Doesnt stop me being mad at a missed opportunity to get it sorted.

Yeah I get it grotesque, it's my fault

Thank you for your 2 very kind responses.

Hi everyone, So thanks to ACAS and their omission of a vital piece of info when I phoned them for advice and the fact nobody on here mentioned this when I asked for advice, I'm now having to take a longer civil route with my employer. What everybody needs to know is you have 3 months (less a day) to bring any kind of tribunal action to resolve a issue with your employer. THIS IS THE IMPORTANT BIT this count down starts the MINUTE you mention it to your employer, even in passing. Called the" date of detriment". So I take advice and raise it informally, it drags on with no response for 2 months, Acas advise take it formally, again no mention that I have 3-4 weeks left to meet a deadline, so I do that and lo an behold work drag it out for another month and when I phone Acas again for advice suddenly this 3 months is mentioned and they cant possibly advise any further cos it's now a civil matter. Whose side is Acas on? Kinda vital info I should have been given from the word getgo don't you think? My employer obviously knew this time limit otherwise why keep me hanging on? My conclusion? Being KIND and PATIENT doesn't pay. The interesting thing is, my employer is now saying they are going to have groups of employees in to discuss "problems", Longer colleagues say this happens from time to time and nothing ever EVER gets done or changes. But hey if they have these meetings where issues are raised the countdown begins doesn't it, then 3 months down the line when nothing has changed your time's up. And they carry on, having nullified the threat of a tribunal from anyone at these meetings!!!! Way to go

Lol, no it's a proper grievence they are short changing me in mileage payments. I've shown them my calculations and totals based on their accepted terms and they wont get back to me with any kind of answer, not even a"no your wrong because this is how its worked out" or anything.

Hi peeps, I put in writting a formal grievence to my employer and gave them 14 days to respond, (this is after they had 3 months to respond informally to a enquiry) and basically I keep getting told it's been shown to this person then that person but nobody has got back to me. I've been told a manager intends to arrange a meeting with me but they haven't as yet contacted me, 5 days after my deadline. Do these notifications of who it's been passed to count as a response? What are my options now please? Many Thanks

Well it sounds like you can produce enough of a defense. make sure you ask the questions I raised and get the answers especially viewing the footage! Suggest you would welcome the involvement of the Police. Keep calm and think logically you'll be fine.

Hi, ok it seems you have 2 different issues here, 1 the bullying by a colleague, but you say action was taken and it hasn't continued? So it might have been seen as a training need and that's it dealt with, again you don't know what's on their personel file ie a written final warning which will keep them in line. 2 was the policy followed for the gross misconduct, again you need to read the company policies which should be available to you/wife. for example my company decides what it constitutes gross misconduct, with guidelines given, and states I don't have to have any verbal/ written warnings before it jumps to a final warning stage/action if the offence is considered serious enough. so not a great help but it sounds like her line manager took it to her manager and he decided it merits this action, which they can do. The hearing is to discuss all thats happened and investigate it, it's not a predetermined outcome, or shouldn't be. Also neither party have a right to record the meeting, she can record with consent or if she can't take notes for example. And if she decides to do it covertly a future tribunal would probably allow it as evidence.

I don't understand, how can they have a camera pointing at all the equipment and it not show who was in the cage? Do you have to swipe out of the room as well? That would show the length of time you were in with your bag and who had time to unlock a cage and carry stuff out. By "whole computer" I take it you mean tower, screen, keyboard etc, not something light so you need to see the footage of how you carry the bag not a still, or else it has to be a number of trips by someone to take stuff one by one so how many time do you have your bag on you? by answering these questions you can defend yourself. How many people checked thru the footage to compile the stills it should be at least 2 people ie not your main suspect by themselves. And by the way to prove theft they have to show the equipment was taken with the intent to deliberately deprive the rightful owner forever. Just some thoughts I hope they help

Hi, An horrible situation. I believe the person/colleague who accompanies your wife can't act or speak for your wife, they are there as her witness and moral support. She can ask for any disclosure she thinks will support her defense but I'm not sure of your case, you're on sticky ground here, for example from an unbiased view of what you have said here are my conclusions, Your wife was seen doing personal work in work time and then admitted it in a written apology she was warned about it verbally(not in the best or professional manner granted) pointing the finger at other staff who she suspects or knows do the same thing might not be the best defense, you aren't privvy to other staffs HR records and you can't ask for them to show if action was taken or not. Not specifically anyway you might get away with asking about percentage of work force found to be using work time for personal and percentage of these given further action. Anything said verbally is admissable evidence, if anyone over heard or similar things said to them it adds to the picture but calling witnesses is more at the tribunal stage. She is entitled to a copy of the employee handbook where it should be stated the discilplinary procedure is. If it then goes to tribunal it will be looked at whether this was followed. In the mean time look about for a better job.

Yes, you should at least been issued a written statement of facts. Just so you know exactly what terms your working under.

Thanks sidewinder, yes I do claim for what I'm due with the taxman. But that tax relief is short if the mileage is wrong. My NI is short if they arent paying me what I'm due and yes I havent moved jobs cos it does seem to be par for course that we get treated like chumps but if we let them what can we expect? I cant believe nobody anywhere is making a stand against this sort of employer! I want to make a stand, I'm not an idiot and thats why if anyone can just give me some inkling on the questions I first raised it would be appreciated.

Hmm interesting, in theory it would if applied only to the travel time. However this is where the disagreement is, how much travel time I'm due. They have said its all worked out by payroll, so presumably a mapping system linked to it tho I dont know if such a system exists, they certainly arent keen on showing me. They have compared it to aa, rac etc and their system works out about the same. I have also compared each route finder and although google is by far the most generous with time none of them are like the time they have paid me for. All have the same mileage as expected. But this again is paid short. So something is happening that they aint saying in my book.

Thanks honeybee13, Yes the government allow me to claim 45p, but it's tax relief on the other 25p so I get a slightly higher tax code but again that was based on the mileage given by my employer which as I've worked out is wrong! As an aside my employer charges clients 50p per mile which just makes me feel even more hard done too lol

Hi and thanks for reading this saga. I started as a home carer in aug 2012, where it was stated in interview that I would recieve 20p per mile travelling between clients homes and minimum wage for the travel time. Each saturday we recieve the following weeks rota which lists clients to visit, the time to go, the length of visit and the travel time in minutes. Sometimes they dont have time between addresses so the travel time is zero. Now I questioned this verbally and was told "it all gets put right at payroll" which i took on good faith. After the first couple of months I realised the petrol money and travel time fell somewhat short of what I was spending on fuel etc so I went thru and worked out what it should be, these scribblings will be on my rotas which we hand in every week. Any way they then up'd my hours and with one thing and another I worked all last year keeping my head down as advised by other staff. I was at some point told if the gap between calls is longer than 45mins we dont get paid anything, then 1.5hrs, eventually checked with the office and they said 1 hour. In December 2013 I got truly fed up and started working it out properly and recording it on my rota with the question about why such a discrency btween what I was being paid and my reckonings. No reply. Next week I took it to HR manager who call the owner over, who called the top manager over and all they said was "it gets put right in payroll". I disagreed politely, showing my workings out and the rotas, to which they said no, the rota gets altered for payroll but they would look into it. What I found out is on average each month I am short about £10 petrol (50 miles) and £30 in time (roughly 5hrs or so). They said the mileage always works out to roughly what it should be but it clearly doesn't and the time even worse, To date nobody has got back to me, 21st Feb 14. I will now put it in writing when the owner comes back from 2 weeks hols. So thanks for wading thru this but my questions are, Why are they, and are they allowed to, alter my rota that Ive signed off on, on a payroll system? Without my knowledge of why they are changing it or to what they are changing it to? Can I ask for it all to be checked back to the start of my employ from my original rotas? Am I right in thinking they can't deny me access to these or have destroyed them? Yesterday the HR manager said she didnt see the owner budging and paying what I'm owed but how, when it's in black and white can she refuse? Long winded but tried to include all details. Many thanks peeps.