Advice re appeal

[unicorn76]

Hi

I am about to submit my appeal against dismissal and I wonder if some of you could take a look and advise me whether it is ok.
Thank you:

Dear _____

Further to my recent letter I am detailing herewith the grounds for my appeal against dismissal.

X claimed that I had not achieved the required number of quality assessments; in fact I had done the required amount in the last full month before I was ill. X refused to acknowledge that I had done the required amount as some were completed outside normal working hours. In fact all the other Team Leaders completed a number of their assessments in the evenings or at weekends. It is not only against the company’s anti-bullying policy to treat me differently; it also contravenes current employment law. I cannot be disciplined let alone dismissed for following usual custom on this.

The same is true of the appraisals I did not complete. The rules state that an appraisal should be completed every six months. I didn’t receive an appraisal from X until mid-January (not December as stated in the notes) this was a full nine and a half months after I started working for the company, demonstrating that X herself had scant regard for the rules. Whilst employed at the company I heard of some people who had not been appraised for two years. A team Leader who had been with the company for a similar length of time to myself told me that they had neither received an appraisal in that time nor done any for their team. As I have mentioned before it is blatantly unfair to single me out for this issue.

It is untrue to say that 3000 ___ letters were found to be outstanding while I was ill. These were an earlier issue that I had discussed with X; the outstanding letters had been dealt with according to the system agreed with X at that time. I had copied a list to the appropriate team and to ___ telling them of the problem, when they asked for clarification I referred them to ____ as I did not have the in depth technical knowledge to advise them why the letters were causing a problem. At the original hearing, I submitted copies of e mails between ___ and X dated 25 March 2008 demonstrating that X was aware of the problems before I was off sick. In fact X instructed Z to pass them to the Post Room for printing although they were outsourced letters which had been incorrectly set up by Y department. How am I supposed to know this if the ___ Manager doesn’t? It is hardly surprising that unprinted letters dated back to March as I had been off sick from 26 March 2008 until 15 April 2008.

I told X last year and on a number of occasions since then that I had too much work to get it all done; she brushed me off. In January I went to HR and told them that the job I was doing was not a one person job and asked for it to be assessed. Nothing was done.

As part of the performance review process I was supposed to receive coaching to help me improve. X sat with me for two or three occasions in total during February and March and showed me some shortcuts which saved me seconds or minutes. One process she insisted I change was less accurate and took much longer therefore negating the few minutes a day she had helped me to save. She has accused me of poor time management skills and while I am always keen to improve, all the time management skills in the world could not change the fact that ever since last summer I had been working 12 to 15 hours a week of unpaid overtime and still not getting everything done. Short of spray painting ‘Help me’ on the walls I do not see what more I could have done to try and get some help.

It is particularly galling to find that having got rid of me, X then set about re-arranging the department and split the job so that my replacement does not have responsibility for the Post Room and instead has ___. I would estimate that this has cut the workload by approximately one third. This seems to prove my point that what I was being asked to do was not possible in a normal working day. Apparently, being new to the company I was expendable and my replacement, who incidentally has four years with the company, has a role which unlike mine will be achievable.

At my interview in March 2007 with ___ and X I was told categorically that the role called for me to spend 80% of my time working with my teams, training, motivating, coaching etc and 20% on admin tasks. During a meeting with X and _____ in February I mentioned this and told them that it was not achievable given the amount of admin tasks, I was astonished to be told that actually that wasn’t an accurate description and it was probably the other way around. Once again I have to say that I don’t think I should be disciplined for not succeeding in a role that was substantially different from the one I thought I had been taken on to do especially when the change in emphasis had never been discussed with me.

All the above are important points but the major reason for my appeal is a very serious breach of procedure. The notes reflect that X brought up the subject of my being on Improvement Review. This was not mentioned anywhere on the documentation that was made available to me prior to the hearing, in direct contravention of the Employees handbook. Furthermore the notes also reflect that after adjourning the hearing, the panel discussed the Review process with X and went through the documentation with her; this documentation has never been made available to me either before the hearing or at any time since - also in direct contravention of the Employee Handbook Section.

Incidentally my grievance dated 7 April 2008, which has yet to be resolved, had already raised the matter of X’s conduct with respect to the review process

I feel that the above is more than enough evidence to have the original decision set aside and look forward to receiving your proposals to resolve this matter.

Yours sincerely

[vonnie32]

Have you been dismissed after raising a grievance against your line manager? or have I just picked that up wrong?

Your letter seems very good but I am no employment lawyer or HR person but you have certainly given them alot to think about!

Good luck

[unicorn76]

Yes the grievance was raised while I was off sick with stress. I consider myself to be fairly resilient but my Manager's behaviour had me in such a state that one morning I parked my car and simply couldn't get out, I sat there crying for about 15 minutes, when I finally got to my desk I couldn't remember what to do. I went to my doctor the next day thinking I was going mad.

While I was off I spoke to acas and they advised me to raise a grievance against her, I submitted the grievance over two months ago and it has not been dealt with yet. On the day I returned to work she accused me of gross misconduct, I was dismissed within a week and my 32 year unblemished work record was destroyed in an instant.

[vonnie32]

OMG I can so empathise with that scenario - I done the same thing only last week, nearly crashed my car, lost everything I put my hands on thought I was going senile, until the doctor told me it was classic signs of stress!

What was your length of employment with this company?

Are you going to sue for unfair dismissal if your appeal fails?