P
Paul M
Guest
Can someone please tell me if it is legal for an employer to invite me in for a Greivance meeting to discuss verbal abuse OF me and turn it into a disciplinary meeting AGAINST me? Here are the details, its long-winded but this is what I wrote up to take to the Citizens Advice Bureau:
Can anyone help regarding my legal position here please. Five weeks ago I started work for a company in Crewkerne, Somerset, called Care South, who look after – or rather ‘look after’ - old, vulnerable and unwell people. After a couple of days I began to take some rather nasty behaviour towards me, which mainly consisted of being completely ignored, it was not company wide, which was the peculiar thing – in some departments they were fine and open, in others no-one spoke to me (five weeks in, this still remains the case), or would only talk to me through the back of their heads - and there were other things, like at the coffee runs, whoever was making it would ask everyone in the office bar me if they wanted a coffee. Also, although I was called in to work every day for training, I did in fact receive no training on my job – they put me in the archive on filing duties! Anyway, this went on for a few weeks, with the behaviour becoming worse and worse, comments started appearing, I was called ‘stupid’ on one occasion, on another I was publicly blown out for on an 8-minute rant for questioning why a 97-year old lady with osteoporosis did not receive her visit to get her out of bed three days running, a bunch of remarks about an ex-girlfriend. Three weeks in I was in an office with two senior members of staff, one of whom [Leslie Sewell] deals with clients directly in their homes, and one [Tracey Pearcey] who is about to go into that side of things, and they were saying (about clients who were deceased) “She deserved to die” and “She’s another one – she deserved to die as well.” I was so disgusted by these comments I turned on my heels and walked out the office, and since then they really turned up the ice on me, and this culminated in a direct personal verbal attack on me by Tracey Pearcey, in front of witnesses, which took place on 29 September. I asked to leave the site as I was so distressed and went home and wrote a letter to Simon Powell, the department head, asking that this be looked into as I could not stand this treatment any longer. Two days later I got a letter back from Operations Manager Lyn Couldwell saying that a Grievance meeting had been arranged, could I phone in and confirm I would attend, and if I wanted to I could have a member of staff of my choosing to attend. I phoned in and asked to speak to Lyn and confirm my attendance but she refused to take my call. Instead I got a call back later from Personnel Manager Rachel Cann and I told her I would be attending and I wanted Joanne Powell to be my meeting companion, and could we delay the meeting by a day as Joanne was on holiday. Rachel Cann refused my request, saying it would be “inconvenient for her [Cann]” and instead said I could have someone called Helen Foster, who I had never met nor heard of. I declined this person and said it would be important for me to have Joanne Powell there as she had witnessed some of the treatment I had endured, and also was the person I went to when the verbal attack occurred, and also the person to whom I repeatedly raised concerns about the welfare of the clients and their poor treatment they got from Care South. Rachel Cann again said this was inconvenient, and said “anyway, we have already interviewed Joanne because you named her in your letter.” Rachel Cann kept insisting, increasingly forcefully, that I take the Helen Foster person the company wished to be there and under pressure I caved in and agreed.
At the meeting itself there was Rachel Cann [Personnel Manager], Lyn Couldwell [Operations Manager], a notetaker who typed up the meeting as it went on, myself and Helen Foster. Helen, who had been in a private meeting with Rachel and Lyn before my arrival, informed me just before we went in that “I’m not here to say or do anything” and indeed she did neither, with the exception of sending out text messages on her mobile phone during the meeting. The meeting went through the events of the day I was abused rather sketchily, and seeing how it was going, after a few minutes I noticed this and did at least make an effort to expand my answers as fully and thoroughly as possible, despite the slanted nature of the questions [first one: “Is ‘s**t’ the only word Tracey used” – as if a] it was not a swear word and b] 15 times in 30 seconds was not unacceptable even if it WAS the only one]. Anyway, we went through the whole event and came to what I thought was the end of the meeting after we had covered the details of what was said and done on that day, and then Rachel Cann said that they had some matters that had come to light and that they wished to raise with me, and then went into a whole slew of allegations, but starting them
Can anyone help regarding my legal position here please. Five weeks ago I started work for a company in Crewkerne, Somerset, called Care South, who look after – or rather ‘look after’ - old, vulnerable and unwell people. After a couple of days I began to take some rather nasty behaviour towards me, which mainly consisted of being completely ignored, it was not company wide, which was the peculiar thing – in some departments they were fine and open, in others no-one spoke to me (five weeks in, this still remains the case), or would only talk to me through the back of their heads - and there were other things, like at the coffee runs, whoever was making it would ask everyone in the office bar me if they wanted a coffee. Also, although I was called in to work every day for training, I did in fact receive no training on my job – they put me in the archive on filing duties! Anyway, this went on for a few weeks, with the behaviour becoming worse and worse, comments started appearing, I was called ‘stupid’ on one occasion, on another I was publicly blown out for on an 8-minute rant for questioning why a 97-year old lady with osteoporosis did not receive her visit to get her out of bed three days running, a bunch of remarks about an ex-girlfriend. Three weeks in I was in an office with two senior members of staff, one of whom [Leslie Sewell] deals with clients directly in their homes, and one [Tracey Pearcey] who is about to go into that side of things, and they were saying (about clients who were deceased) “She deserved to die” and “She’s another one – she deserved to die as well.” I was so disgusted by these comments I turned on my heels and walked out the office, and since then they really turned up the ice on me, and this culminated in a direct personal verbal attack on me by Tracey Pearcey, in front of witnesses, which took place on 29 September. I asked to leave the site as I was so distressed and went home and wrote a letter to Simon Powell, the department head, asking that this be looked into as I could not stand this treatment any longer. Two days later I got a letter back from Operations Manager Lyn Couldwell saying that a Grievance meeting had been arranged, could I phone in and confirm I would attend, and if I wanted to I could have a member of staff of my choosing to attend. I phoned in and asked to speak to Lyn and confirm my attendance but she refused to take my call. Instead I got a call back later from Personnel Manager Rachel Cann and I told her I would be attending and I wanted Joanne Powell to be my meeting companion, and could we delay the meeting by a day as Joanne was on holiday. Rachel Cann refused my request, saying it would be “inconvenient for her [Cann]” and instead said I could have someone called Helen Foster, who I had never met nor heard of. I declined this person and said it would be important for me to have Joanne Powell there as she had witnessed some of the treatment I had endured, and also was the person I went to when the verbal attack occurred, and also the person to whom I repeatedly raised concerns about the welfare of the clients and their poor treatment they got from Care South. Rachel Cann again said this was inconvenient, and said “anyway, we have already interviewed Joanne because you named her in your letter.” Rachel Cann kept insisting, increasingly forcefully, that I take the Helen Foster person the company wished to be there and under pressure I caved in and agreed.
At the meeting itself there was Rachel Cann [Personnel Manager], Lyn Couldwell [Operations Manager], a notetaker who typed up the meeting as it went on, myself and Helen Foster. Helen, who had been in a private meeting with Rachel and Lyn before my arrival, informed me just before we went in that “I’m not here to say or do anything” and indeed she did neither, with the exception of sending out text messages on her mobile phone during the meeting. The meeting went through the events of the day I was abused rather sketchily, and seeing how it was going, after a few minutes I noticed this and did at least make an effort to expand my answers as fully and thoroughly as possible, despite the slanted nature of the questions [first one: “Is ‘s**t’ the only word Tracey used” – as if a] it was not a swear word and b] 15 times in 30 seconds was not unacceptable even if it WAS the only one]. Anyway, we went through the whole event and came to what I thought was the end of the meeting after we had covered the details of what was said and done on that day, and then Rachel Cann said that they had some matters that had come to light and that they wished to raise with me, and then went into a whole slew of allegations, but starting them