The employer (whether its the agency or the restaurant) can dismiss without notice so what's unfair about the OP leaving without notice? If the employer wants security then they should offer security of tenure in return.

Thanks.

What's the difference, in employment law, between bullying and harrasment?

Wow again. Well done - I'm sure your Christmas will be a lot merrier than it looked a couple of days ago

Wow! I'm really really pleased both that you're getting paid and that I said something that helped! (I nearly didn't bother because it seemed to be not that helpful)

I don't think its particularly any help but, even if it wasn't signed, its illegal to withhold payment for that reason under the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations

He gets a mention here from a couple of years ago: http://www.employeemanagement.co.uk/blog/2011/09/employment-tribunal-unfair-dismissal-sex-discrimination/ But he isn't in the register of barristers at the bar standards board: https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/regulatory-requirements/the-barristers%27-register/ And he doesn't seem to be in the law society's database of solicitors either: http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/find-a-solicitor/?view=solsearch Perhaps he's a JP?

She's definitely being scapegoated and the letter giving notice of intention to appeal has been sent. The appeal grounds are; She wasn't allowed to present a full defence The panel's finding was that her performance wasn't good enough. That being the case they should have implemented the performance process rather than going straight to disciplinary sanction Unfairness and other irregularities

Does this relate to the unsecured element of Together mortgages or is it all unsecured lending?

It's difficult to be positive about things going forward though. This whole disciplinary was, at best, misconceived and quite possibly an attempt to effect my wife's removal. Either way, it is clear that she has no support from the new management who seemingly want her out. We also still have no idea where this came from or why my wife was targeted so its difficult to see how she can protect herself from something like this happening again in the future

I agree that the outcome wasn't as bad as we'd feared but there are a number of things that still concern me: She was acquited of the charges brought against her yet was still sanctioned. This is like being charged with murder then, at the end of the trial, the jury find you not guilty but the judge sends you to prison for 2 years for robbery. There is nothing wrong with her performance, which the panel tacitly admits by making no comment about what needs to improve or by when. The only place that there are any allegations of anything are in the investigators report and she's been exonerated of those so what, exactly, does she have a warning for? She was given no opportunity to defend herself against a charge of unsatisfactory performance and the defence would have included a reference to the fact that none of her managers have had cause to complain about it in the past. In fact, a supervisor who has now left wrote a long and detailed email explaining where the systemic problems were and giving my wife fulsome praise My wife needs neither training nor help. All she needs is a manager that will actually manage and take responsibility rather than blaming my wife for the manger's failings. I agree that she should be able to prove that she does things correctly, and, if we'd known that there was a concern as to her performance we would have tried to do exactly that. However, its difficult to prove that she did everything correctly when there are no documented work methods. In the new year she will have a performance appraisal by the manager that refuses to manage. How can we expect that to be anything but negative regardless of my wife's actual performance?

Although she had permission to bring the solicitor with her, the solicitor didn't think it appropriate for her (the solicitor) to go to the disciplinary so she took a colleague instead. We have yet to go back to the solicitor with the outcome.

The disciplinary was yesterday and the first thing that was supposed to happen was the investigator talking through his report to the panel. This was something that we were well prepared for and felt confident that we could destroy his credibility when asking questions. Unfortunately, it didn't happen because he didn't turn up and, when he was contacted, he refused to turn up to defend his report at any time. The meeting was adjourned while the panel decided what to do. The decision was to dismiss the investigators report and tell my wife that she would not be losing her job. The hearing continued because the panel were concerned that the original problem - some of the invoices going out of time - still existed so something was clearly going on and they spent an hour or so discussing things with my wife. After that they interviewed my wife's boss and someone from the secretarial department. After much discussion they recalled my wife and told her that she was to be given a written warning. She was given no opportunity to interview any of the other witnesses that she asked to be called (and which the panel had previously indicated would be called). According to the written decision the panel decided that "so far as the actual charges as set out in the letter of [date of the invite to the disciplinary hearing] are concerned the panel found that those were not proved and that you were not guilty of gross misconduct." It then goes on to say that, however, my wife's performance was not what was expected of her and, because some invoices that date back to 2010 (!) will not be paid, that a written warning was an appropriate sanction. Can they lawfully do this; find the allegations re conduct not proven and clear my wife then substitute an entirely different charge re performance and find her guilty? A lot of people spent a lot of time providing evidence and statements to help defend a gross misconduct charge and it doesn't seem particularly fair that the panel can effectively say "You're right, you're conduct is fine so instead we will sanction you on your performance, which hitherto no-one has mentioned as being a problem"

I'm sorry you feel like that. I'm not arguing and value your input but your response suggested that perhaps I hadn't made myself clear. I wasn't after advice in particular but for experienced people's views of a process that I think is at best unorthodox. It seems that I'm wrong and this sort of thing is normal

I really don't understand why you think you're only getting edited highlights - see posts 51, 52, 53 & 54 above. The report is the outcome of the investigator's investigations. It was informed using the notes of the interviews that have now been amended