Accepted redundancy settlement agreement, am now under investigation. Seek legal advice?

smartn2

It does feel to me that the company have jumped straight to the conclusion that this is malicious intent which clearly according to the OP is not the case. Disabling the account in this circumstance prevents any further accidents etc so is a wise move for both parties but I do wonder why it's been sent to a legal team.

Hoenir

DE_612183 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

DE_612183 said:

how do they know he's deleted documents if they can't see them to be recovered?

wonder whether this is just posturing by the company to avoid a pay-out.

How "big" is this company?

There are tools like Microsoft Purview which will log who's accessed, edited or deleted files. It itself won't help you recover it. 

Why do you assume they cannot recover them? The OP only stated they have accused him of deleting files inappropriately there was no comment that they cannot be recovered. 

Yeah, I get your point - but if the "case" is sat with a legal team ( which the OP has stated ) then you have to wonder what the problem is if they can recover them - as I said perhaps they've seen this as a way out of making the redundancy payment

Time costs valuable money that would be be better spent performing other productive tasks.  The Company wouldn't have bothered offering an enhanced redundancy package nor a contribution towards legal advice in the first place. What's potentially now at risk is the "enhanced". The redundancy itself is irreversible. 

starrybear

Thank you so much for the advice so far - I really appreciate it. I am also wondering if this is something they're doing to try and wriggle out of the redundancy payment, although I do recall my husband saying he was going to delete anything personal (and by that, I do mean 121 notes/PDP's etc - nothing dodgy), so I don't think they're making it up that stuff has perhaps disappeared. I do wonder if we can ask for evidence of what's allegedly been removed, but i'm very wary of pouring oil on the fire.

I've drafted the below on my husband's behalf (he's genuinely a very clever man, but is dyslexic and does struggle also with computers beyond the basics, hence the reason I'm trying to help)

Not planning on sending anything over until the company get back in touch, but i do worry that this could be days/weeks and my husband will just be at his wits end during that time.

Should he send it? Just to have his voice heard at the start of such an investigation?

Dear xx,   

I am writing in relation to the telephone conversation that took place this morning between xx and myself. I understand that I am currently the subject of an investigation regarding the disappearance of some documents from a shared drive.

The recent offer of voluntary redundancy came as an unexpected and significant shock, and I am still in the process of coming to terms with it. In an effort to be practical and responsible, I began tidying up my computer in preparation for the return of my company equipment. I did so under the genuine belief that I was removing only personal or individual work-related files (for example, [xx]).

I must acknowledge that I am not particularly technically proficient, and it is possible that in attempting what I believed to be a routine administrative task, I inadvertently deleted files that should not have been removed. It is even possible that these documents remain in my recycle bin, though I am unable to confirm this as my laptop has understandably been locked.

If this is the case, I sincerely apologise. I have been under considerable emotional and psychological stress over the past two weeks, and may not have been thinking as clearly or cautiously as I ordinarily would.

Please allow me to stress that there would be absolutely nothing for me to gain from any deliberate misconduct—on the contrary, I would stand to lose a great deal. This includes the financial security of my settlement, which is vital as I seek future employment, and the professional relationships I have built with [company name], my colleagues, and my team. I would never wish to cause them any inconvenience, concern, or additional workload.

Moreover, given the nature of the industry in which we work—where former colleagues frequently reconnect at industry events or through [xx] for example, I would never knowingly jeopardise my professional reputation or long-standing relationships.

I fully appreciate the seriousness of this matter and await further correspondence regarding the next steps [company name] intends to take. I remain entirely willing to co-operate with the investigation and to provide any additional information or clarification required.

I also hope that IT support may be able to recover any documents that were inadvertently deleted, and once again, I offer my sincere apologies for any disruption my actions may have caused.

Finally, I trust that those who know me well, many of whom I have worked alongside for over a decade, will recognise that this incident was entirely unintentional. I respectfully reiterate that any actions I took were a genuine error, carried out without any malice or harmful intent.

Kind regards,

xx

 

 

Brie

good letter

jim1999

Personally, I would suggest that if legal teams are involved and a redundancy payment is at stake it's a bad idea to send a letter that may be undermining his position.

The letter is a bit scattergun in that it comes across that you're not sure whether he did it, and then saying that he might have, but that if he did it was only an accident etc.

Do you have legal advice as part of your home insurance?

In the most basic terms, it is extremely common for people who are leaving a company to either attempt to take information away from the company, or to destroy what they created.  Usually neither are allowed, and the latter has brought some people (where it was blatantly malicious) into criminal proceedings.

So I wouldn't be surprised if the company interpreted the deletion activity as malicious.

You may need a solicitor to argue your case, and I don't think they would want you to send a letter that they hadn't checked.

starrybear

Thank you @jim1999, undermining his position was what I was worried about, so I'll tell him to hold off for the moment.

Looks like we need to see a solicitor, which obviously we can ill afford as it stands. This is awful.

DullGreyGuy

DE_612183 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

DE_612183 said:

how do they know he's deleted documents if they can't see them to be recovered?

wonder whether this is just posturing by the company to avoid a pay-out.

How "big" is this company?

There are tools like Microsoft Purview which will log who's accessed, edited or deleted files. It itself won't help you recover it. 

Why do you assume they cannot recover them? The OP only stated they have accused him of deleting files inappropriately there was no comment that they cannot be recovered. 

Yeah, I get your point - but if the "case" is sat with a legal team ( which the OP has stated ) then you have to wonder what the problem is if they can recover them - as I said perhaps they've seen this as a way out of making the redundancy payment

To play devils advocate, how does the person that's spotted the file has been deleted know that it's the only file thats been deleted? How do they instantly know they haven't been doing this for months or years? 

Purview keeps records for 90 days but what if it's something the OP was doing each time they were about to go on holiday or otherwise not be around? Plenty of those embezzling etc are caught out when they are away and someone else has to look over their work. It's why some FS companies require you to have a 2 week holiday at least once a year as for short breaks you can avoid handing over work. 

Clearly what has been deleted makes a big difference, deleting the notes from a weekly meeting is one thing, deleting financial records, complaints, customer data etc is very different. 

starrybear said:
I did so under the genuine belief that I was removing only personal or individual work-related files (for example, [xx]).

What are "individual work related files"? Thats certainly a red flag. Most people's contract of employment states that the employer owns all the work done by the employee and so if, for example, you've done a load of sample design work you can't then delete it when your employment ends whereas you may want to delete them so you can use them again at another future employers. 

starrybear

Thank you. The last paragraph you highlighted was courtesy of AI as I fed in the original letter to polish it up. It's clumsy wording, I agree.

I am speaking to the legal advice dept who are part of our home insurance policy, so will get their take on things

sheramber

When my husband was made redundant he was not allowed back to his desk after the meeting.

After a few weeks he was told by an excolleague that the employer was going to ask him  for help about information on his computer as all information had been deleted.

He replied that there was a back up in his drawer.

The reply was ‘yes, but they deleted that also’. 

No need for him to sabotage anything. They did it themselves.

His employer didn’t approach him as I think they could guess what the answer would be. 

starrybear

Not that cut and dried for my poor husband, unfortunately. I wish it was.

Spoke to the legal team provided by the house insurer this afternoon. They can't do anything until the company inform us of what's happening next. ie. whether it's going down some sort of disciplinary route (although hes already signed and returned the redundancy settlement agreement, he hasn't been informed of his termination date, so im assuming they can still take it in this direction if they see fit)

The more I mull on it, the more I think they're looking for any excuse to withold the enhanced part of the package