lots of checks on machinery before it goes back to the customer.
As it is at the moment alot of work that goes back to the customers is often returned due to poor work being carried out. He was recently called in to the office and given a telling off because a piece of machinery had gone back to the customer with something missing, although he checked the machinery he only checks certain areas which are listed on a check sheet. The area that had the part missing was'nt on the check sheet and furthermore, it would have been impossible to check without getting under the machinery which is totally impossible for him to do.

He has been doing the checks listed as part of his new, extra responsibility but if he signed the new contract it would pretty much be his full time job. He feels as though he would be the fall guy for anything missed and poor work carried out by others.

He's not too sure what to do as he does'nt want to sign the contract but is coming under a lot of pressure. Any advice would be very helpful. I tried to post originally in the citizen's advice forum but I could'nt start a new thread. If Admin can move it to there please do so.

Also, the HR dept. are not helping my friend at all. He has spoken to them but they have been of no help.

I really want to help my friend as he's been through a hell of a lot the last few years

Firstly, HR are not there to help the employee, they are there to help the employer...never get why people think differently on this.

Secondly, the fact he is completing the work laid out by the contract will nullify not signing the contract...unless he has declared that he is working it under protest and its in dispute.

Your friend may be being managed out but also, if there are issues with items going out faulty to customers it seems logical to me that they install an extra check to help prevent this? No?

takman

So there are a lot of faults with things being sent out and the company decide to move someone full time to inspect it before it gets sent out. Sound reasonable to me and I think your friend is just being a bit difficult. We have plenty of inspectors at my workplace who are responsible for making sure products meet the specifications and by making them accountable makes sure they only accept products they are happy with.

Sending out equipment that isn't correct will damage the company's reputation and the customer won't care about who is responsible. So I don't think a scapegoat would be much help to the company.

FBaby

Has he been offered appropriate training to ensure that he has all the skills and knowledge to carry out these checks?