Work spliting my and my girlfriend from working together for flase reasons

[addy_010]

this is going to be a long read so please bear with me

 

me and my girlfriend work as evening cleaners in an office and have done for 2 years now. 1 year ago in may we were overtaken by a company called braybourne though the office is called avaya. this office has 2 sides, side and and side b, in which we work in side a. we used to in October/November work on side b, both doing separate jobs, but braybourne has to make 2 people out of 12 redundant which meant that my and my girlfriend was going to be split sides, one on a and one on b but we made a huge fuss to the supervisor amnd he put us together on side a both doing the dusting and wiping.

 

found out tonight that the woman that runs avaya is demanding that braybourne split us up, one on side a and one on side b, as she saw us both taking 1 trolley from side a to side b when only 1 person was needed.

 

Now if this was true, i would not be bothered as it would be my own fault so i would accept it, however this is a complete lie so im not going to stand for it and want to fight back. heres how we know that this never happened. Firstly because the woman only works until 6.30pm ish and we only ever would take the trolley across at the end of our shift which is at 8.30 so there is no way she would have seen this happen. secondly is that my gf doesn't allow me to go on the other side as shes a bit paranoid as the other side has only girls so she only ever takes the trolley across on herself, sometimes there can be 2/3 trolleys but she still does it alone.

 

because of this we obviously know that never ever have we both taken the trolleys across together so therefore she is lying to split us up and has absolutely no proof. What we're wondering is what can we do/say to stop this splitting of us up? is it even legal to change our position with a false and unprovable accusation? can people post a response to these questions ignoring the next paragraph whilst answering them as we want to know what we can do in case this is the case.

 

with that said, just under a month ago me and my girlfriend were asked by the supervisor to go to side b and help empty a few very busy meeting rooms for 4 days. we did with no problem. We have a slight belief that this may be what she is talking about and that she would have seen both of us geting and taking 1 trolley. Now whats wrnog with this is that those days it was so busy that we were having to take the trolley to the kitchens, empty it, and then go refill, or go get a full trolley from the kitchen and empty it. neither of us would obviously be able to work until the trolleys were empty so this required both of us to get the trolley and we weren't doing anything wrong.

 

thansk guys, sorry for the long thread

[ED1237]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings. The company do not have to give any reason for moving you unless your contract specifically states you will work in b. Even then there will probably be a clause that states they can move you at will. Unless your contract states your area of work without the you will work where we tell you clause, I am affraid you will have to either move or move jobs.

[blacksheep1979]

I'm sorry but whats the hardship of working on different sides to a room/office or whatever sides you are talking about? Also as ED1237 says unless there is something specific in your contract about working in a certain office and never moving then your company can make you work in any room in that office for any reason they want.

 

Storm in a teacup me thinks and pressing this any further could cause more problems for the pair of you. Who do think is likely to be let go next time someone is made redundant Mr. X who always turns up on time and does his job or Mr + Mrs addy who complain about the smallest little thing?

[patdavies]

I am assuming that this is Guildford.

 

"The lady that runs Avaya" is in fact a guy (Louis D'Ambrosio) based in Avaya's HQ in New Jersey; he will not be bothered swith a piddling little cleaning contract in another country - I assume that you are talking about a facilities manager of some sort for this particular site.

 

I would have thought that no facilities manager is going to raise such minor issues like this unless there are general dissatisfaction issues with your company's performance. It looks suspiciously to me like your company is using this lady as an excuse.

 

As others have advised, ther is little or nothing that you can do; unless your contract specifically provides for you to work in a particular building, then your employer may move you around as they see fit to meet the needs of the business - why this desperate desire to work in the same building as your girlfriend anyway? Can you not see enough of each other outside work - I would have thought that even in the same building, you would not necessarily be working alongside each other.

[addy_010]

ok looks like we are stuffed then . this is the avaya in manchester, thought it was the only in UK.

[harrythehawk]

I used to work with my wife, believe me it won't be long until you are asking to be moved to another building

[k65]

are there other people working in the same room as you two all the time if not would you not be able to say that you work together because of health and safety, if you climb ladders or steps or operate electrical machinary (hoovers buffers etc) and something was to happen who would contact the emergency services? i have a part time cleaning job with my wife we work together for that very reason. good luck