Falsely accused and work

[Billyboo]

I'm in the situation of being accused of sexual assault on a woman. By the way I am a woman who is co accused along with my husband! I had a review last week at work and all the stress of my current situation was too much so I confided in my line manager. She told me she was a trained counsellor who had worked in women's refuges, if I ever needed to talk to her she would be there to listen. After my review, which was glowing with no issues towards my work ethics it was left there. This was last Sunday.
I went to work on the following Wednesday only to walk straight into an investigation with my line manager and a female colleague who was there to take notes. I was asked how long I'd been on bail for? What I'm charged with? And could I take my bail sheet into work? This was deeply distressing and humiliating, I drove home in floods of tears, I wasn't even asked if I wanted someone with me to support/advise during the investigation.
Since I had told my line manager she in turn had told my store manager who informed head office of all this.
The following day I recieved a call from my line manager who was told to ask more questions, she asked me " what grounds/evidence did the CPS have to charge you? I told her I wouldn't be answering anymore questions that were not related to work. We left it at that, later the same day she rang me again to let me know I was now suspended on full pay.
Today I have recieved a letter from the large national retailer that an investigation which " in our opinion demonstrates unsuitability for continued employment"

I'm posting this as I've tried to find advice online about this situation but feel it's quite specialised and doesn't crop up every day, any advice from anyone going through the same would be very much appreciated and might help an absolute horrendous situation maybe a little less for now.

[Rights Fighter]

Hi there BillyBoo

we've been emailing each other just now.

Careful what you write on here as all posts are publicly viewable to anyone and everyone who just happens by

[slowdown73]

Hello,

I’m sorry to hear you are in this situation. You don’t say what your role is within the company. In certain jobs, you would be legally obliged to inform your employers from when you first became aware the Police were investigating you but this usually only applies to jobs where you are working with anyone vulnerable and would require an enhanced DBS.

For other jobs such as working in an office or store, there is no legal requirement to inform your employers pre-charge but some employment contracts may have a clause stating you must inform them of any criminal convictions / pending matters.

It sounds like your line manager was very supportive when you first told her about your situation. However, she should have explained that this information would need to disclosed to a more senior manager and her reasons for this.

I am a little confused about whether you are still on bail or have been charged. I presume you have not been charged yet if you are still on police bail? If this is the case then your employers appear to have been very discriminating towards you. I would suggest speaking to an employment law specialist for expert advice on where you stand. How long have you worked for your employers? Usually it has to be two years before you could consider taking them to a tribunal on the grounds of unfair dismissal.

[Billyboo]

Work

Hello,

I’m sorry to hear you are in this situation. You don’t say what your role is within the company. In certain jobs, you would be legally obliged to inform your employers from when you first became aware the Police were investigating you but this usually only applies to jobs where you are working with anyone vulnerable and would require an enhanced DBS.

For other jobs such as working in an office or store, there is no legal requirement to inform your employers pre-charge but some employment contracts may have a clause stating you must inform them of any criminal convictions / pending matters.

It sounds like your line manager was very supportive when you first told her about your situation. However, she should have explained that this information would need to disclosed to a more senior manager and her reasons for this.

I am a little confused about whether you are still on bail or have been charged. I presume you have not been charged yet if you are still on police bail? If this is the case then your employers appear to have been very discriminating towards you. I would suggest speaking to an employment law specialist for expert advice on where you stand. How long have you worked for your employers? Usually it has to be two years before you could consider taking them to a tribunal on the grounds of unfair dismissal.

Hi , thank you for your reply, to to answer a couple of your questions, I am still on bail and have been so for 17 months! My trial is at crown court in November, I have been with my current employer for only 11 months, I'm a delivery driver, the charges against me really don't affect my job I make a delivery where I'm on the doorstep with my customer for a couple of mins then I'm onto the next one, I've been made to feel like a menace to society by my employer. I'm booked in for another investigation next week where I'm expected to explain my situation again. I was hoping for some advice on wether my employer can sit and ask questions about the charges against me!

[Peter1975]

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[slowdown73]

So you have been charged with the alleged offences then? Given the fact you have already disclosed to your line manager about the matter, I think they do have a right to ask you some questions regardless of whether it is relevant to your role. Your employer has a duty of care towards you and at the current time you are very vulnerable and may need extra support. Furthermore, they will want to protect their own reputation too - look at it from their point of view - they don’t know it’s a malicious allegation and it could look suspicious if you suddenly refuse to answer any questions about the matter. However, I can understand you may feel uncomfortable and threatened by the whole situation so it’s important to get further advice from a specialist solicitor on what you should share with them.

[Franticwithworry]

I know often employers hide behind the law and use all maner of excuses to 'protect' themselves and their customers, and I suspect that if you volunteer information to an employer you effectively close the door on the right to privacy and open the door to questions. It probably doesn't pay to be reticent now.

Obviously I can't and wouldn't dream of trying to tell you what to do, but my man's experience was that he took the decision to tell his employer everything including the background that we believe led to the allegation. The result was that his employer got the fullest possible picture and have been wonderfully supportive. Of course there is no guarantee that you will get the same result, but it's possible that having volunteered information, trying to clam up now and resenting questions will give the wrong impression.

I also think that a chat with an employment lawyer as suggested above would be an excellent idea.

[Billyboo]

Advice

I know often employers hide behind the law and use all maner of excuses to 'protect' themselves and their customers, and I suspect that if you volunteer information to an employer you effectively close the door on the right to privacy and open the door to questions. It probably doesn't pay to be reticent now.

Obviously I can't and wouldn't dream of trying to tell you what to do, but my man's experience was that he took the decision to tell his employer everything including the background that we believe led to the allegation. The result was that his employer got the fullest possible picture and have been wonderfully supportive. Of course there is no guarantee that you will get the same result, but it's possible that having volunteered information, trying to clam up now and resenting questions will give the wrong impression.

I also think that a chat with an employment lawyer as suggested above would be an excellent idea.

Thank you for your advice. I will be taking advice from the employment solicitor that was mentioned in one of the posts. I need to know how to handle Tuesday! I'm glad your partners employers were supportive, unfortunately mine are not so supportive right now, my suspension letter I received yesterday was to tell me they need to investigate more to see how suitable I am to be employed by them. That doesn't make me feel confident that I'm going to have a job by the time they have finished investigating. But we will see!

[Franticwithworry]

Thank you for your advice. I will be taking advice from the employment solicitor that was mentioned in one of the posts. I need to know how to handle Tuesday! I'm glad your partners employers were supportive, unfortunately mine are not so supportive right now, my suspension letter I received yesterday was to tell me they need to investigate more to see how suitable I am to be employed by them. That doesn't make me feel confident that I'm going to have a job by the time they have finished investigating. But we will see!

How did it go? I hope that it wasn't as bad as you feared.

[Billyboo]

Investigation

How did it go? I hope that it wasn't as bad as you feared.

Hi, I was supposed to go to an investigation earlier in the week. I was told by my own solicitor to cancel as it wasn't enough time to prepare/take advice. I sought the advice of an employment law solicitor who agreed to represent me, the company I work for are not accepting the solicitor as it's not company policy to have anyone represent an employee of theirs! So at the moment it's one step forward and two steps back!

[Franticwithworry]

Oh, gee!

I'm glad you've got solicitor assistance with the police but sorry that your employers are being so difficult. Policy, huh? I hope an employment lawyer is able to help you with that if their policy isn't actually legal. Of course, I may be wrong, but I thought that any employee subject to a hearing of any kind was legally entitled to be accompanied and didn't have to deal with it alone. What a week it's been for you! :-(

I hope next week is better. :-)

[Billyboo]

It couldn't get much worse! I'm hoping she is as good as I'm led to believe she is, the phrase was s**t hot! But we will see, I hope she puts them in their place, thanks for the follow up to see how I'm doing.

[Franticwithworry]

the only way is up, Billyboo. Hang in there; it will get better, eventually, and there is support here while you're waiting. :-) Keep us posted if you can. There are interested lurkers too, I'm sure.

[Billyboo]

Still suspended!!!

Here’s a quick update on my current situation, I attended another investigation at work two weeks ago, my employers were still insisting on asking the details of what I’d been charged with, upon advice I had taken I took a prepared statement, where I made clear I would not be answering questions about an ongoing situation and an imminent court case, which is starting on the 13/11! My store manager told me he was away the day after our investigation and would be in another week later, Tuesday of this week he rang me to let me know he was not allowed to decide wether to bring me back to work or keep me suspended, this was down to another store manager to decide what to do with me! Baring in mind the other store manager does not know me, is not part of the HR dept, and is making a decision based on a prepared statement and a few investigation notes. Am still sat waiting for a call to let me know what the company see fit for me to do. All of this to deal with on top of trying to contact my solicitor with some concerns/questions about my trial who has gone AWOL and silent on me!