Hi. Would really appreciate any advice please. I currently work for a public sector organisation. I initally started as an agency worker and in my attempt to try and good job whilst I was temping I emailed some documents to my home to work on them. Only this month (July) I was taken on permanently by the organisation. However last week (12 days into my job) I was suspend pending an investigation for gross misconduct as emailing documents outside of the orgaisaiton is against company policy. I explained it was an error on my behalf - and they understand that but I still broke company policy - hence the suspension. Today, 2 people from work came to my house basically 'without prejudice?' (what ever that means) to offer me the opportuity to resign immediately so I can get employment else-where. Or it wll go to a hearing where I won't be given the opportunity to resign and from the vibe I got Im going to be sacked. I know they won't take this into consideration but Im the only one working and supporting my family and can't afford to lose my job. The organisation want a response today as to what Im going to do - either resign or go for the hearing. Im tempted to dig my heels in and go for the hearing however I think they've got me over a barrell and I know if im sacked I won't beable to get a clear reference. and I don't know what to do? Can anyone offer any advise please!!!

Some help would be appreciated in the following circumstances... I work in tech support call centre and have been charged with Gross Misconduct but due to my performance over the last 12 months my employer has chosen not to terminate my contract; I disagree with this being gross misconduct and while partly being my fault it is not all my fault. I shall outline the situation below. Business A calls for some configuration details to be added to their marketing program which I cannot find anywhere so I check with some body in the department who specialises in this side of the business who advises me it is actually Business B. I ask Business A if this is them and they decline although as we dont have account numbers we just go by business name there is lots of room for human error and mistaken identity from business to business... I went ahead and entered Business B's details into Business A's program thinking that it is all okay and no problems... 3 Months down the line Business B calls up saying that all of these clients are receiving marketing material but they dont know who they are I escalated Business B's issue the first day it was highlighted all the way up the 2nd line support then 3rd line support etc... so that was out of my hands I did not even know that both cases were related. 4th month down the line both business A and B are aware and now want to Sue my employer; my employer pins this all on me as gross misconduct and I must sign this later this week should i? I dont think this is gross misconduct as it is an accident and just mistaken identity along with checking with another member of staff, my employer says i should have challenged the member of staff because in teh initial call Business A advised tehy were not business B. Around the time of initial call we had Business C change ownership to a very similar name to Business A. Can I get some advice on this? I am not so good with legal things and when I had my interview with the "Boss" i had nobody present nor was i asked for somebody to be present. At the end of the day They put me down as Gross misconduct i will probably have to sign this and confirm i was at fault but they will not fire me due to my performance over the last 12 motnhs and they know its a mistake. I dont really want this on my file; but apparently it will be destroyed in 6-12 months, i am afraid on Thursday they will tell everybody in the company about this naming myself also would this be slander? Please give me some advice I really need to know if it is worth taking legal action and leaving or just keeping my job ang getting on with it.

Hi. I was suspended today for using abusive/derogatory comments on social media site. Comments that may have been offensive, violent language. And that I have allegedly breach the communication policy. There are various screen shots of these comments which were taken from my profile when it was temporarily made public. My profile is anonymous, does not name me. Nor do I mention the company I work for or name my colleagues. Someone has trawled through my account - as far as 10 months - and taken screen shots. I had blocked everyone from work and it appears from the screen shots that someone I work with has used an alias email account to befriend me and then take these screen shots. There are approx 50 "comments" going back as far as March. A lot of these are part of conversations and as a stand alone comment are harmless and none offensive. Put together they don't look good. I've never been in any kind of trouble before and I'm really concerned. How do I approach the investigatory meeting I'm required to attend in the morning? I'm scared of saying something wrong that may make things worse. I'm currently under a lot of stress at home, as well as with the office politics (that are referred to in the screen shots), I don't know how to handle this as well. I'm posting this on my phone so hope it makes sense.

Good Evening one and all. I have to start off from the top. A few days ago in a huge moment of what I can only describe as a mindless act, I stole from my workplace. Or at least I attempted to. I was promptly caught and asked to come back in. This is the biggest single regret of my entire life. I had worked for the company for nearly 4 years and to decide to throw it all away for this is unfathomable. Today i was invited to a investigation, which lasted for about an hour. After this was completed I was then informed after admitting my guilt, and offering no reason as to why I did it. I was informed I will be invited back for a disciplinary hearing - which I am 99% sure will lead to me losing my job, this I have come to accept. However, my question is not about losing my job, it is about what to do next. I have written an immediate resignation which i intend to deliver to the store, this would be against the 4 week notice period so I would lose that right for pay and my holiday accrued. I am under the impression though that the 20+ days I have already worked since the last payroll cut off and also the paid suspension will be honored and I should receive them. I understand as well my employer has the right to deny my notice, and carry on with the investigation in my absence, this may result in dismissal and then the notice period / holiday pay is ok again? The last bit of my query is I am fully aware this will affect my references in the future - I will not give the name of the manager or hr department for example when giving referees. I partially understand that if asked in the future, if they decided to dismiss under proceedings of the disciplinary when asked for a reference they can put "resigned under investigation" or words to that effect? Please could anyone at all shed any light on this? Thank you in advance.

My partner is currently suspended from work due to apparent gross misconduct. His letter of suspension says that he has seriously breached health and safety at work and bought the company name into disrepute. To breach health and safety, he hooked his feet on a metal bar and hung upside down and had a photo taken of him and uploaded onto facebook, whilst wearing his work uniform. However, his company name is no-where to be seen on the uniform - just looks like general hi-vis wear. AND this occurred on his break which is classed as UNPAID and the employees OWN TIME. What are the chances of him being dismissed? If he is dismissed, what are the chances of taking this to tribunal? Thanks.

Hi, I have an employee at the moment which I have no idea how to treat. TO keep the story short: 1) He was put on a shift he didnt like (pre CHristmas so not holiday related,no bereavements and no pregnancies). I confirmed that he just, in his words 'didnt want to work those hours'. 2) Despite the contract clearly stating that he is an on-call officer between the hours of 22:00 and 06:00 mon-fri on his third off period. COntract was signed and was fine for about a year, no issues before. 3) Recently, I've had nothing but FU's and profanity thrown at me because of this. He isn't unique, all other engineers get similar shifts and I have put this on paper to show him. 4) He decided to sit out, and say I refuse to; ll the other engineers call him Kenny the Krepid (As he's always sick or off), and now this is the ultimate. I'm at my tethers end. What can I do? Cheers A

On fri my partner was called in office by boss they had a bit of heated argument both swore at each other, today he goes in to work and is handed a letter stating that you have been suspended on contractual pay to allow investigation to take place following the allegations of gross misconduct. Does swearing and shouting warrant gross misconduct? Any advice or help would be great Many thanks

Hi, I'm obviously trying to go through other channels but really would appreciate some advice from anyone who can help. Up until recently I was a Police officer (PC) - This does not mean I know every bit of the law inside out and certainly not employment law. I've recently been dismissed at a misconduct hearing after admitting gross misconduct. I feel I have grounds for appeal but It's been indicated to me that due to the fact that I admitted gross misconduct, I now CAN'T appeal the sanction of dismissal to the Police appeals tribunal. IS THIS CORRECT??? I've copied below a part exert from the Police appeals tribunal rules 2008 - The bit in red is what I'm interested in because there is a part where it says 'A police officer may not appeal to a tribunal against the finding referred to in paragraph(2)(a), (b) or © where that finding was made following acceptance by the officer that his conduct amounted to misconduct or gross misconduct (as the case may be). The bit in red lists 3 circumstances (the grounds for appeal under this rule are) 1. where the sanction was unfair, 2 new evidence has come to light or 3 a breach of procedures - I believe that the sanction was unfair and also that there was a breach of process so my question is .. CAN I APPEAL THE SANCTION on those 2 grounds even after admitting gross misconduct??? Circumstances in which a police officer may appeal to a tribunal 4. —(1) Subject to paragraph (3), a police officer to whom paragraph (2) applies may appeal to a tribunal in reliance on one or more of the grounds of appeal referred to in paragraph (4) against— (a) the finding referred to in paragraph (2)(a), (b) or © made under the Conduct Regulations; or (b) the disciplinary action, if any, imposed under the Conduct Regulations in consequence of that finding, or both. (2) This paragraph applies to— (a) an officer other than a senior officer against whom a finding of misconduct or gross misconduct has been made at a misconduct hearing; or (b) a senior officer against whom a finding of misconduct or gross misconduct has been made at a misconduct meeting or a misconduct hearing; or © an officer against whom a finding of gross misconduct has been made at a special case hearing. (3) A police officer may not appeal to a tribunal against the finding referred to in paragraph (2)(a), (b) or © where that finding was made following acceptance by the officer that his conduct amounted to misconduct or gross misconduct (as the case may be). (4) The grounds of appeal under this rule are— (a) that the finding or disciplinary action imposed was unreasonable; or (b) that there is evidence that could not reasonably have been considered at the original hearing which could have materially affected the finding or decision on disciplinary action; or © that there was a breach of the procedures set out in the Conduct Regulations, the Police (Complaints and Misconduct) Regulations 2004( a), Schedule 3 to the Police Reform Act 2002( b) or other unfairness which could have materially affected the finding or decision on disciplinary action. THANKYOU very much for taking the time to read this any quick responses would be unbelievably appreciated.

Hi, I work as technical support staff for a reasonably large outsource call centre. I was dragged into an investigative meeting today to be accused of gross misconduct. The order to pull me in came from the client and not my direct employers. I'm not sure where I stand, so I was hoping to get some help. There are three grounds: -Firstly, I failed to follow a strict technical support procedure having incorrectly made the assumption that one had already been done. The customer had referred to something early on in the conversation which I know to be the direct result of the final technical procedure in almost all cases- so I didn't bother going through them based on that. This assumption turned out to be incorrect. This is the sort of thing that wouldn't normally even result in any form of disciplinary, more of a 'slap on the wrist'. -Secondly, I knowingly manipulated our system to achieve a result for a customer not strictly provided for. There are a select list of criteria for this procedure which results in the customer getting free replacement parts when they would normally have to pay for such parts. The customer was not far away from these criteria so I knowingly and willingly bent them to suit. These were flagged up. There are two problems I have with this, firstly, I was genuinely mistaken in what the correct criteria actually are due to lack of communication from on high and secondly, this is something that is an epidemic where I work. This would normally be met with a recorded file note, or first written warning. -Thirdly, as a misguided attempt to establish rapport with the customer I referred to a colleague as a 'jobsworth', despite the fact that he had diagnosed a problem correctly and I hadn't. There was a negative connotation to the way I said it, but it was a flippant remark and both investigators in my initial meeting agreed on record that no malice was intended. I've never seen a case such as this, but I imagine this would be grounds for a disciplinary. I have been informed of my rights and am expecting to receive the rest of the notice in writing. My contract is short and sweet and does refer to gross misconduct being a possibility in some cases but does not clearly state in which. I haven't been able to get a copy of my company handbook yet, but I expect more information to be held within. The company's policies seem to be largely in line with ACAS. I have not been suspended. Where do I stand? My line manager and I both feel that none of the grounds will stand up to an allegation this serious. Am I being naive? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have been summarily dismissed someone for gross misconduct, we had an investigation and disciplanory hearings, and I was left with two options, demotion and final written warning, or summarily dissmissal, there were 5 alleged incidents of gross misconduct One I could prove and was admitted, and 4 I have great probable doubt to beleive that hes lying due to supporting statements from other staff. he has worked for us 7 months. Denied everything and tripped his self up numerous times in hearing. Said everyone was lying and it was a conspiracy against him. There has been two previous incidence of insolence on his file, though no action was taking other than mediation. Have I done the right thing?