Suspended and Very Worried

butterfly84

Im looking for some advice for my boyfriend.He works as a driver and yesterday had an accident in his company vehicle.He got out of the vehicle thinking the handbrake was on but it rolled back into some double glass doors at the back entrance of a building which then smashed.

After this he called his supervisor to inform him.When he got back to the job he was called into the office he was told he is suspended and would receive a letter in the post next week pending a disiplinery.

Now he is worried sick not knowing what will happen and is convinced he will lose his job.Does anyone know what the chance are of this happening?Or is it more likely he would have to be given official verbal and written warning first? - this is what I would have thought.
Ive seen his contract which says "your employment may be terminated by you or by us on giving to eachother notice in writing as set out in the Employment Handbook.Payment of Salary may be made in lieu of notice.You should however note that notice will not be given in circumstances which justify summary dismissal."

He has not found the handbook yet so dont really understand the conditions of the above or what justifies summary dimissal or what that even is.

We only moved into a rented apartment together a few months back and are worried about what might happen now. : (

Nody

He can be fired if the conclusion of the hearing meeting is that his action were gross misconduct with out having to given further warnings about. Before you ask, there is no clear definition what gross misconduct is and it will be a question of company policy etc.

mikemac1

How long has he been working there?

butterfly84

since November 2010 but only got made permanent from 31st Dec 2011

mikemac1

Is he a member of a union, is there a shop steward in the place?

He should realy get a copy of that handbook so he can read it and be prepared before he goes to the meeting.

If he wasn't given a copy before when he started then ask them to leave a copy in reception so he take it home and read it over the next few days

Tom Dunne

It's seems very heavy-handed that they would send him home on suspension so quickly. Have there been any other issues with his employer, or is this a "first offense?"

Irish_Elect_Eng

Some companies do follow the "suspend during investigation approach" to discipline, I have seen this before in the transport industry. I was once told that this was in case alcohol or drug abuse was involved and that they were not taking the risk that a second incident could occur during the investigation.

This is a serious issue as there was the potential for someone to get killed if the truck had struck a passerby while rolling:eek:. But there was no malicious intent in his actions, it was just an accident or incompetence. I he has bee n good worker to date I would not expect him too get fired.

I would expect that he will get a "Final Written Warning", a last chance letter from the company. But it all depends on the company and his relationship with his boss and how the company is doing.

Note: I would see a significant risk to his job if the company is not doing well as he may be fired to trim the work-force as no redundancy will be paid if he is fired.:(

nibtrix

Irish_Elect_Eng wrote: »

Note: I would see a significant risk to his job if the company is not doing well as he may be fired to trim the work-force as no redundancy will be paid if he is fired.:(

He only got made permanent a month ago so hopefully for the op this won't be an issue.

RATM

I'd agree with others that he needs to get specialist advice. In theory he can be fired for gross misconduct for not putting the handbrake on- it is after all an essential safety feature.

A lot depends here on the employers perspective. Some employers will see it as an unfortunate accident and tell him he must take a lesson out of this and for it to never happen again. Others might see him as a liability to the company and take the opportunity to cut ties.

I'd say to put things on a good footing he should offer to pay the costs of installing the new double doors so it doesn't cost his company an insurance claim and increased premiums. In the meeting he should be apologetic. He should also have representation with him- that can be a shop steward or a fellow colleague.

butterfly84

Thanks for all the replies and advice people have given so far.

He is a little more optimistic today and hoping for a warning and second chance.Fingers crossed.

Just to answer a few questions...
He is not part of any union.
This is a first offence.
It is a massive well known global company - they are extremely busy day to day so I dont think they would be looking for an excuse to get rid of someone.They had previously said it takes a lot of time and money to train people into the job.
He was already planning to offer to pay the cost of any damages through deductions from his wages.

I agree as does he,that it would be a stupid mistake not to ensure the handbrake was on..but he remembers putting it on and said so in his incident report.He is going to ask can it be tested for faults just in case.Otherwise he is happy to take responsibility for the accident and learn from his mistake.


Just a bit of background information.That day he was delivering to different areas to the routes hes been trained on and was very stressed as had some packages without proper addresses.He was then phoned by the company and told he had to collect something on the opposite side of the city in 20mins.He told them he couldnt as he still had 3 to do in the area he was in.They said well theres no one else so you have to.So he said ok but he would have to leave the other 3.They said they would get another driver to come and relieve him of those.The other driver turned up after 15mins as he had his own work to do and refuses to take 2 of the packages.So then he had to meet another driver in a different location which added more time.By the time he arrived to collect the package he was late and couldnt find the entrance.He was very stressed and under pressure that day which he had told his supervisor.He just told him to calm down.He said he was panicking as the drivers get in trouble if they are not finished the work by a certain time and it was dark by this stage and he was finding it increasingly difficult to find places.
Does it matter what factors contributed to this occuring?Will this be taken into consideration at any meeting?
He just feels that even though he made a silly mistake,it was partly down to him being very stressed that day and no one cared until he had an accident and it was too late.

Irish_Elect_Eng

butterfly84 wrote: »

Does it matter what factors contributed to this occuring?Will this be taken into consideration at any meeting?

Yes, in a situation like this part of the investigation should be to determine why caused a normally reliable employee to make a mistake, to avoid the problem being repeated. In addition any responsible company should be looking for "lessons learned" from any incident like this one.

For example:

Perhaps he should suggest during the interview,

"I believe that the root cause of the incident was stress and that the stress was caused by my unfamiliarity with the new route and customer locations.This was further complicated by several changes in my instructions that date adding to the pressure. I was trying to maintain the level of performance that you normally expect from me on my old route. Perhaps we could prevent this sort of incident from happening in future, if when a driver is assigned a new route,we were given more time on the run, perhaps a ride along with a driver familiar with the route, or other training aid, to ensure that we have time to learn the route and drive it safely"