Accident at work

[pt2537]

Hi guys,

heres one for you


recently i was injured in an accident at work, the chair which i was given to sit in was defective and when i sat down on this particular evening the back gave way and i ended up falling out of the chair injuring my back. i asked for my supervisor to visit me at my place of work ( im a lone worker) and i ended up being at work all night with no visit from my svr, i know for a fact that he drove past my works that night and can prove it as he visited someone down the road and signed in their visitors book!!! the injury is now subject to legal action, and the solicitors will be dealing with this side of things

subsequently i was off work for over a month with a back injury. i have since returned to work, but when i went back my employers have supplied a chair which is in now way fit to sit in, the back cannot be locked upright,it is not able to be adjusted into a comfortable height so i refused to use it as it caused me servere discomfort. the supervisor came to visit me and said that the chair was fine, he was rude (and has had a number of complaints about his manner) and abusive to me when i asked for a suitable replacement.he also more annoyingly said that he didnt believe that i had been injured in the accident and he thought i was lying as he had been to my works 2 nights after the accident and the chair was fine, my employer by their own admission had the chair repaired the day after the accident.as a result i wrote to my employer explaining what happened and that i was unhappy with the way he spoke to me and asked thatthey deal with him

anyway this morning i recieved a letter from my employer stating they have recieved new and disturbing information relating to my accident and they want me to attend an investigation meeting on wednesday, they state that if i dont attend they will place me on disiplinary action. they have refused me the right to represented by the union saying that i am not entitled, however they will have three people from their side present to take notes.

im a little worried thattehy are going to be asking questions regarding the accident, the thing is i dont want to say anything which could prejudice my claim, and i have no doubt that my employer will try to use underhand tactics to try and exonerate them selves from any liability


any advice would be great


regards
paul

[Bookworm]

Have you spoken to the solicitors dealing with this? It might be best to see what their advice is before getting opinions from here, IMO.

[Jeanjaquessmoothie]

Further to that, if they don't allow you your legal right of a union rep, then don't go. Put it in writing that you're not prepared to attend without your union rep and any disiplinary action will be contested.

[pt2537]

Hi Bookworm,

im currently in talks with the union over this, the solicitors are purely dealing with the personal injury claim. however im not sure how my employers are going to go about this meeting. on the face of it the letter implies that they are going to be talking about my accident. however they are also saying thatthey want to discuss the incident this weekend when i returned to work


i am waiting for a call from the union regarding this but i thought someone with some experience of this type of situation may be able to offer some guidance


also my company have said that i am not entitled to have anyone present at the meeting ?surely thats not right

regards
paul

[Bookworm]

It certainly seems very dodgy, and I would ask myself why they are so keen on not having any witnesses on your side.

If the union says you can't insist on a witness to be with you, maybe you could bring a recorder and insist the meeting is recorded? If they refuse that too, then there's definitely something iffy going on, and I would just refuse to answer to anything that goes near that incident, on the grounds that that is already being dealt with by the personal injury lawyers and that you don't think you can comment on anything relating to that matter.

[GlasweJen]

I'm seconding the advice already on here don't attend if you can't have a union rep or a recording of the meeting.

[cal37]

Well for a purely investigation hearing you do not have the right to be accompanied by your union rep. However check the sites collective agreement as it might give you that right.

Now you DO have the right to be accompanied by a work mate, is your union rep a co worker?? if he is you have the right to bring him.
The only thing is, as a union rep in a disciplinary meeting, the rep has a right to ask questions,answer points of law etc, the only thing he can not do is answer a direct question for you.

AS a work mate he has no right to speak, he can only be a witness BUT he will know when to have a break etc to speak to you and can nudge you at the right time ( you must ask for the break its your right ).

If he is not, then take a co worker with you, if at anytime you feel as if things are not going well etc ask for a break and call your union rep and get his advice.

Hope this helps.

[pt2537]

Hi Everyone,

thanks for all the advice, it is greatly appreciated. i am going to attend the meeting and i will consider any questions which they put to me. however i understand now that i am not obliged to answer anything which could be prejudicial to my accident claim.

i have been advised by the union that the minute my employers go off topic and start talking about anything else ie work performance etc then i must call a stop to the meeting.

i feel a lot more confident with the help and advice that i have had today from everyone.

thanks again and i will let you know how it goes on wednesday


thanks

regards
paul

[NitrousOxide]

Hi,
I've been to an employment tribunal.
It does not have to be a union rep you take to your meeting. It can be anyone you nominate and they don't have to be employed by the company.
They should give at least 24 hours notice of any disciplinary meeting by way of letter and it should detail what the meeting is regarding.
DO NOT go alone and make sure you have a paper trail for all meetings.

[pt2537]

Well that was an experience,

ive been suspended on full pay for something which is completley laughable.

my employers are not that bright, they tried to get me to admit thaat the accident was my fault, not bloody likely. then they tried to say that i should have noticed that the bolts in the chair had came loose, that was a non starter too. once they realised that they werent going to win they came out with a real cracker.

what i stand accused of is this.....

in our office at work we have a pc (which many many people have access to) on the pc a document titled F***K YOU,F**K YOU..... was found. it was allegedly created on sunday at 7 pm. however i was on duty at this time BUT no way did i create this document, in fact i have not even seen this so called document. my bosses asked for an explanation as to how it got there and i have no idea, they said they were not satisfied with my explanation and were going to suspend me pending disciplinary action which could leave me unemployed? i asked if they had proof of this document and they didnt, i then asked them to consider that if a document is created on another pc ,where the clock is wrong for example ,then the document was transfered to the pc at work,the created date/time in the properties would indicate a different time to which would be on the other pc ( if you get my drift) they said that this was not possible even though i have proved otherwise


can anyone help me out here as i feel i am being stitched up here for something i have not done

regards
paul

[cal37]

Don`t worry they have to prove that you did create this document and lets face it, with your claim in for your accident it would look very much like victimization if they did sack you for this without being 150% sure of the facts.

Sit back and enjoy your free time off with pay, get your union involved and smile

[Jeanjaquessmoothie]

I agree, they'd have to prove without a shred of doubt that the document was created by you.

Are your computers contolled with a logon etc?

[pt2537]

Thanks everyone,

no the computers are not controlled by passwords so any one can use tthem and not have to logon. my employers are convinced im guilty even before the disciplinary, they werent interested in listening to me at all.

i tried to explain that one theory i have is that a few months ago i informed the police when the maintenance man who works at our place turned up absolutley pi$$ed out of his head. he was on call and we had an emergency, he attended site and was so out of it that he fell over and couldnt stand up.i told him that he shouldnt be driving and zhe told me to F**K off, so i had no choice but to tell the police as i couldnt bear the thought of this guy driving in tthat state, ultimatley as he was on call he should not have drunk!!. he was picked up down the road 3 times the limit for alcohol and he lost his driving licence for 2 years (serves him right) he kept his job basically because of his knowledge of the site. anyway he has vowed to get me back and that is common knowledge through out the building. he has 24 hour access to the office where the computer is so i thought it possible that he had stitched me up some how


i have the union on the case and i have already made plans to take the family out on my free time off, its just a bit concerning that my employers are not prepared to listen to any other explanations as to how it got there apart from me writing the said document

i will let you all know how it goes, thanks for all your help

regards
paul

[Bookworm]

My god, Paul, if I saw this on TV, I would think it's too far-fetched!

Ah well, enjoy the time off, you might as well.

Please let us know how it turns out. (and maybe start looking elsewhere, because do you really want to keep on working for a company which treats its staff that way?)