Legal Advise Needed

[jac114]

my other half tried to stop a guy leaving the shop she was working in nicking a create of beer , she confronted him and he pulled a knife a threatened her ,she was working on her own when she should have had backup.. the cctv was not working in the back store room and it was not reported to her head office by the supervisor although the police were called. her head office found out about this and the supervisor was dismissed due to not following procedure. a person from head office human resource's told my partner to take time off and they wanted her to see a counseller about it.. my other half asked if she would be paid in full for her time off due to the incident and was told she would get full pay. this happened mid december and she went back to work last week to the supprise of the new supervisor as he was LED to believe she had left. she did get one lot of pay after being off the first two weeks but now it has come to this months pay she has not been paid at all for the whole month, after calling head office she was told that they had over paid her last month and as she had run out of sick intitlement she was only to get ssp pay with did not cover the amount she was over paid in the last pay packet ( although her last one was the correct amount!)

they are saying it was not as she should have only got ssp pay not full pay. the point of the matter is she was told she would have time off at full pay (no mention whatever about ssp pay) although they did ask her to get certificates from the doctor for the time off just for the wages dept. so now they say that they do not owe her anything this month and that she should not of been told it was time off on full pay.. and they will not back down at the moment so any help or advise from somebody in the legal profession would be of great help

many thanks

craig

[DaveEllen]

Where the police called ?

Did your wife get anything in writing ?

Did she make any notes at the time about what was said ?

Is the comapny a big one ?

PS ........ Commiserations

[jac114]

Where the police called ? yep all on record

Did your wife get anything in writing ? no only verbal over phone

Did she make any notes at the time about what was said ? yes

Is the comapny a big one ? very big supermarket chain

PS ........ Commiserations cheers...

[Steve]

hmmm.. well any company would have paid sick pay... they have to.. they are right about the SSP too.

I would take it to tribunal or someone who deals in this... not sure of the name of the organisation but they will fight on your behalf... usually win too!

[mudzs]

Sorry to hear that craig no one should have to deal with that at work.I would go to the Citizens advice bureau and get some advice and they can put you in touch with a solictor who will take on your case on a no win no fee type thing.I took my company to court years ago ,takes a long time to get there and they useally settle before it go's that far.

[Steve]

tony is right... no company will wanna go to court!!!.. they will soon pay that months wages!

[Claire G]

ACAS would also be a good place to start, I rang them years ago when I had a problem with my contract and they give good advice. You should be able to get the number from the phone book or your local Citizen's Advice Bureau.

Is your wife planning to stay there? If not, tell them you'll take it to the press...if it's a big chain they won't want the adverse publicity.

[TheDon]

i very recently used a combination of acas and the citizens advise bureau to take my company to tribunal for unfair dismissal.

you start with citiznes advise who tell you everything you will need to know to base your complaint against the company. then when you decide to take them to a tribunal ACAS get involved to try and resolve it before the court case. also keep a track of all letters you were sent.

I had an out of court settlement for ££££££ (just a few zero's!!) as they lied on a legal document and i threatened to see them seperately for slander!

They settled in a few hrs after that statement. you have to hold your ground with any compnay and dont show weakness!

[javadude]

Another option might be the union if your wife's a member (eg USDAW?). It's a bit gentler than the legal approach especially if she's got her job back and doesn't want to wind her employer up to much.

[jac114]

thanks people we are looking into things at the moment... its so complicated as so much is in a mess plus she has only been there 10 mths which make it even harder..

craig

[Claire G]

Feel for you mate, it's such a difficult situation especially when some employers treat you like a number rather than a real person. Get her to document everything and once she's been there a year she has more rights.

Has she contacted HR in Head Office and had a chat with them? Maybe pass over the local store goons...

[jac114]

it was a woman from HR that said she would be off on full pay..and apparently had no right to say that according to the wages dept, of co**** now the person from HR was going to get in trouble so is now trying to squirm out of it by saying that she said she would still get paid (meaning sick pay) and not full pay..

sharon did not want to take time off anyway ..thats the annoying thing ..

[Claire G]

It's gutting really isn't it. I'm not sure what practical help I can offer, but I usually can phrase things ok in letters and stuff if that's of any help? Background in marketing helps....

Hope it all turns out ok for you both petal. Still think if she can get another job it may be worth jotting a line to the press. Some may be interested in an employee forced to leave after protecting mass-supermarket chain's profits.

Not the nicest things to do, but I suppose it's an option if all else fails...

[mudzs]

Is she a member of a union if so give them a ring

[mudzs]

Is she a member of a union if so give them a ring

sorry double post you only need to ring them once craig :P

[jac114]

Thanks Claire .. I shall be writing a letter to the area director asking him to address the problem personally and giving him all details and photo copies of all paperwork we have. I shall ask that this be resolved as quickly as possible

and that we do not wish to be pushed from piller to post from one person to another as this has already been happening ,I shal also tell him that we will only rest and be happy once she has been paid in full and compensated for the stress that the whole situation has caused, If not fully satisfied with the outcome then we shall be forced to go to external source's of help wether or not this will be the national newspaper or via a solicitor we shall decide later

[jac114]

Is she a member of a union if so give them a ring

no she is not with this company.. she has was in her last job..

[jac114]

Update:- My other half has now got another job (and thank *** its out of the retail business at last) 4nights a week as an evening recptionist in the local borough council..

We have had an employment expert look into the problems with her other job and he feels that we should be able to get her money back plus compensation

as he also found other discrepencys as well .. the first letter has been drafted up and on the way to them now. The guy seems to think it may take a while but should work out fine..

craig

[AMH]

Good news all round then - hope it all continues to go well.

So does that give you the evenings free to fix the bath now ?

[jac114]

lol... have slapped a bit of fibreglass padding and resin over it today.. just for tempory measure until end of mth payday.. it just so happens we have an ex display full suit going cheap at work...

craig

[mudzs]

lol... have slapped a bit of fibreglass padding and resin over it today.. just for tempory measure until end of mth payday.. it just so happens we have an ex display full suit going cheap at work...

craig

Craig aint they got a back door then :)

[jac114]

well some git found a way out last sunday... 2k work @ cost of cordless power tools.. 4.30 in the morning alarm was set off.. my boss was not a happy chappy he spent most of sunday at work sorting out paperwork/police/reports..

[jac114]

heres a copy of the letter..

I am writing to you because I am very upset by the treatment I have received from the company since the incident at the Farncombe Branch on the 11TH November last year. As you may be aware I was threatened with a penknife when attempting to stop a customer stealing from the store.

Correct procedures were not carried out at the time , although there were other members of staff on the premises, I was alone in the shop contrary to procedures this left me very traumatised, and I had to call the police myself the following morning as no other member of staff made this decision.

Two or so days later I was instructed by Susan Starkey In the personal dept to take as much time off as I needed to recover and the company would arrange counselling . It was not made clear as to whether this was special leave because of the circumstances or sick leave. I was however told that it would be on full pay. I was therefore very surprised to find out in February, over two months later, that the decision had been changed and I was only receiving SSP. I had no way of knowing that because my pay slips were sent to the branch and never forwarded on to me. There was a major error in my January pay, in that too much money was paid into my account, but when I queried this I was given an explanation but was again not told that I was on SSP. Hence was not able to tell from my bank statements that this was the case. My pay slips should, of course, been sent on to me. Although I needed to leave to recover from the incident, I could not of afforded to take it if I had realised that I was only on SSP and I would have returned to work earlier.

I was further upset to find that no money was paid into my account in February, with no satisfactory explanation. If deductions were being made for an error the previous month, surely I should have a payslip accounting for this? To add to this on returning to work I was told by a new supervisor that he had my name down as left the company. This of course was incorrect. The supervisor was even told that my p45 was in the post. From my understanding it arrived at the branch some time later and was returned to accounts. I cannot understand how this mistake could have occurred as at no time had I given any indication of resigning and no mention had been made of my dismissal. I was, of course still on the payroll and working. This whole episode has been very upsetting for me and my family coming after the original incident.

Although I have since left the Company, due to the stress of the situation.

I have taken advise on my employment rights and understand that as I was instructed by head office to take time off on full pay and was never told that the decision had been changed or had any means of telling this, the company should honour that commitment. The claim that Susan Starkey should not have told me this is irrelevant in the circumstances. I calculate that my gross pay for the period in question, i.e covering the December,January, and February pay periods, should have totalled £1966.60 compared with the total of £1263.13 received. Would you please arrange for a correction to be made and forwarded on to myself. As I have now left the company I have also asked for any other monies owed to me for holiday and hours work to be sent on. Please can you ensure this happens. Please can you also arrange for a copy of the missing February payslip to be sent as I have asked for this a couple of times and still not received it and legally I require this for inland revenue purposes