Further allegations made after Disciplinary Meeting

[perfidious]

As stated on a thread towards the end of last year, my wife was suspended from work pending certain allegations that they said amounted to Gross Misconduct. However, as she was pregnant at the time, the company agreed to let her go on Maternity in December and to face the diciplinary meeting 12 weeks after giving birth.

 

Two weeks ago the disciplinary meeting was held, and my wife admitted to the allegations, although she laid the blame firmly at the feet of the employers because of their initial lack of support during her pregnancy.

 

In light of this they said they would investigate her reasons, and "adjourned" the disciplinary for two further weeks. Today she received the letter asking her to return on Monday. However, they have now made further allegations that were not initially part of the investigation. Can they do this? I have the feeling that they are not following the correct procedures, but I'm not sure.

 

Any help would be much appreciated.

[flipper79]

I would have thought their investigations at this stage should be confined to what was discussed in the original meeting. When you say 'adjourned' have they said there would be a further meeting where she would get a written invitation to attend? If they just provided an outcome which included these further allegations then I would say definitely they've not followed correct procedure as your wife would have had no right of reply. I would contact ACAS who would be able to provide impartial advice on what the procedure should be in this case (08457 47 47 47). They can't advise you on what to do, but they can tell you what procedures employers have to follow.

[perfidious]

Well the letter has invited her to another disciplinary meeting this monday, where I presume she can answer the charges. However she feels like they have misled her; when they adjourned the first meeting they said it was to investigate the claims she made that caused her to break the company rules, not that they were going to reinvestigate everything and pick up some new charges.

 

She now feels like it is a bit of a witch-hunt, and is fairly certain she will be sacked. Strangely though, the data that supports these new allegations was already given to her before the initial charges, but at no point did they suggest that they were a problem. It is almost as though that by answering the first set of charges they have gone out to find another reason to sack her!