From my employer telling me about a meeting I am to have this Monday. "It is alleged, that on February 2nd, you did not comply with Subway health and safety rules and CCTV shows that you did not ..." (I've decided not to publish on the internet exactly what goes on) Within Subway, this falls under gross misconduct, which is an automatic dismissal. Now, I'm not upset that I am being fired from Subway and I am not saying I am being wrongly accused. What I am saying is that I am one of many; if they trawl through the CCTV footage for the past year in which we have been open, they will find that, eventually, employees will be doing the exact same thing I am being fired for. I am allowed to take another member of staff to this meeting and am exercising this liberty by bringing along a member of staff who will testify to being given just a verbal warning for this very same behaviour. From what I have read about unfair dismissal: Which means I will have to get the same treatment. I have been an employee of this company for 1 year and have been at this store since the beginning. I have always had a very good relationship with the 2 directors that look over our store until recently. They have finally found something that they can use to get rid of me and are throwing the book at me and I am hoping, that with the quote above, to throw the book back at them. We have five members of stuff running a store that is open 7 days a week, they are trying to sack me and one other (who are both in a supervisory role) and the other three members are either at college or have children to look after. I would see it being very difficult for them to sack all of us (as we are all committing the same offence) and I can't see that they would go back on their original action of giving a verbal warning to others who have been caught conducting said behaviour. How much of a leg to stand on do I have? In my head it's very 50/50 but I can't predict their response to me showing them evidence of this unfair treatment. Any advice? Things I've overlooked? Helpful hints? Sorry for going on so long, just wanted to make sure I had all the relevant info.
I would say take the other employee, and take a copy of the law stating that it would be an unfair dismissal. The only bad thing I can think that would come about this is that they then fire the employee you have there with you as well. (although at that point you could make a case that they would have to fire everyone and they wont do that.)
Two questions... Does this behaviour happen at all Subways? And would I still want to use Subway if it does?
So you didn't (or did) do something that Subway wants to immediately fire you for without a warning? And your argument will be that other employees didn't (or did) do the same thing and only got a warning? You could use the argument that your punishment should be no more severe than that of your coworkers, but be careful that you don't try to portray yourself as a victim. I don't think I want to know what you did or didn't do - it would make me avoid fast food places from now on, wouldn't it.
I thought you were holding a conversation with yourself for the first three posts... Also, we need to know what you all were doing!
What I did, or didn't do, isn't severe at all and is hardly dangerous, it's not disgusting and doesn't put others' lives at risk, I still eat the food with no problem. It's one of those rules made up by someone in a suit with no grasp on reality. But like I said, it would be stupid for me to post it over the internet. Agreed that the worst thing they could do is fire the coworker, but I'm not sure whether they can go back on a decision made months ago in terms of the discipline. But, there's no way they can fire everyone ... Like I said, difficult to predict. If they do, whoops, sorry to her!
Oh whatever, it's probably picking his nose or wiping his hands on his pottocks or something silly like that. Clearly they are using this as an excuse to get rid of you, i can hardly imagine it's the real and only reason. maybe they want to cut costs, maybe one of them thinks you are doing his wife, maybe he just doesn't like gingers (wild guess here), the point is these guys themselves will not budge just because you are right (which i believe you are). They are doing this because of two factors. 1) they want to. 2) they can. You can change their behaviour by changing their belief in either point. I doubt you can make them want to keep you on in a single conversation. So, since you seem to have the law on your side, you should make it absolutely clear to them that they will not get away with it. You have to show them your conviction that you are within your rights to demand same treatment as your collegue, AND demonstrate to them that you are willing to take it to court should it come to that. In holland there's offices that provide free legal advice to citizens, i'm sure there's an equivalent service in Britain. Contact them, be absolutely honest and complete, and if they also believe you are within your rights, get written copy of their legal advice and assessment. Show THAT to your bosses and they know you wont be dicking around. One thing that might also help is to offer them what they have not given you: complete transparency. Tell them that you do not agree with the decision and intend to fight it. Surprise attacking people you will still need later has been tried lots of times by lots of people, and it only works on people who are very weak. Go into this meeting believing your chances are 50/50, they will be 0. Go into the meeting fully prepared, guns blazing with a generous sprinkling of overkill, and you might get a 50/50 out of it. In today's legal system, the asshats will win all too often. One BIG waring though: this is legal advice dispensed on an internetforum. I have only your short post as a description of a situation that's built up over a year, and i make wild assumptions based on somewhat relevant extrapolations of the bazilion times i've been fired from similar jobs. In short: do not believe me, i'm talking out of my
As long as they follow their dismissal procedure properly when dealing with you then you'll have very little ground to stand on if you want to try and push them on it. What they may or may not have done with another employee in similar circumstances will have very little impact on how they have to deal with you. The bit you quoted from DirectGov would only really apply if it were the case that where other employees had been discovered to be doin what ever it is you did they didn't have to go through the disciplinary procedure and didn't recieve any sort of punishment.
All I can imagine is that he refuses to post what this misdemeanour's is, then it will harm subway in some way. So in a way, it already has. However, you want advice as to where you stand etc.. and not knowing what this thing is you've been sacked for makes it difficult, as after all, YOU say it's nothing to get worked up about, but maybe people would like to make up their own minds. If it was something like picking your nose while on duty and making sandwiches, then I'd fire your ass myself. See? If it was not using the correct hand wash station or some stupid H&S rule that makes no sense, then I'd back you all the way. Just tell us what it is FFS!.. Your boss at Subway will not be reading this forum LOL
Go in with a repentant attitude. Say you realize your mistake and it will never happen again. However, you feel instant dismissal is harsh, then present your case for that. Your attitude is key. If they've got it in for you, you're probably toast anyway, but being defiant is almost a guarantee of getting fired. Good luck.
Here is a take on this from a purely professional point of view.. What other people may or maynot have done is not the topic at the moment, its what YOU have done, what ever it is, it fails under gross misconduct, and the last time I checked gross misconduct means some thing pretty serious. For me that would be like copying a customers data, giving away user details or other wise doing some thing untoward against my employeer. We all have complants in life, in fact im sure you could complain for half a day but at the end of the day they have you for gross misconduct on CCTV. Personally I would go this route. 1- Highlight that every employee has done what you do at one stage or another. 2- Highlight your loyality so far and that the point of the meeting is nit picking (if it is) 3- Agree to resign as of today with one months wage. 4- That you are allowed to resign with a good reference from them. 5- That if they wish to continue and fire you, you will grass their ras publicly. I guess you need to discover when you sit down wtf is going on, are they truly on a holly of hollys moral health and safety mission from god or are they after you. What happens if you start talking about other people and they just write down more and that those people are in next mondays meeting, which by the book they would be. It would help to know what you did or what the meeting is about but I agree dont put it down but if its to do with the food then there should not be too much le-room? Any one that works in subway should be able to get another job, you deal with joe public all day and complete a good service, when ever im in town me and work mate ALWAYS go to subway, the tuesday meetball sub of the day is great! If they fxx with you in the meeting, you can explain you are going to go to the papers and tell on the fact all employees are doing x-y-z and that subway are a health risk, they wont like that, you could even draft a letter to the papers and bring it to the meeting but they would have to check back with higher management some thing like that but it could force there hand to let you go favorably. In the meeting keep it formal dont make any personal attacks or insults. And remember its just a job at Subways, its not the end of the world, you should be thinking about moving on any way? Post back asap with roughly what it was you did, roughly its hard to consider the situation you make it sound like some thing stupid. Knowing what you know would you recommend fokes eat at Subs?
Cheers for the advice guys, I've decided to jump before being pushed. Last shift tomorrow and not going to the meeting. All this means is that I get to leave and don't have gross misconduct on my CV, plus my manager has agreed to give me a reference when needed. If I go to the meeting, I can only see the outcome being 50/50 and even if it does work in my favour, all that means is I will get my hours cut down and they will be watching my every move like a hawk. If it wasn't to go in my favour, then everyone else would be getting sacked and that's just a terrible shame. My Father says I am just letting them **** on me and seems really pissed off at me and I do feel as if I am slightly backing down but I feel, for me and my future, this would be the best way to go. My employers are very childish and really pathetic but we have a couple of plans to get back at them so I'm not lying down completely. You cannot reason with these guys however, they do not act professional but obviously have more knowledge of the business world than me. If you really want to know what it is that I did so terribly wrong... Spoiler Temperature checks must be taken of each food product being served and must be done 3 times a day. When you have over 24 different products, 2 fridges and a freezer that you also have to check then you can see that this could well take some time to do; time best spent doing something else. I made up one of these temperature checks for the day which, everyone has come to realise, is a much simpler task. Yes, it is breaching health and safety, but we haven't killed anyone yet so... make your own conclusion.
It could so easily have been anyone, as you say you all did it, you were unfortunate to be caught on camera. I think it's lucky no-one's come back on that, is there at least one check done a day?
