Help required please

[peanut63]

Hi, I apologise for the length of this post but I wonder if anyone could give some advice in regards to a few employment problems my daughter has.

My daughter works in a bookmakers and the problem started earlier this year when she was working on her own and had a problem with a customer who started getting very aggressive and was threatening to kill her and told her that she had better be careful when she left work later that evening, all because she had been unable to take his bet as it had not been placed in time. An hour later a friend of the man came in and told her it "wasn't a threat, it was a promise". Obviously to a young girl on her own she was extremely frightened by this and decided to notify the police and her Area Manager.

A couple of days later the Area Manager telephoned her at work and told her that he wanted to cut the staff and told her that he thought that there should only be one person working at the shop at any time. My daughter disagreed with him and cited the problem a few days earlier with the customer and also that there are no CCTV cameras in the shop. She also advised him that the Police had said that they could not believe that there was only 1 person working in the shop with no security at all, especially as they had been informing all Bookmakers in the area that there had been a number of robberies from local bookmakers in the previous few weeks. She also said that she didn't think it was right that she was working 12.5 hour shifts with no breaks and not even being able to go to the toilet during her shifts. My daughter has been working an average of 62 hours a week and some weeks as much as 80 hours a week.

Her Area Manager did not take to kindly at this and started shouting at her down the telephone that if she doesn't like it then she can leave.

Since then it all went downhill with her Area Manager making it very clear that he didn't like my daughter and she believed he was trying to force her to resign. He would go into her shop on her days off and get the relief managers to go through everything trying to find a reason to sack her. He would never come into the shop when my daughter was there.

A few weeks ago one of the relief managers rang my daughter and told her that the Area Manager had offered the relief my daughters job because he wanted rid of her. My daughter then rang the Area Manager and asked why he had offered her job to someone else without even discussing it with her. He told her he hadn't offered it to the relief. A few days later the relief again rang her and said the Area Manager had again asked her if she wanted the job and was waiting for a reply.

Later that day my daughter was advised that her last day in her shop would be 10 days later and from then on she would be doing relief work at a shop 35 miles away. My daughter advised that he knew she doesn't drive and it would be extremely difficult for her to get to this other shop. After looking at a train timetable she noted that she would have to leave home at 6.40am to get to the shop for 9am, as the journey takes 1 1/2 hours and then it is a 5 mile walk from the station. As she has to work until 9.30pm she would have to get the 10.28pm train home which is a 2 hour journey and then walk home from the station which means she would not get home until approx 12.45am. She also said that she would not feel comfortable being a lone female travelling that late at night. She believed this was another case of trying to force her to resign by making her travel this far.

Also, back at the beginning of September 2007 she was offered the job as Manager of her shop. She accepted the job and was told she would be on a 3 month trial after which time she would be paid Managers Pay Rate. Last month she realised that she was still being paid at Assistant Managers Rate. She queried this with the Pay Dept. and was told that she was being paid at the wrong rate and she should query it with her Admin Dept. On telephoning the Admin she was advised that the Area Manager had extended her trial period. This was never discussed with my daughter and she had not been informed that her trial period had been extended. So it appears that she has been on trial for 8 months so far! If, as agreed, she had been paid the Managers Rate after the 3 month trial period I calculate that on her average week that equates to 62 hours x £1.50 x 24 weeks = £2268. Surely they cannot keep her on trial for 8 months and not even tell her the trial period had been extended or had any kind of discussion regarding it.

My daughter made a Formal Grievance 5 days ago and had been asked to attend a hearing on Monday.

Two days ago she visited our G.P. as this situation had made her extremely depressed and was put on anti-depressants.

Today she had gone to work as normal. When she got to work her Area Manager came in and suspended her for, what he called a "discrepancy" which he says happend about 3 weeks ago and basically implied that my daughter had profited for this discrepancy (theft). He also told her that her Grievance hearing had been cancelled.

My daughter has not and would not ever steal. This was the final straw for her and she resigned and told him that if they were accusing her of theft then she would call the police herself and ask them to investigate this "supposed" theft.

I would be extremely grateful for any advise you could give us regarding this matter.

Thank you in advance.

[Sidewinder]

This all sounds absolutely appalling. First of all, your daughter needs to very carefully list all of this in a timeline, as I believe (and if she has any sense) that this will end up at an Employment Tribunal. There would appear to be strong grounds for Constructive Dismissal. Resignation was probably a mistake and no doubt the AM will try to put a spin on this as an admission of guilt, but your daughter should also be able to prove that this leaving was a final act of desperation after months of duress and an apparent lack of care on the part of the employer.

Has she sought the advice of the police? What details was she given of the 'discrepancy'? Was anybody else present when she was suspended by the Area Manager? How long has she worked there? What does her contract say about hours or place of work?

From what you have said it would appear that there are issues to answer regarding Health & Safety, Working Time Directive and assorted Employment Rights issues.

[peanut63]

Hi, thanks so much for your reply. The discrepancy was in the amount of £210. My daughter spent an hour after closing trying to find this figure and discovered that a mistake had been made during the day and put this mistake right. The next morning she got another staff member to also check the figures and the other staff member also noticed that something had been put through twice and once this was rectified the figures tallied.She has not contacted the police as yet as she has been suspended while her employers investigated but she has told them that she will ask the police to investigate herself if her employer still accuses her after they have finished their investigation.There was no-one else there when her Area Manager suspended her.She has only been working there just over 10 months and her contract states says her hours of work are 40 per week, although her actual average hours over the past 16 weeks is 63 hours per week and those are the average hours a week she had been working since she started there.Her contract does say she may occasionally be required to work in another shop but now they had told her that she would be working as a Relief and will be travelling around to different shops on a daily basis.I know in hindsight that maybe she shouldn't have resigned but when she was suspended it was the last straw and she had had enough.

[Sidewinder]

Apologies for the delay in response. As far as I can see, your daughter has two options. If I am right in assuming that she has actually resigned, and if she believes that any investigation into the allegation of dishonesty will prove her innocence, then it may be worth composing a letter withdrawing her resignation and insisting that the investigation is carried out thoroughly and promptly in order to exonerate her. She can explain that she felt under pressure to do so in her emotional state but has now realised that this action was hasty and she is clear to put across the perfectly reasonable explanation for the 'discrepancy' which will be supported with a witness with whom she conferred at the time. She would then have the opportunity to tackle the very real grievances which she has with her treatment prior to this event.

Naturally she may have already decided that she does not want to continue working for the company but still wishes to challenge her treatment. The alternative approach in that case would be to raise a formal grievance again (she can still do this having resigned) in accordance with the company's Grievance Procedures, on the following grounds.

That she believes that the company was negligent with regard for her Health and Safety under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 in that having informed the company of a threat of harm from a customer, they did nothing to reduce the risk of that threat. Indeed she feels that the company actually increased the risk of harm in forcing her to work increasingly long shifts alone. She has at no time been given sight of Risk Assessments conducted with regard to lone workers nor has she been given any guidance on how to remove or minimise the threat of harm.

Your daughter also believes that in forcing her to work long shifts alone that this has denied her rights afforded by the Working Time Regulations 1998 in that she is not permitted to close the shop in order to facilitate rest breaks during her shift, and over the last 16 weeks her working week has averaged 63 hours per week. She was not advised that the agreed probationary period had been extended, and the fact that it was has resulted in a significant reduction in income over that period.

The third point to mention is that she was engaged to work from a named base branch with 'occasional' relief work elsewhere. She feels that the Area Manager's insistance that she now travels to a branch 35 miles away, which would involve her regularly working a 16 hour day represents not only a breach of her contract, but a further disregard for her Health & Safety. Furthermore, the change is being imposed without consultation, and after her job has already been offered to another member of staff.

Your daughter believes that the acts of failing to protect her H&S and breach of contract and now a false allegation of dishonesty represent an intention to place her under such stress that she would leave in order to promote the colleague to whom the AM had offered her position.

If the colleague concerned were male, then there might be a case for discrimination, but if not, then the matter is one of constructive dismissal in that she was placed under such strain that she felt she had no option but to resign.

Of course if the company do not play ball then you may have to seek specialist advice to determine the viability of a Tribunal claim. Hopefully your daughter is recovering from the stress of all this. Health comes first and foremost!