Hello, my wife works for a major UK supermarket.

This supermarket runs a discount card for its employees & abuse of this
card is a dismissal offence. one of her colleagues (a generally horrible
person ho has been abusive & obnoxious to my wife in the past) has been
caught abusing this card.

The supermarket bosses have been interviewing all involved so that they
can sack him, 2 other employees with my wife have given written
statements to the bosses that they witnessed what he did.

However, he is very sure of himself & sure that he can wrangle himself
out of this. She has been told that she must attend a meeting with all
the others & the managers where he will be able to cross examine her &
the others.

My wife has done nothing wrong here, however this person is well known
to twist things & upset people & we are sure that he will be accusing
all sorts & calling them all liars.

1) My question is, does he have the right to do this.
2) Do any of them have to attend this, do they have rights to not be
intimidated as such?

This is no court of law, merely a supermarket employers meeting.
A union may be involved, although my wife is not in it.

Your legal comments would be appreciated.
Cheers.




-- 
ZOOMBINI

On 22 Jul, 00:20, ZOOMBINI <****f...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello, my wife works for a major UK supermarket.
>
> This supermarket runs a discount card for its employees & abuse of this
> card is a dismissal offence. one of her colleagues (a generally horrible
> person ho has been abusive & obnoxious to my wife in the past) has been
> caught abusing this card.
>
> The supermarket bosses have been interviewing all involved so that they
> can sack him, 2 other employees with my wife have given written
> statements to the bosses that they witnessed what he did.
>
> However, he is very sure of himself & sure that he can wrangle himself
> out of this. She has been told that she must attend a meeting with all
> the others & the managers where he will be able to cross examine her &
> the others.
>
> My wife has done nothing wrong here, however this person is well known
> to twist things & upset people & we are sure that he will be accusing
> all sorts & calling them all liars.
>
> 1) My question is, does he have the right to do this.
> 2) Do any of them have to attend this, do they have rights to not be
> intimidated as such?
>
> This is no court of law, merely a supermarket employers meeting.
> A union may be involved, although my wife is not in it.
>
> Your legal comments would be appreciated.
> Cheers.
>
> --
> ZOOMBINI

Under the statutory disciplinary procedures, at a disciplinary meeting
the employee has the right ask questions, call witnesses, and raise
points about any information provided by witnesses. It may be
reasonable, therefore, for the witnesses to be there to answer
questions, and reasonable for the employers to require the relevant
employees to attend. The employers should, of course, regulate the
procedure so that there is no unfair or abusive behaviour.

Toom

Hi,

not legal but advice.

Get your wife to join the union.

And then have a union representative present.  If the others at the meeting 
have union reps and your wife does not then she may well be the centre of 
attack by this chap.

Do let us know how she gets on.

Paul

On 22 Jul, 09:05, Toom Tabard  wrote:
> On 22 Jul, 00:20, ZOOMBINI <****f...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Hello, my wife works for a major UK supermarket.
>
> > This supermarket runs a discount card for its employees & abuse of this
> > card is a dismissal offence. one of her colleagues (a generally horrible
> > person ho has been abusive & obnoxious to my wife in the past) has been
> > caught abusing this card.
>
> > The supermarket bosses have been interviewing all involved so that they
> > can sack him, 2 other employees with my wife have given written
> > statements to the bosses that they witnessed what he did.
>
> > However, he is very sure of himself & sure that he can wrangle himself
> > out of this. She has been told that she must attend a meeting with all
> > the others & the managers where he will be able to cross examine her &
> > the others.
>
> > My wife has done nothing wrong here, however this person is well known
> > to twist things & upset people & we are sure that he will be accusing
> > all sorts & calling them all liars.
>
> > 1) My question is, does he have the right to do this.
> > 2) Do any of them have to attend this, do they have rights to not be
> > intimidated as such?
>
> > This is no court of law, merely a supermarket employers meeting.
> > A union may be involved, although my wife is not in it.
>
> > Your legal comments would be appreciated.
> > Cheers.
>
> > --
> > ZOOMBINI
>
> Under the statutory disciplinary procedures, at a disciplinary meeting
> the employee has the right ask questions, call witnesses, and raise
> points about any information provided by witnesses. It may be
> reasonable, therefore, for the witnesses to be there to answer
> questions, and reasonable for the employers to require the relevant
> employees to attend. The employers should, of course, regulate the
> procedure so that there is no unfair or abusive behaviour.
>
> Toom- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

See http://www.acas.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=272&p=0
for info on formal disciplinary meetings - particularly page 8 para 15
regarding witnesses and raising question about evidence.

Toom

ZOOMBINI wrote:
> Hello, my wife works for a major UK supermarket.
>
> This supermarket runs a discount card for its employees & abuse of
> this card is a dismissal offence. one of her colleagues (a generally
> horrible person ho has been abusive & obnoxious to my wife in the
> past) has been caught abusing this card.
>
> The supermarket bosses have been interviewing all involved so that
> they can sack him, 2 other employees with my wife have given written
> statements to the bosses that they witnessed what he did.
>
> However, he is very sure of himself & sure that he can wrangle himself
> out of this. She has been told that she must attend a meeting with all
> the others & the managers where he will be able to cross examine her &
> the others.
>
> My wife has done nothing wrong here, however this person is well known
> to twist things & upset people & we are sure that he will be accusing
> all sorts & calling them all liars.
>
> 1) My question is, does he have the right to do this.
> 2) Do any of them have to attend this, do they have rights to not be
> intimidated as such?
>
> This is no court of law, merely a supermarket employers meeting.
> A union may be involved, although my wife is not in it.
>
> Your legal comments would be appreciated.

For there to be a disciplinary hearing, which I assume this is, the company 
has to be reasonably sure that there's a case to answer, and they have that 
in the form of the written statements.  Thereafter, it's really between the 
company and the accused employee who must of course be given an opportunity 
to respond for the company to avoid dismissing him unfairly.  But this 
should happen essentially in private.  No-one else should have a right to 
attend, and no-one else should attend unless asked to come in briefly to 
clarify some particular point.  It's not a public hearing.  It's not a 
free-for-all.  It's not a slanging match.  Nor is it a court of law.

In normal circumstances, it just shouldn't be necessary for anyone to give 
verbal evidence.  It's is there already in the written statements.

If your wife is asked to clarify any points, she should clearly be protected 
by the person running the hearing, who should be a senior manager, from any 
abuse or intimidation, so she shouldn't have anything to fear.

Norman Wells;544510 Wrote: 
> ZOOMBINI wrote:-
> Hello, my wife works for a major UK supermarket.
> 
> This supermarket runs a discount card for its employees & abuse of
> this card is a dismissal offence. one of her colleagues (a generally
> horrible person ho has been abusive & obnoxious to my wife in the
> past) has been caught abusing this card.
> 
> The supermarket bosses have been interviewing all involved so that
> they can sack him, 2 other employees with my wife have given written
> statements to the bosses that they witnessed what he did.
> 
> However, he is very sure of himself & sure that he can wrangle
> himself
> out of this. She has been told that she must attend a meeting with
> all
> the others & the managers where he will be able to cross examine her
> &
> the others.
> 
> My wife has done nothing wrong here, however this person is well
> known
> to twist things & upset people & we are sure that he will be accusing
> all sorts & calling them all liars.
> 
> 1) My question is, does he have the right to do this.
> 2) Do any of them have to attend this, do they have rights to not be
> intimidated as such?
> 
> This is no court of law, merely a supermarket employers meeting.
> A union may be involved, although my wife is not in it.
> 
> Your legal comments would be appreciated.-
> 
> For there to be a disciplinary hearing, which I assume this is, the
> company 
> has to be reasonably sure that there's a case to answer, and they have
> that 
> in the form of the written statements.  Thereafter, it's really between
> the 
> company and the accused employee who must of course be given an
> opportunity 
> to respond for the company to avoid dismissing him unfairly.  But this
> 
> should happen essentially in private.  No-one else should have a right
> to 
> attend, and no-one else should attend unless asked to come in briefly
> to 
> clarify some particular point.  It's not a public hearing.  It's not a
> 
> free-for-all.  It's not a slanging match.  Nor is it a court of law.
> 
> In normal circumstances, it just shouldn't be necessary for anyone to
> give 
> verbal evidence.  It's is there already in the written statements.
> 
> If your wife is asked to clarify any points, she should clearly be
> protected 
> by the person running the hearing, who should be a senior manager, from
> any 
> abuse or intimidation, so she shouldn't have anything to fear.

Thank you all for your advice, she has been told that he is writing a
list of questions to be passed on & she will not be seeing him again.




-- 
ZOOMBINI

On Jul 22, 11:20 am, ZOOMBINI <****f...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello, my wife works for a major UK supermarket.
>
> This supermarket runs a discount card for its employees & abuse of this
> card is a dismissal offence. one of her colleagues (a generally horrible
> person ho has been abusive & obnoxious to my wife in the past) has been
> caught abusing this card.
>
> The supermarket bosses have been interviewing all involved so that they
> can sack him, 2 other employees with my wife have given written
> statements to the bosses that they witnessed what he did.
>
> However, he is very sure of himself & sure that he can wrangle himself
> out of this. She has been told that she must attend a meeting with all
> the others & the managers where he will be able to cross examine her &
> the others.
>
> My wife has done nothing wrong here, however this person is well known
> to twist things & upset people & we are sure that he will be accusing
> all sorts & calling them all liars.
>
> 1) My question is, does he have the right to do this.
> 2) Do any of them have to attend this, do they have rights to not be
> intimidated as such?
>

That employee may well be 'fishing' for instances of abuse of discount
cards by other staff.  As far as I see the employee has no right or
business to elicit such information from an employee not willing to
volunteer it.  Your wife can simply refuse to answer such questions.

As far as abusive behaviour is concerned, the employee would be merely
handing more rope to the employer.