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Accused of something I did not do

Started by Radiacal, 28-12-21, 06:56PM

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Radiacal

Hi, yesterday a manager accused me of using the ladies/disabled toilets which is absolutely disgusting.
Today I'm writing a grievance and they told me they have camera footage and also written reports, I know I have not done this whatsoever and they embarrassed me in front of staff when accusing me of such a thing.

Also the gents toilets are disgusting and always clogged and poo is literally on the toilets instead of inside it (That is on a daily basis).

Managers usually use the female and disabled toilets since the gents one is disgusting.
When I asked who could have made up such bulls**t the coordinator laughed in my face and walked off.

What else can I do for this accusation?

lucgeo

If you definitely did not do what you are accused of...if they have no evidence whatsoever, and you're 100% clear...then you grievance under the heading "dignity at work". You state that they embarrassed you in front of your work colleagues! Are the other colleagues willing to support you with that statement? Are you a union member?? Have your rep secure any possible CCTV evidence available of the managers ridiculing you in front of colleagues? If there is, they ask for a copy NOW...before it gets "lost"

Once you put in a grievance under " dignity at work " then that grievance is taken out of store...that means NO in store management can question, speak or have a quite word with you regarding your grievance, as the matter cannot be dealt with in your store, and the store manager cannot get involved in the investigation or attempt to speak to you!

Live for today. Learn from yesterday.

Radiacal

#2
I work in a warehouse freezer and since there is only 2 women working there - Their toilets is shared with disabled toilets which is basically 1 cube and I had absolutely not gone in their for any reason whatsoever - I think the Co ordinator hates me quite a lot he is trying to make trouble for me
They told me they have footage and reports of me going there, And then as soon as I said I will be writing a grievance they then said its not needed and tried to say that the footage is unavailable
He could of asked me this in a private room or something instead of doing it in a very public place putting me in a position where people will think I'm some kind of a sexual maniac

I appreciate your response, It is very helpful

lucgeo

Right I don't have personal knowledge of the structure of a warehouse freezer, but if you are a Tesco employee, then the terns of conduct should be the same across the board!

Do not let them pressurise you into backing down!! If there is footage, it should be presented, it cannot be unavailable for any investigation! Make notes of times, dates, what was said, by whom, who present, etc...
Refuse to discuss the matter any further, just state as it is a grievance under " dignity at work"... you have been advised by ACAS and the union that they should make no attempt to speak to you, and you are to note their attempts to interfere with the investigation process!

Then stand back and watch them turn ashen!!
Live for today. Learn from yesterday.

NightAndDay

To add, if the footage in question is CCTV. Then there are strict rules from ICO about the use of CCTV, it's very unlikely that it would be used for employee conduct or capability issues.

horatiocain

Tesco policy allows the use of CCTV now  they learnt their lesson and wrote it into policy.

However they haven't performed and investigation  and if they are telling you on the work floor is a breach of policy.

A grievance is definitely warranted. Under dignity at work  however don't expect it to go out of store, they changed the policies to stop this happening, so in your grievance you need to ask that someone outside your store take the matter up.
Phone the protector line to make sure there is a record at head office about the behaviour.

And at any hearing they MUST provide you with a copy of the CCTV before the hearing.

lucgeo

CCTV monitoring is only permitted in the use of possible security breaches or health & safety concerns.

It is not to monitor the staff for performance, or going about their daily job.

I'm happy to be corrected, but can you confirm when the " dignity at work" grievance policy was amended, to not going out of store?? A lot of policies were changed only few years ago,  the terms & conditions grievance which used to go out of store, was changed to in store.
I'm surprised that the dignity at work grievance is now dealt with in store, how can managers who are known for bullying or harassment, be brought to answer, when a lot of the time it's done knowingly by the senior managers!
What is the protocol now, with regard protection of intimidation from the management involved in the grievance...to me it's too iffy...allows too much brushing under the carpet and leaves the one placing the grievance open to backlash and recriminations  ???
Live for today. Learn from yesterday.

barafear

I was on Ourtesco yesterday and noticed a lot of policies had been updated to remove reference to People Partners - for example, if a complaint of bullying relates to being bullied by your manager, then instead of going to "People Partner" it now goes to "your manager's manager"

I don't know specifically about the dignity at work policy and going "out of store" or "in store"

penguin

Quote from: lucgeo on 29-12-21, 01:05PM
CCTV monitoring is only permitted in the use of possible security breaches or health & safety concerns.

It is not to monitor the staff for performance, or going about their daily job.

I'm happy to be corrected, but can you confirm when the " dignity at work" grievance policy was amended, to not going out of store?? A lot of policies were changed only few years ago,  the terms & conditions grievance which used to go out of store, was changed to in store.
I'm surprised that the dignity at work grievance is now dealt with in store, how can managers who are known for bullying or harassment, be brought to answer, when a lot of the time it's done knowingly by the senior managers!
What is the protocol now, with regard protection of intimidation from the management involved in the grievance...to me it's too iffy...allows too much brushing under the carpet and leaves the one placing the grievance open to backlash and recriminations  ???

CCTV can be used as part of performance or miscounduct procedings, policy was changed to make this clear when GDPR came in back in 2018
Do not let anyone tell you there is not a decent job and life beyond Tesco.

baldeagle

It might be Tesco policy, but I doubt if the evidence obtained this way would be accepted at an employment tribunal. Its over intrusive  and goes against common law.

Radiacal

I appreciate everyone for the advice

Yesterday the shift manager called me into the office to tell me it was a mistake but I'm still going to take action since they should not be accusing anyone of anything unless they are completely sure of it


Nomad

And certainly not in front of other work colleagues, or anybody for that matter.
Nomad ( Forum Admin )
It's better to be up in arms than down on your knees.

horatiocain

Case law is fairly clear that CCTV can be used provided its as a result of a misconduct investigation  so it cannot be used for active monitoring, and there has to be cause for the investigation before the CCTV is examined.
Managers must be very careful using CCTV or face an ICO complaint, there must be cause for an jnvestigation and then the CCTV van be examined, you cannot use the CCTV to find cause for an investigation.
Unfortunately Tesco training is very poor in this regard, amount many.

In this case the OP should be complaining, that kind of behaviour is entirely unacceptable of a manager, but about what I've come to expect from Tesco management.

It can NEVER be used to monitor performance, neither the policy nor the law permits this, if you find out its being used for this a grievance with the employer and a complaint with the ICO are needed.

newguy20

I'm more surprised that there is any suggestion by management that using the disabled toilet is somehow a disciplinary matter?

I realise that it should be left for disabled persons as far as possible, but sometimes the other toilets can be in use or broken or being cleaned, you might have needed to change clothing or even have a temporary requirement to use such a facility.

NightAndDay

It comes as no surprise to me, one SM I know got sacked (well asked to resign) for fraud, the computer misuse act and a slew of other misdemeanours, he never did get a job in Retail, he languished on the dole for about 6 months before getting a job as a bin man.

General Thorn

Quote from: newguy20 on 29-12-21, 10:54PM
I'm more surprised that there is any suggestion by management that using the disabled toilet is somehow a disciplinary matter?

I realise that it should be left for disabled persons as far as possible, but sometimes the other toilets can be in use or broken or being cleaned, you might have needed to change clothing or even have a temporary requirement to use such a facility.

I'm also gobsmacked that this is a 'disciplinary matter', how can this be? Managers just being bullyboys and making things up as they go along, absolutely disgraceful.

I've known SMs that have taken pride in their bullying reputation and, even after complaint after complaint, have gone on to manage bigger stores. One told a manager that was going to put in a grievance about him 'I've had many grievances put in but I'm still here and the ones who complained are not.'

My point being that when you have SMs like that, managers that work with them see nothing wrong with lying and bullying and the company seems to turn a blind eye to it.

If you say managers also use the disabled toilet make a note of when you see them doing this and keep it as ammunition, if needed.

NightAndDay

A lot of people forget that grievances are a legal mechanism, the balance against SMs treating grievances as a score board is the ET, Tescos mateyboy politics comes after their profit margins, not before, a lot of the miscarriages of process would and has landed Tesco in hot water and many an ET judge has fined Tesco, in some cases 7 figures, no mateyboy manager is worth 7 figures.

forrestgimp

Disabled toilets are not for the exclusive use of disabled people they are disabled friendly thats all.

As for using the womens toilets, Just tell your manager you identify as a woman and if they start to laugh or make any kind of comment make sure its written down and make a complaint.

Its very PC at the moment.

oldfashionedplayer

Correct, there's nothing to stop a person using a disabled toilet, if a toilet is deemed womens/disabled, then it's unfortunately open to all to be honest... disabled ones by all accounts are just more accessible to people who may need the help, whether it's visual or not, tesco does have signs in stores too saying "Not every disability is visible" and they post them up as Accessible Toilets"

Like mentioned above, grievance for the claims against you and then stoppage of it for being targeted, make note if others that aren't female use it, so then you've got that as something too, but it's pretty much an open $$$$ for whoever they go after for using it to be honest...

person7

Why would using disabled toilet or even another gender be against policy enough to be accused.. When tesco pride themselves on gender quality and everything meaning they aren't actually allowed to say what "toilet" you can and can't use?  ???

Surely they aren't allowed to do anything about it even IF you did.. But the fact you'd ay you didn't and they claim there's proof then as it's "you" you have full rights under freedom of information to obtain this proof.. And if they go on about data protection state as its about you and the so called proof is about you as its your own personal data it's obtainable under freedom of information. by law companies must disclose information they have on a person.. And that does actually stretch to cctv if its about soemthing "you" did wrong

If they can't then it can be assumed they don't have proof... Not that any of it should matter due to my first point.

NightAndDay

99% of the reason why all these policy and processes exist is because of the l word. Could you imagine how long Tesco would be viable as a business if they gave all their star spanglers complete autonomy? I'd wager it would be somewhere between the Anglo-Zanzibar war of 1896 and the tenure of Theresa May as PM.

The viability of Tesco as a business would go from 60 to 0 in less than an hour as soon as it became apparent to the directors that their appointed managerial representatives were trying to practice budget eugenics at local store level.

Halftone84

"you used the female toilets !!!!"

And ?

Ask for the Tesco policy that says you can't.

BarryZola

Maybe dignity at work or something if they really wanted to.

penguin

Nothing about it in dignity at work, in fact the transgender policy for Tesco makes it very clear  anyone can use either the male or female toilets.
Do not let anyone tell you there is not a decent job and life beyond Tesco.

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