Please Please Help.........

[meg&mog]

Thanks to you both for your thoughts

 

 

My hubby has just spoke to the union rep they are again trying to tell him he is only allowed a shop steward he wont get a area organiser till it goes to appeal

 

the other thing he did say that was comforting is he does not understand why my hubby is being treated as a staff member for this mistake when at the time it happened he was a customer according to 1 of the statements they had said my hubby was in uniform which is not true the union guy felt that since my hubby has offered to pay for the items twice and both times they have said he can not that is not what they would do with a regular customer which is what my hubby was when this happened

 

hope that all makes sence

 

the other thing was the guy who did the investigatory meeting adjourned the meeting to go view the cctv but when he came back he said it was broken he was unable to view it but it had been viewed by 2 other line managers and still moved it to diciplinary would that have any impact on this?

 

thank you all so so much

 

Meg&Mog

[rebel11]

Lots of points there in favour of your husband. When your husband goes to the meeting on Wednesday, till him to stick to his guns, it was a mistake because he was in a rush. They will try to convince him that it's theft. He needs to say that he will defend vigorously any attempts by the

management to say that it was theft.

 

What position does does the guy who held the investigatory meeting hold?

Edited November 6, 2009 by rebel11

[meg&mog]

Lots of points there in favour of your husband. When your husband goes to the meeting on Wednesday, till him to stick to his guns, it was a mistake because he was in a rush. They will try to convince him that it's theft. He needs to say that he will defend vigorously any attempts by the

management that it was theft.

 

What position does does the guy who held the investigatory meeting hold?

 

 

Hi Rebel11

 

Thanks again

 

The union rep said it may help for my hubby to write a statement to the store manager before the meeting to explain everything also they have not called it theft once yet they are referring to it as "non-payment of goods"

 

The guy who held the meeting is a trading manager (senior team)

 

Thanks again

[rebel11]

Yep, thats a good idea keep it factual. But make sure that when he goes into the meeting thats exactly what he says.

[meg&mog]

Yep, thats a good idea keep it factual. But make sure that when he goes into the meeting thats exactly what he says.

 

 

 

Thanks so much rebel you are a great help

[meg&mog]

Hi Guys

 

Had a shocking weekend of worry but at least now this meeting is only a couple of days away

 

My hubby was told by the union to write a statement to the store manager before the meeting this is partly because he has only been at this store for approx 3 weeks so his knowledge of my hubby is limited so we have wrote one wondered if one of you good people could look it over and tell me what you think thanks

 

 

 

Thanks for looking guys please tell me your thoughts we have never had to do anything like this before so all help needed

 

Thanks

Edited November 11, 2009 by meg&mog
On DBC,s advice :0)

[BeauBrummie]

Hi Guys

 

 

My Hubby has been for his meeting it has been moved to a disiplinary with the store manager next wednesday

 

We are very worried now this is bad news isnt it?

 

Thanks all

 

Meg&Mog

 

Hi Meg&Mog,

 

Sorry to here of this situation, can you tell me when the situation was esculated, and therefore deemed as being "disciplinary" has your husband got a letter stating this fact?

 

If he is to attend a hearing such as this, then there are minimum procedures that should be followed:

 

"A letter should state that on (not less than 48 hrs hence) you are required to attend a hearing to give your explanantion of the following------------what he is accused of----.

 

You may bring with you as your representative a work colleague or friend as a witness who may both address the hearing and confer with you. Any legal representation should be at the express permission of the Company.

 

You should be aware that as this hearing is of a disciplinary nature, that action could be taken against you that may lead to your dismissal from the company."

 

Now I know that the last paragraph is a bit scary but it is standard procedure under ACAS rules for any hearing of the type that your husband is facing.

 

Has the company stated at any time that this is a gross-misconuct or that they view it as such-----to my mind if they have suspended him then it is a gross-misconduct that they are looking at, which means they should have written a letter in some such wording as above.

 

 

Beau

[meg&mog]

Hi Meg&Mog,

 

Sorry to here of this situation, can you tell me when the situation was esculated, and therefore deemed as being "disciplinary" has your husband got a letter stating this fact?

 

If he is to attend a hearing such as this, then there are minimum procedures that should be followed:

 

"A letter should state that on (not less than 48 hrs hence) you are required to attend a hearing to give your explanantion of the following------------what he is accused of----.

 

You may bring with you as your representative a work colleague or friend as a witness who may both address the hearing and confer with you. Any legal representation should be at the express permission of the Company.

 

You should be aware that as this hearing is of a disciplinary nature, that action could be taken against you that may lead to your dismissal from the company."

 

Now I know that the last paragraph is a bit scary but it is standard procedure under ACAS rules for any hearing of the type that your husband is facing.

 

Has the company stated at any time that this is a gross-misconuct or that they view it as such-----to my mind if they have suspended him then it is a gross-misconduct that they are looking at, which means they should have written a letter in some such wording as above.

 

 

Beau

 

 

Hi Beau

 

Thanks so much for your reply

 

Yes my hubby has had a letter like the one you state he was handed this at the end of the investigatory meeting last wednesday

 

They have not said they view it as anything to be quite honest although we felt from the suspension it was probably gross misconduct in the letter inviting him to the investigatory meeting it said to discuss his "non-payment of goods" it also says this on the diciplinary meeting letter

 

It would be a real shame if he was to be dismissed for this one mistake

 

Thanks again

 

Meg&Mog

[BeauBrummie]

Ok so with any luck it is being viewed as a "Mis Conduct" and not the gross version. A Gross misconduct could warrant dismissal without notice so as you say if thay have not stated this then I would take the view that it may lead to a warning of some sort. Any worse than that I would suggest that the punishment will not be fiitting the crime, and with mitigating circumstances as you have posted in the letter to the manager I suspect he will be ok.

 

He should go to the hearing with the mind set that this was a terrible mistake and plead his case, couple that with an apology.

 

He should take with him someone for moral support and who will also take notes of what is said.

 

If it does go horribly wrong he will also have the right of appeal.

 

I wish him good luck

 

Beau

[meg&mog]

Ok so with any luck it is being viewed as a "Mis Conduct" and not the gross version. A Gross misconduct could warrant dismissal without notice so as you say if thay have not stated this then I would take the view that it may lead to a warning of some sort. Any worse than that I would suggest that the punishment will not be fiitting the crime, and with mitigating circumstances as you have posted in the letter to the manager I suspect he will be ok.

 

He should go to the hearing with the mind set that this was a terrible mistake and plead his case, couple that with an apology.

 

He should take with him someone for moral support and who will also take notes of what is said.

 

If it does go horribly wrong he will also have the right of appeal.

 

I wish him good luck

 

Beau

 

 

Thank you so much beau we appriciate your kind words

 

Meg&Mog

[rebel11]

Hi Meg,

 

I would personally remove the word 'terrible mistake' and leave it as 'mistake'. Other then that It's fine. It's shows regret, explains what happened and demonstrates what a good employee he is.

[meg&mog]

Hi Meg,

 

I would personally remove the word 'terrible mistake' and leave it as 'mistake'. Other then that It's fine. It's shows regret, explains what happened and demonstrates what a good employee he is.

 

 

Thanks so much rebel will do that

 

Just to add my hubby has just gone over the witness statements again and it states there was a problem with this till a couple of weeks ago but they do not know if it was card or cash is that relevant?

 

Meg&Mog

[rebel11]

Sounds like the till might have a technical fault, so it could be that the till is at fault, not your husband.

 

As I've said I think he's going to be just fine.

Edited November 9, 2009 by rebel11

[deathbycrayons]

I hate to be the one to say this - but I think that the letters copied and pasted onto the forums are how these threads are found by management and head office staff (see my thread). They type out a paragraph and put it in google, and it leads them to this thread. I think you're fine with this as it gives no clues whatsoever to who the company is (unlike my thread) but just be careful

Best of luck with your case

[meg&mog]

Hi All

 

Thanks for all the comments so far....

 

As you know the meeting is tomorrow my hubby had to meet with his union rep today she was very helpful by all accounts but she did say a few worrying things

 

She said that they may well make a example of my hubby so that anyone with thoughts of taking anything have second thoughts

 

she said worse case he could be dismissed best he could get a warning but that he could get a warning AND demoted

 

 

 

What do you think guys

 

Thank You :-|

Edited November 12, 2009 by meg&mog

[rebel11]

Hi Meg,

 

If they use your husband as an example, thats very opportunist and not justice. Poor personnel manager, thats another reason to appeal. Thats a very stupid thing for the personnel manager to say. Good Luck.

Let us know what happens.

[JonCris]

If it's possible to prove he wiped his loyalty card then it should be obvious to all & sundry his failure to pay was an oversight cos since when did a genuine thief swipe a loyalty card before running off with their ill gotten gains:rolleyes:

 

If at the worst they decide to sack him & even though no criminal conviction will result you will almost certainly come into the clutches of a firm called Retail Loss Prevention who act for THAT supermarket in cases such as this.

 

Even though not convicted of anything they will have no hesitation in describing your hubby as dishonest and placing him on their 'dishonest persons' data base for all their mainly retail clients to access thereby jepordising his future employment

 

If this happens please contact me again

[rebel11]

I'm not impressed with the store management, lets wait for the outcome first.

I exclude your husband from the above statement.

[meg&mog]

Hey Guys

 

Hubby just rang he got a period of unpaid suspension

 

other than that he has still got his job

 

Thank you all so so much for your help special thanks to rebel11 and joncris

 

 

God bless you all

 

Meg&Mog

[rebel11]

Excellent, well done, a team effort. I think a period of unpaid suspension is harsh. Probably because they didn't want to give in totally.

[BeauBrummie]

This is great news, but if he is not guilty of anything, why should he be penalised for the time on suspension??

 

Beau

[rebel11]

My thoughts exactly, but I think it's a sort of compromise, one of those 'Retail Sector' things. It might be worth appealing. But if your not losing out to much, then this is a great result.

[meg&mog]

My thoughts exactly, but I think it's a sort of compromise, one of those 'Retail Sector' things. It might be worth appealing. But if your not losing out to much, then this is a great result.

 

 

We are completely happy witht the result hubby is smiling again not got to worry about xmas we are not losing too much its a small price considering he could have been sacked you guys kept me sane thanks again

[rebel11]

No problem, I think you were in control all the time.

[lynniethepooh84]

Thank goodness! Sorry I didn't have any advice to offer but I'd been keeping a watch to see how your hubby got on and delighted he's still being kept on! You must be so relieved!

 

I hope my hubby gets the same kind of good news this week - currently awaiting the outcome of his disciplinary hearing.