help or advice needed please

[xxbilleigh-joxx]

Hi all,

I need some advice on where my partner stands on an issue at work. My partner works mon-fri, A couple of months ago he came home (on a thursday) to tell me he had been suspended on full pay pending an investigation regarding an incident that took place. He had annual leave booked for a week commencing the following monday, though we hadnt got a holiday booked so they knew he'd be at home. They notified him (via a hand delivered letter about 11.30pm) on the friday night to be in for a meeting first thing tuesday morning. He attended the meeting and started back at work on the Tuesday afternoon.
Where i need advice is that he was suspended on full pay and they have told him that he must take the thurs & fri 'on suspention' the following week 'annual leave', as booked then the monday before starting back at work as 'suspended' again. Can they do that? I would have thought if you were suspended on full pay that they would have to re-instate your holidays because you can't be on holiday and suspended at the same time. If we'd gone on holiday I wouldn't be disputing it but he was at home and they told him he needed to stay available to attend a meeting when they were ready.

Sorry, i know it's a but long winded but i've looked on google and not found anything and our local CAB couldn't fit me in for 3 months!!  

HUGE HUGE thanks in advance  

Laurie x

[Highlander]

Laurie

I suspect this needs expert advice and that you said you have looked on the web but the link below, under Suspension from Work, does state that you keep your employment rights when suspended. I assume that includes holiday entitlement.

Don't know if that is any help, Hope you get it sorted out.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/ResolvingWorkplaceDisputes/Disciplinaryprocedures/DG_10028111

[kayakebab]

Hi Laurie
What a horrible thing to go through, Im in the horrible position where I have to suspend people prior to investigations and hate the guilty until proven innocent way that suspension works. Nasty all round, butso glad he has been reinstated and all is well.

Im a bit confused with the timings.
Was he technically on leave when he went in for the meeting? Or was his leave the week before the meeting, ie while he was suspended?

I think you will find that in financial terms whether he was on leave or not will be irrelevant, as he will be paid while on leave in any case, so wont be paid twice.

I think the only technicality is that he had been asked to be available, so technically he wasnt on leave at all, but I guess it will depend on whether they asked if hed mind being available and he agreed, or whether they demanded he be available and whether he would have been able to say no.

I think he should try discussing it nicely with them and explain that he feels hes been treated unfairly as he has lost his leave days, especially as I doubt he would have been in the mood to enjoy these days. He might be able to negotiate middle ground and just take one as leave?
Certainly as a boss I would probably reinstate the 2 days leave, but at the very least one of them.

I would recommend that whatever happens he uses the company grievance policy or supervision meeting to log his feelings in writing, just in case anything similar happens again

I know leave days are very precious, but it might be that you just have to put it behind you now and be happy that he has been found innocent, but definintely have it recorded somewhere.

My HR department are on leave at the mo, if you need further help I will see if they have any ideas when theyre back.

[marina]

Laurie,  my sympathies for you and your partner. It's an awful situation to be in.  

Along with the other advice you've been given I'd suggest ringing ACAS.  If you go onto their website there's a helpline number which you should be able to get through to straight away. I've had to use this service recently as I'm being made redundant and you wouldn't believe some of the things my employers have tried to do.  

ACAS were really helpful and supportive.

Good luck.

[xxbilleigh-joxx]

Thanks guys,

Kayakebab, He was suspended over 8 working days, the week in the middle had been booked as holiday.   He spoke to them but they fobbed him off saying he's already been paid so theres nothing they can do. He wasn't paid twice and if he hadn't had annual leave booked he would still have been paid, so i don't see how that can be the case. If he's not entitled to have his holidays reinstated then thats fine, i am just glad he kept his job to be honest but it seemed a bit dodgy, so i thought i'd look into it. It's a huge company that he works for and I don't see why they should make him take holidays if they're not allowed to. a weeks money is a lot of money to us

[kayakebab]

so the holiday theyre making him take while suspended is unpaid? that definitely cant be right!

[bewva]

Laurie,
The reason people are suspended is usually to avoid disruption within the workplace while an investigation takes place. As your partner was on leave for part of the suspension then the employer had acheived its requirement in that they asked him not to attend work pending the investigation for the days he was due to work. As he had annual leave booked I would regard that as unlucky, If he didn't have annual leave booked then they probably would have speeded up the investigation process and had his hearing early in the week he was actually on leave.
You could try ringing your home insurer, they normally have a legal advice line as part of the policy which also covers employment law. You should get an answer far quicker from them than the 3 months from CAB.
I think its a personal decision he should take on how far he choses to take this and it should be based around the technicalities of what he was suspended for and the outcome of the hearing he had.

[GordonA]

CAB are good, but in my personal experience, ACAS would be the route to go down, they are probably the best trained agency to approach in any work-related scenario. I have used them myself just within the last 2 months, & they were the proverbial "doggies private parts".  . All for free, & no time limit to telephone conversations.
Good Luck,
Gordy.

[Ovacikpeedoff]

My advice would be to fully exploit the internal company procedures before heading off to external bodies. If the company has a union and your partner is a member that is where I would start. If there is no union go and speak to whoever is responsible for Human Resources. There could even be a clause in the contract of employment that states that internal procedures must be exhausted before bringing in an outside body. Where I worked our contracts did have such a clause.I am fairly confident that this is the initial advice that the CAB or ACAS would give you.

Remember we are in very tough economic climate and good jobs are hard to come by. Even so this spould not be a reason to treat anyone unfairly.

[stoop]

I didn't quite get the time frames you explained but I would say that if they expected him to attend a meeting whilst on leave then I would think that day could be claimed back. If however the meeting was the week after his leave (in other words you could have gone about your holiday as normal for the five days booked)then I would think that they have a good argument to say that it did not affect his holiday and it will not be reinstated.