Because this section is so complicated we decided to take a chunk out of Ray's interview with his Legal Advisor - we would also like to point out here that the company have not provided any evidence to back up their claim that Ray was incompetent - not at the disciplinary, not at the meeting with them & not with their findings.  

        Final Warning Letter

        HR's notes

Disciplinary 28/02/02 @ 8am:

LA - What shift had you just finished?

RJ - Midnight – 8am, night shift

LA - Were you bright & alert?

RJ – No, I was tired & I faced an hours drive home on the motorway.

LA - What did you tell your union rep before the meeting?

RJ – I told him that I had done nothing wrong & that my supervisor had been bullying me & threatening me with my job. I told him that my supervisor would have a list and whatever I get done for in the meeting was either petty, wasn’t my responsibility or didn’t happen at all.

LA - Were you informed before the disciplinary what accusations had been made against you?

RJ – No, I did not know what I was being disciplined for - there was nothing wrong with my current work performance – I felt like I was on trial charged with crimes I knew nothing about – I knew from what my supervisor had done in the past that I was about to lose my job. I was told by HR that she had nothing to do with it, that my supervisor had a list of ‘offences’ & I would have to ask him for them, he then told me he had 10 things on me

LA – Did your supervisor stick to his ‘list’?

RJ – No he didn’t, he kept adding extra bits on to each accusation

LA - Did your supervisor or HR give dates for each accusation?

RJ – No, they didn’t

LA - Did your supervisor mention all 10 accusations?

RJ – No he didn’t, he said he wouldn’t bother bringing the last accusation up at this time.

LA - Was any evidence presented to support your supervisor's accusations?

RJ – No

LA - Were you given an opportunity to give your side of the story? 

RJ – I was, but my supervisor wouldn’t let me finish a sentence because he kept jumping up & waving his arms around shouting liar, liar – I didn’t get a fair chance, no.

LA - What was the outcome of the meeting?

RJ – Final Warning

LA - Have you ever been given an oral warning? 

RJ - No

LA - Have you ever been given a written warning? 

RJ - No

LA - Were you given the final warning letter at the end of the meeting?

RJ – No

LA – Were you told what improvements were expected of you?

RJ – HR asked me if I wanted more training, which I refused. There was nothing wrong with my work performance, that was the whole point – the only thing that would help me was for my supervisor to be dismissed – but no-one would listen to me because as HR stated during both meetings, “Your just a temp & this is how temps are treated”. She even tried to explain this to my union rep, “He’s just a temp”

LA - Were you told how to appeal & who to?

RJ – Yes, I was told to write a letter to HR

LA - Were you told the time scale for appealing?

RJ – No, I wasn’t

LA - Did you receive a letter stating you had been given a final warning?

RJ - No, I never received a letter

LA – So the letter that HR sent when you requested your records had not actually been sent to you or left in your pigeon hole

RJ – I did not receive any letter – I rang HR to request it a few days later so that I could prepare my evidence for an appeal & she said that she only needs to send me a letter after I had appealed, my supervisor was also refusing to send a letter – I knew that was wrong so I submitted a letter to the general manager 4 days after the disciplinary telling him that I was being bullied by my supervisor & that HR was in on it & could he please help me because they were trying to sack me.

The letter that HR sent to me when I requested my records is pathetic; it was the first time I had seen it & I couldn’t believe what I saw. The typed statement had no details of what the final warning was for & she had only given me 48 hours from leaving that meeting to appeal when my contract states 7 days, not only that but if she had sent that letter by post I would not have received it within 48 hours

LA – Was your union rep happy with the disciplinary?

RJ – No, he wasn’t – He invited me to a Trade Union meeting that Sunday to show the managers what was happening to me

LA – Did you attend the Union Meeting?

RJ – Yes I did, I was told to request hand over book 31 for an appeal – which my supervisor refused to hand over stating it was the “company’s response” – he must have took advice because he then started saying that I could photocopy the book but he still wouldn’t give me it so I could tell him what I wanted photocopying.

LA – Can you confirm that the answers to each accusation HR has recorded are your answers?

RJ – There are a few things wrong with this:

	What HR has written were not my replies, she has stated that I was guilty with each reply
	She has made it look like I have a bad attitude
	She has put down 10 replies from me for 10 accusations – my supervisor only brought 9 accusations up so where did the other reply come from – not me.
	I did not sign anything to say that this was my statement
	Any appeal would be based on HR's ‘notes’

LA – Ok, let’s go through each accusation made against you.


Accusation 1. Failing to lock up warehouse & turning the lights off.


[supervisor: Warehouse issue: Never turned off lights, lock up etc – refer to notes in handover book]

LA – Why didn’t you lock up the warehouse & turn the lights off?

RJ - The factory workers had said they couldn’t turn the lights off because there was a mountain of pallets blocking it & they told me that they had locked the warehouse up as normal 

LA – Did your supervisor explain to you during the disciplinary what you should have done that night?

RJ – He said I should have climbed over the pallets to get to the light switch; he went on to say that he had climbed over them to turn the lights off. I told him that I shouldn’t have to climb pallets to switch a light out.

LA – Had you worked during a company shut down before this incident?

RJ – No

LA - Were you given a duty sheet for the shut down period?

RJ – No – my supervisor doesn’t believe in duty sheets, he thinks everybody knows what he knows.

LA – Did your supervisor tell you your duties verbally?

RJ – No 

LA - Did your supervisor speak to you about this incident?

RJ – He made a comment about it & I explained.

LA – When your supervisor spoke to you about this incident, did he say it was an oral warning?

RJ – No, it was a general conversation & he said he accepted my explanation

LA – Do you know if a risk assessment had been carried out to say that it was safe for you to climb over pallets?

RJ – I haven’t seen anything

LA - Who was your Health & Safety Officer at the time?

RJ – My supervisor

LA – Your Health & Safety Officer was disciplining you for not climbing over pallets?

RJ – Yes

LA – Was anyone else in the factory?

RJ – No, I was completely alone

LA – So, if you had fallen whilst climbing over these pallets, no one could have helped you?

RJ – That’s correct

LA - Did this incident reoccur at any other time?

RJ - No

LA - In your contract, it states that you must take your holidays during company shut down so why were you there in the first place?

RJ – My contract doesn’t apply to me apparently

LA – HR’s notes say your reply to this accusation was “I don’t go in the warehouse, do not know where light switches are, only had 2 nights training, 2 weeks is needed, I did not notice when on patrol” Are these your words?

RJ – Does it look like my explanation? I didn’t go near the warehouse when I did a patrol; I only did the perimeter – the first patrol I had ever done there.

Accusation 2. Wrote on Master Copy Rota

[Supervisor: Wrote on master copy, you firstly deny, then accept it]

LA - Why did you write on the master copy? 

RJ – First because my supervisor had put less hours than I had actually worked on my total & second, because he said in the hand over book that all overtime money would be shared equally but he grabbed the lot – he changed our shift patterns so that he could do the majority of overtime because he had credit cards to pay off.LA – Why did you deny it?

RJ – I did not deny it. My supervisor pulled me up on it, I explained. The next day, he reprimanded my brother for it – he told my brother that I had said it was him – I had already spoken to my brother about it – before our supervisor pulled him up. My brother kicked off because he knew my supervisor had already pulled me on it.

LA – Why did your supervisor do this?

RJ – He was attempting to turn my brother against me.

LA – Where does it say that writing on the master copy rota is a disciplinary offence?

RJ – The Company doesn’t have a list like that – my supervisor makes the rules up as he goes along

LA - Did your supervisor speak with you about it?

RJ – Yes he did, he said that if I wanted to write on the rota, I should copy it & write on that.

LA - Did your supervisor state that this was an oral warning?

RJ – No, he didn’t

LA - Did this incident reoccur at any other time?

RJ – No, it didn’t

LA – HR’s notes say your reply to this accusation was “Yes, I did write on master copy, I thought it was an illegal rota” Was this your reply? 

RJ – No, it was my supervisor who accused me of saying that the rota was illegal – I never said that, he did.

Accusation 3. Complaining about the rota.

[Supervisor: Complained to me regarding rotas, legalities, requested to see HR.]

LA - Why did you complain about the rota? 

RJ – Firstly because a certain guard was doing them & he was fixing it to suit himself. Whilst I was working solid shifts, his holidays ran into his days off.. 

LA – Did this guard do the rotas on a regular basis?

RJ – He was doing them when I started & Secondly, because I was finishing at midnight after doing 8 hours, driving home for an hour on the motorway, going to bed at 1.30am only to be getting up at 5.30 to get ready for work, an hours drive on the motorway into work & then a doing a 12 hour day shift. (click here to see it) We are not allowed to take a break away from our desk at any time so it got to the point were I was not getting any rest & I had no time to eat – I was living on adrenalin. Even my car blew up – the damage was beyond repair – all because I spent so much time on the motorway & didn’t have enough time in between trips to keep on top of it’s maintenance. My supervisor told me that if I didn’t get another car he would put me on a 24-hour shift, as it wasn’t worth me going home.
I was spending 60 pound a week getting to work because it is not possible to use public transport for the shifts I was on as the services stop running – that is how much I valued my job! Then my supervisor started giving me every afternoon shift..

LA - Did your supervisor speak to you about it?

RJ – He said my contract states that I must be flexible & that that is a condition that goes with the job, but why should I be worked like that just because another guard wants a few months off – I would be willing to do the occasional shift like that but only in an emergency, otherwise it is pointless & could have had me killed – my car couldn’t cope with it so how was I expected to? I was scared for my life & that of other road users – driving whilst tired & undernourished is a serious offence in the laws eyes. The Selby crash, for example.

LA - Was your supervisor sympathetic & understanding?

RJ – No he wasn’t, he laughed at me & during the disciplinary, he told HR that I moaned to him about my hours & he started doing an impression of me shaking, he then said I wasn’t suitable for the job because the shifts I was being given were killing me – all this from a man who refuses to do nights, who can leave his desk at any given time & does not know what it is like.

LA – So your Health & Safety Officer was yet again disciplining you for raising concerns about your Health & Safety?

RJ – Yes

LA – What was your supervisor's excuse for making you work like this?

RJ – He said everything would be ok as soon as all of the other guards had taken their time back – but this would never happen because the lodge is always a man down. He also used my permanent position as a carrot – he kept saying that if I put up with it the company would definitely take me on after 6 months.

LA – Have you voluntarily signed a document to say that the Working Time Directive doesn’t apply to you?

RJ – The clause is part of my contract, if I refused to accept it, I wouldn’t have got the job – same applies with my new contract, had I refused, my contract would not have been renewed. Companies automatically think that security is exempt from the Working Time Directive but they are not, it’s just recognised that sometimes we work longer than 8 hours.

LA – So you were forced into signing it?

RJ – I had no other choice, so yes, I suppose I was forced – I had already left my other job at my supervisor's request so I was technically unemployed when I signed the contract – I had been mislead by my supervisor.

LA – HR states your reply as, “Spoke to HR re rota, was annoyed at time, spoke to SC” Was this your answer?

RJ – I spoke to HR about my rotas and she told my supervisor to stop it, she told him to share everything equally – she didn’t mention that in my reply.

Accusation 4. Failed to fill up Citroen.

[Supervisor: Failed to fill up Citroen, not fulfilling duties]

LA - Did you fill up the Citroen?

RJ – No I didn’t, it didn’t need filling up

LA – So why were you disciplined for this?

RJ – I had made an admin mistake in the book, I put quarter (¼) full instead of 3 quarters full (¾) – it didn’t need filling. The following day, my supervisor came in & left a message in the book saying, “Ray, fill the Citroen up” with a big circle around the ¼. I explained my mistake but he still insisted that I filled the car up – which I did. After the disciplinary, he left a message in the book asking, “How much fuel does the Citroen hold?” He hadn’t checked the fuel sheets & he didn’t know how much fuel the car holds but he disciplined me for it anyway. My supervisor writes the wrong dates in the book & that’s ok – I make one little mistake & it’s a final warning.

The message reads "Guard1 - what is fuel tank capacity on Citroen - I think 40"

LA - Whose responsibility is it to fill up the pool cars

RJ – Everyone’s, but it says in the hand over book that the general manager gave the responsibility to my supervisor & refilling should be done on days – Doing it at 11pm when we have to leave the lodge to go to the garage & leave the boiler man in charge of the security office is ridiculous – my supervisor should be doing this on days.

The top message says "Boys I am now in charge of pool vehicles"

LA – I see

LA – Did this incident reoccur at any other time?

RJ – It didn’t happen in the first place

LA – HR has stated your reply as, “Yes, I didn’t fill up, must have misread, thought it was full, realized next night & filled up”

RJ – Sorry, this is starting to get to me now – if HR had seen the book she would know what she has written here is a lie – as you can see, this was not my reply at the disciplinary!

Accusation 5. Too many hours worked 

[Supervisor: Too many hours worked, complaining regarding hours worked on site]

LA - Why did you feel like you were working to many hours? 

RJ – This is the accusation my supervisor left out – he brought this accusation up as a follow on to accusation 3 – to make me look really bad – I explained before about me shaking & him laughing..

LA – Yes, you did

LA – HR’s notes say your reply was, “Yes, thought the rota was illegal, worked to many hours, spoke to SC – OK with rota now, just at that time” Was this your reply?

RJ – It looks like my alleged replies from accusations 2 & 3 put together – what am I being done for here, can you tell me – can you understand any of this?

Accusation 6. Allowed car on site

[Supervisor: Allowed car on site]

LA - Did you ‘allow’ a car to be on site?

RJ – I did not ‘allow’ any car on site no, but cars sometimes come in behind a truck. We can’t leave our desks to chase after it because we are far to busy carrying out ours & our supervisor's duties – when we get a break in traffic through the office, I dash out & inform the relevant manager to remove the car.

LA - Has this happened to any other guard, including your supervisor?

RJ – Yes, it’s happened to everyone – my supervisor said during the disciplinary that my brother had never let a car on site. He was annoyed when he found out that our supervisor had been using his name against me – My brother said it has happened to all of us & it cannot be prevented from happening in the future. I have come in to work several times to find cars parked outside the lodge – Our supervisor doesn’t tell the people to move, he tells us to tell them to move – he can’t stand confrontation & avoids it at all costs – this includes people smoking on site!

LA - Did your supervisor speak to you about this?

RJ – No

LA - Did this incident reoccur at any other time?

RJ – Not to me, no – but it will have happened to another guard by now

LA – HR states your reply to this as, “Cannot watch all cars coming on site, difficult, very busy” Was this your reply?

RJ – It’s a very short version of my reply, I went into more detail than that – if HR had checked the transport sheets, she would see how busy we are & that chasing after cars was near impossible, so was eating & taking a break.

Accusation 7. Allowed a motorbike on site.

[Supervisor: Allowed Motorbike on site]

LA – Did you ‘allow’ a motorbike on site?

RJ – No, I didn’t & no, I wouldn’t – this did not happen

LA – HR states your reply as, “Did not see bike” is this your reply?

RJ – Yes it was – no bike exists but HR will put it down as me being incompetent because I didn’t see it when in reality it is a fabricated accusation.

Accusation 8. Weekend Workforce Register. 

[Supervisor: Weekend Workforce Register, spare sheet in handover book]

LA – What accusation is this?

RJ – Security had been filling in the Weekend Workforce Register but we were getting overloaded with work because 'the company' started taking on more temps. A memo went out to all managers that stated they must do their own sheets. 2 managers did not hand in their sheets, I only wrote it in the book because they hadn’t dropped them off when they were supposed to

LA - What did you do about it?

RJ – I filled in a spare weekend sheet for both of them. They both came in and apologised to me – they both said they had left their sheets on their desks & forgot to hand them in & thanked me for filling the forms in for them.

LA – So you had filled in sheets that were no longer your responsibility & you were now being disciplined for 2 managers mistakes?

RJ – That’s right – but because my supervisor knew I had done the sheets & could ask someone to get them, he then added, “He’s even wrote in the book that he’s ill informed for security – I’m not ill informed” 

LA - HR has put in her notes that your reply was “I didn’t know where to get week end rota from”

RJ – That is a blatant lie – I filled 2 forms in even though it was not my responsibility – the records will show that I filled 2 forms in that day & not only that but I have been filling sheets out every weekend I worked - security had always done those sheets prior. My supervisor pulled me on it because he didn’t like any of us reporting people – he can’t stand confrontation & because the gardener reads the book, people who had been booked for breaking company procedure got to find out about it

LA - Why did you say you were ‘ill-informed for security’?

RJ – Security is the checkpoint for roll call if there is a fire; we are separate from the factory so it is the safest place to be. The factory is filled with wood & it is not uncommon for wood factories to go up in flames, especially when people ignore the sites no smoking policy. I was expecting about 6 people on the temp sheet to turn up when a manager told roughly 34 to turn up – none of them reported to security which they are supposed to do – they bypassed me & went straight into the factory. When my supervisor saw what I had wrote in the book he said “It’s none of your fucking business to know who’s in the factory - 'manager A' has got his list & that’s all you need to know” 

LA – So if the factory did go on fire & 'manager A' is trapped in there with this list – how many people would you be telling the fire brigade were in the building?

RJ – I wouldn’t have been able to give them an exact figure – that’s why health & safety laws exist! To make this matter worse – at the time, the old alarm system was being replaced. The alarm would still go off but it wasn’t sending a signal to the panel so if there was a fire we would know there was a fire but we wouldn’t have known where it was. I wrote something about this being a serious risk in the book along with the ill informed for security bit & that I dreaded the fire alarm going off 

LA – What did your supervisor say about this?

RJ – He said I was talking a load of shite – it’s his typical response to anything I say

Accusation 9. Shut Gate for 20 minutes during working day.

[Supervisor: Shut gate for 20 mins during working day]

LA - Why did you shut the gate? 

RJ - I didn’t! I put the barrier down, locked the lodge door & went to the toilet – I had come in to work with diarrhea that day. He didn’t just stop at accusing me of locking the gate, he also accused me of using the directors toilet – There is a toilet in the lodge & I needed it urgently, why would I go to the directors toilet, it is a blatant lie – there was only one car waiting to go when I came out & that driver can verify that I came out of the lodge toilet and that only the barriers where down 

LA – What is the driver’s name?

RJ – **** *******

LA – Why would your supervisor say this then?

RJ – Because he couldn’t wait for me to make a real mistake which I would not have made anyway, he is a bully who enjoys abusing his power of authority. He couldn’t find anything that I had done wrong so he had to make it up & HR was allowing him to do it – he was loving it

LA - Has this incident reoccurred at any other time?

RJ – Do you mean did I go to the toilet again during a shift? Of course I did – I cannot be expected to hold it in for 13 hours. My supervisor admits on the tape recording that he lied about this accusation.

Accusation 10. Did not refill the alarm system with paper? 

[Supervisor: Final point which is the most recent & could cause company damage. The new sprinkler/alarm system was empty. The paper was empty on your shift, you did not refill – could have caused damage]

LA - Why didn’t you put more paper in?

RJ – The alarm system had only been installed a week previously; loads of tests had been carried out which meant a lot of paper was used, you would think that more than one roll would have been left which is what we all assumed – my supervisor keeps things like that in his private locker by the safe – the paper had run out on my brother's shift & he couldn’t find any paper. But it was of course, according to my supervisor, my fault

LA - Did your supervisor write any memos concerning responsibility for reordering?

RJ – My supervisor doesn’t know what a memo is – he probably didn’t realize the paper would run out so quickly & because he is in charge of office administration it was his fault that no paper had been ordered, so he had to blame someone for it & that was me.

LA - Can your supervisor use the alarm system? 

RJ – No he can’t, not even the video cctv system that is why we have to look through the tapes, my brother even made a step by step guide for our supervisor, it looks like something you would see on Play school, God help anyone who works there if there is a fire & he is responsible for them.

LA - What are the instructions for the fire panel written on?

RJ – They are written on a page in book 31 – we requested the instructions from our supervisor when he took the book home & refused to bring it back – instead of copying the instructions out into the new book, he tore the page out of the middle of book 31 & glued it onto book 32 – who knows what was on the back of that page…

LA – Is there anything else you want to add about the disciplinary?

RJ – In HR’s notes, she has quoted my supervisor as saying “First 2 months of employment ok, no problem. Issue was raised, ie, Rota, ie, too many hours worked but was explained at interview – Summary of issues raised over past few weeks”

He said he had no problems with me for the first 2 months but then I complained about the rota & shift patterns so he’s now found all of these things on me & he’s now disciplining me for them. I can prove that the disciplinary should never have happened in the first place. I am the first person who has challenged our supervisor over things that are considered illegal in terms of health & safety but he can’t stand people pointing out his mistakes – he always blames someone else for them

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