97. Michelle (A Disciplinary Letter)

From the desk of Andy Faul,
DPD Imports.




Dear Michelle,

Following on from our discussion yesterday, Tuesday 12th August, 2008, please accept this as my written notice to suspend the current grievance that I have raised.

Whilst I have officially terminated my grievance, I would also like it to be noted that I feel the current issues raised should serve as a valid point for future disciplinary hearings, whereby the punishment is first discussed with the General Manager of the floor (if not in appearance at the disciplinary), and agreed before the final outcome is both verbally and written to the individual.

I would like, if I may, to draw your attention to document Code of Practice - Disciplinary and grievance procedures, which can be found online. There are specific sections in this documentation, which outlines the following issues, which I feel need to be rebalanced for the employees;

Drawing up disciplinary rules and procedures
Page 18, 55.;
Rules should be specific, clear and recorded in writing. They also
need to be readily available to employees, for instance on a
noticeboard or, in larger organisations, in a staff handbook or on the
intranet. Management should do all they can to ensure that every
employee knows and understands the rules, including those
employees whose first language is not English or who have trouble
reading. This is often best done as part of an induction process.

Whilst I understand that there is a handbook available, I have yet to view this - when I requested the information, I was given two sheets of A4 paper, which told me nothing more than my contract had already specified. Had I managed to view this handbook, I may well have seen the information which states that further action can be taken after a disciplinary procedure. Unfortunately, this is the reasoning for me taking the action that I did.


Secondly, I would like to draw the following:

Page 19, 60.; Good disciplinary procedures should:
provide employees with the right to be accompanied.

Whilst I fully understand the reasoning for you not recognising Mr Steve Key as an official member of the Union, and in supporting Customer Service Agents, I believe he (or any other chosen member of the Union, who were to be appointed as representative), would indeed know where employees were due to stand on legal matters.
In this respect, may I please point out that the Union has the workers' (and, in my case, payees) interests at heart. Whilst I indeed work for the company of DPD UK, I also maintain the freedom, as well as integrity, to choose, so long as they are in the same company, my own representation.
With this in reason, I must admit that I still have full faith in Mr Key at this present moment, obviously so much as to the point that I let him take over the procedings, despite the fact that I could well have represented myself in hearings.
I personally believe that every person has the right to be accompanied by a representative, so as they can establish their positioning and reasoning for larger scale problems.


Thirdly, please examine:

Page 20, 61.;
It is important to ensure that everyone in an organisation understands
the disciplinary procedures including the statutory requirements. In
small firms this is best done by making sure all employees have
access to a copy of the procedures, for instance on a noticeboard,
and by taking a few moments to run through the procedures with the
employee. In large organisations formal training for those who use
and operate the procedures may be appropriate.

Once again, whilst I understood the information at my disposal, I could not gain access to a sufficient copy of a handbook, so I would like to request that a formal handbook is made available to all CEM's, so that agents may be able to view this when required.


Finally:

Further action
Page 20, 62.;
It is sensible to keep rules and procedures under review to make sure
they are always relevant and effective. New or additional rules should
only be introduced after reasonable notice has been given to all
employees and any employee representatives have been consulted.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read through this information.

I would be very greatful if you could please offer some form of feedback in regards to this, as I believe some valid points have been raised. If you so much as require any further information or help in regards to this letter, I would very much like to hear from yourself.

Finally, I would just like to state that I have written the end portion of this letter in regards to other people that do not have the experience, patience or knowledge to look up information such as this, and I simply want to attempt to help others in this respect, in areas that I feel I had some difficulties in.

Kindest regards,
Andy Faul.