- Original Poster
- #1
Hi. I wonder if anybody could offer some support/ advice to a predicament that I have found myself in. Apologies for the long post but I want to apply as much context as possible.
I work for a large logistics company. My role is largely a support role to a warehouse operation. For the last 10 years, myself and another guy have alternated weekends to cover the out of hours “on call” duties. For me a rate of pay was agreed around 10 years ago and then reviewed about 6 years ago where I was told it was not contractually agreed so the rate of pay was being cut. Needless to say I wasn’t happy but accepted it for what it was.
Since then a temperature monitoring system was upgraded as the product stored is temperature sensitive. So since then, when this temperature alarm goes off, I get a text message and have to log into a portal to address. I have always done this from home and then gone to site if action is to be taken.
In order to be paid, historically I just gave a number of hours to payroll and copied my manager and they would approve. I am now on my fifth manager since this system was implemented. At the back end of last year, I was asked to actually itemise each call as it had been flagged at an audit as “a bit sloppy” so I have been itemising all calls as a list including those from home, passing them through email to my manager for approval. This has been happening since October/ November time.
During January and February there was problems with the system which meant during my weekends in duty I was pretty much constantly in front of my laptop monitoring alarms. Of course, I was in discussion with my manager during this time as well.
In February my manager came to me and said that the number of calls from home had been flagged in a finance review and senior management were arguing that these should be built in to my daily “standing fee”. We had a discussion about it but he basically said he would pay that month but going forward, we need to create a rate card. He went as far as saying it’s currently non-contractual and that myself and the other call out guy seemed to be claiming different things. I.e we seemed to work to different rule about what is claimable and what isn’t. He said he would pay February but a rate card would have to be made up going forward and he would be in touch.
3 days later I was called to a meeting room and suspended for fraudulently claiming paid hours on top of my call out rate.
I feel I have done nothing wrong, though the benefit of hindsight says a documented rate card would have prevented this.
I attended an investigation meeting where I was asked about what had happened and what I thought constituted a call out. I mentioned my conversation with my manager and the meeting was adjourned so the investigation manager could go and ask my manager about it. It was the middle of May before I was called back again. During that time, I had no welfare checks, no updates. My pay was wrong and I had to do so much chasing to get it fixed. I was told the delay was due to the pandemic which I get but I don’t think that should negate the need to make a phone call and check in.
When I was called to my second investigation meeting, I was asked 3 questions and then told a decision would be made in a few days. In this meeting, one of the questions was evident that the investigation manager hadn’t read his notes from the first because it had been answered then. The other two were just to clarify a couple of points.
I then had a letter to say I had been put forward for disciplinary hearing for 2 reasons. The first that I claim differently to the other call out guy and secondly that I claim in a way that goes against the agreed informal process.
When I finally got my invite letter and evidence pack, the investigation manager had not asked my manager about our conversation nor had my manager volunteered the information. In fact he said he just took it over from my previous manager and assumed his staff were doing the right thing. He did acknowledge my busy period in jan and feb but also stated there was no process that he was aware of on what to claim. There were two other interviews from managers past and present that stated that a call out is anything outside of core hours but there was no process written and they’d had no training in how to process my claims. The final interview was with the other call out manager who said he didn’t claim for temperature alarms at home, was aware that I did but assumed I was working under a different contract so never asked why he wasn’t getting paid for home calls. The only other documents enclosed were an extract from the sheet I submit to claim payment for February only and and a issued log from the temperature monitoring system. I felt a bit aggrieved that after 14 weeks, the investigation was incomplete and what was completed was effectively the management saying they don’t know the process and they were just processing what they were told to by managers that had left the business.
When I was invited to the DP, I requested a different manager as I didn’t feel my own general manager would be impartial. The meeting was delayed by 3 days and a new manager was appointed.
When I got to the meeting with my union rep I was told by the DP manager that he didn’t really understand what was going on and could I explain in my words. I basically explained as I have here. While we were talking, I mentioned that I was a little aggrieved by the delay, especially when the information I provided at investigation hadn’t been followed up on. We adjourned for 10 minutes and when we got back, the manager said he didn’t want to do it but would have to adjourn as he clearly doesn’t have all the information he needs to make a decision and needs to interview everybody again himself. We are now at 16 weeks without any conclusion. I think it’s needless to say that this, in combination with the global crisis has really done my mental health no good at all, I’ve obviously earns less money too during this delay.
I’m really sorry for the long post but I’m really hoping people out there could give some advice on how to proceed further, what my next steps should be and maybe offer some professional thought on how this may play out based on their knowledge/ experience?.
Thank you in advance..
I work for a large logistics company. My role is largely a support role to a warehouse operation. For the last 10 years, myself and another guy have alternated weekends to cover the out of hours “on call” duties. For me a rate of pay was agreed around 10 years ago and then reviewed about 6 years ago where I was told it was not contractually agreed so the rate of pay was being cut. Needless to say I wasn’t happy but accepted it for what it was.
Since then a temperature monitoring system was upgraded as the product stored is temperature sensitive. So since then, when this temperature alarm goes off, I get a text message and have to log into a portal to address. I have always done this from home and then gone to site if action is to be taken.
In order to be paid, historically I just gave a number of hours to payroll and copied my manager and they would approve. I am now on my fifth manager since this system was implemented. At the back end of last year, I was asked to actually itemise each call as it had been flagged at an audit as “a bit sloppy” so I have been itemising all calls as a list including those from home, passing them through email to my manager for approval. This has been happening since October/ November time.
During January and February there was problems with the system which meant during my weekends in duty I was pretty much constantly in front of my laptop monitoring alarms. Of course, I was in discussion with my manager during this time as well.
In February my manager came to me and said that the number of calls from home had been flagged in a finance review and senior management were arguing that these should be built in to my daily “standing fee”. We had a discussion about it but he basically said he would pay that month but going forward, we need to create a rate card. He went as far as saying it’s currently non-contractual and that myself and the other call out guy seemed to be claiming different things. I.e we seemed to work to different rule about what is claimable and what isn’t. He said he would pay February but a rate card would have to be made up going forward and he would be in touch.
3 days later I was called to a meeting room and suspended for fraudulently claiming paid hours on top of my call out rate.
I feel I have done nothing wrong, though the benefit of hindsight says a documented rate card would have prevented this.
I attended an investigation meeting where I was asked about what had happened and what I thought constituted a call out. I mentioned my conversation with my manager and the meeting was adjourned so the investigation manager could go and ask my manager about it. It was the middle of May before I was called back again. During that time, I had no welfare checks, no updates. My pay was wrong and I had to do so much chasing to get it fixed. I was told the delay was due to the pandemic which I get but I don’t think that should negate the need to make a phone call and check in.
When I was called to my second investigation meeting, I was asked 3 questions and then told a decision would be made in a few days. In this meeting, one of the questions was evident that the investigation manager hadn’t read his notes from the first because it had been answered then. The other two were just to clarify a couple of points.
I then had a letter to say I had been put forward for disciplinary hearing for 2 reasons. The first that I claim differently to the other call out guy and secondly that I claim in a way that goes against the agreed informal process.
When I finally got my invite letter and evidence pack, the investigation manager had not asked my manager about our conversation nor had my manager volunteered the information. In fact he said he just took it over from my previous manager and assumed his staff were doing the right thing. He did acknowledge my busy period in jan and feb but also stated there was no process that he was aware of on what to claim. There were two other interviews from managers past and present that stated that a call out is anything outside of core hours but there was no process written and they’d had no training in how to process my claims. The final interview was with the other call out manager who said he didn’t claim for temperature alarms at home, was aware that I did but assumed I was working under a different contract so never asked why he wasn’t getting paid for home calls. The only other documents enclosed were an extract from the sheet I submit to claim payment for February only and and a issued log from the temperature monitoring system. I felt a bit aggrieved that after 14 weeks, the investigation was incomplete and what was completed was effectively the management saying they don’t know the process and they were just processing what they were told to by managers that had left the business.
When I was invited to the DP, I requested a different manager as I didn’t feel my own general manager would be impartial. The meeting was delayed by 3 days and a new manager was appointed.
When I got to the meeting with my union rep I was told by the DP manager that he didn’t really understand what was going on and could I explain in my words. I basically explained as I have here. While we were talking, I mentioned that I was a little aggrieved by the delay, especially when the information I provided at investigation hadn’t been followed up on. We adjourned for 10 minutes and when we got back, the manager said he didn’t want to do it but would have to adjourn as he clearly doesn’t have all the information he needs to make a decision and needs to interview everybody again himself. We are now at 16 weeks without any conclusion. I think it’s needless to say that this, in combination with the global crisis has really done my mental health no good at all, I’ve obviously earns less money too during this delay.
I’m really sorry for the long post but I’m really hoping people out there could give some advice on how to proceed further, what my next steps should be and maybe offer some professional thought on how this may play out based on their knowledge/ experience?.
Thank you in advance..
