Advice needed - Pay witheld / constructive dismissal?

ckeogh

My better half has been contracted to a financial customer support contact center. Her pay is subject to approval by Line manager & then the contracting company provides her wages.

The issue leading up to her pay being held began with a very difficult call with customer who was suffering mentally, however to clarify, they were not abusive toward my OH. She asked for help & was left out to dry by senior staff, who refused to take over and didn’t even assist her cope with the call. She was distraught for some time after the call and had to do a lot of follow up due to the nature of the issue and the customers statements also required reporting to local authorities. A more senior line manager intervened when realizing the time spent on the wrap up & advised it should not be logged in this time keeping tool.

She submitted her hours worked online as usual & her line manager approved all her staff except hers. When she wasn’t paid she queried it & the contractor could see she had done all as she should, in fact there was no issue at all, however without approval they will not pay out. She asked her line manager to see if there was a reason for this, and was told in other words, because of the call mentioned above, she didn’t have time to do it (she had 4+ days to approve since the call)

After finding out the issue with the pay. She made 2 further requests to approve her pay, the line manager eventually did.

I gave advice to meet HR & outline this as the record would show she had approved others and did not approve hers, but her reason would be struck out as no more than hearsay.

Just before her HR meeting, the LM brought her in & told her she wouldn’t be able to keep her on as her stats are out of line. The key stats were impacted by this call. Unknown to the LM her contract was extended. She also has been rewarded & commended by others about her performance.

She went to HR to discuss the pay issue & brought the meeting & the stats up, they discounted the call mentioned and with it removed her stats were all exceeding her targets.

There has been follow up from HR and LM & the LM today took her aside & said she will move her in to late / Early shifts which means she will change team, she currently works days & a senior manager put her on days early on to reward her hard work she had put in. There is other teams short staffed on days but shift impacts the work/life balance as we have kids - this is known to the LM informally.

She then called her in separate meeting and removed her access to tools & systems used to adhere and reach her targets & told her she has to find a superior to do it for her in the building, which could mean a queue and her target is to carry out all work within 75 seconds - the LM blocked access and did not compensate the targets to accommodate for these steps to be taken.

She also was pulled into a 3rd meeting on a mistake she made on day 1 (while under supervision of tenured peers) and given a written warning - it was literally one letter typo, however it impacted a record.

I have never seen her so upset, she worked extremely hard to get this job, passed a strenuous training program, and has been provided written documents that the intent is to put her on full contract directly once she keeps up the hard work (not from LM)

All of this came from the LM who has gone above and beyond to ensure she will not get the contract she rightfully deserves.

Really hoping someone can shed light as to what she should do? She enjoys her job and doesn’t want to go back to HR over the above but knows she cannot avoid missing her stats before contract renewal.

Mrs OBumble

How long has she been there?

whampiri

ckeogh wrote: »

My better half has been contracted to a financial customer support contact center. Her pay is subject to approval by Line manager & then the contracting company provides her wages.

The issue leading up to her pay being held began with a very difficult call with customer who was suffering mentally, however to clarify, they were not abusive toward my OH. She asked for help & was left out to dry by senior staff, who refused to take over and didn’t even assist her cope with the call. She was distraught for some time after the call and had to do a lot of follow up due to the nature of the issue and the customers statements also required reporting to local authorities. A more senior line manager intervened when realizing the time spent on the wrap up & advised it should not be logged in this time keeping tool.

She submitted her hours worked online as usual & her line manager approved all her staff except hers. When she wasn’t paid she queried it & the contractor could see she had done all as she should, in fact there was no issue at all, however without approval they will not pay out. She asked her line manager to see if there was a reason for this, and was told in other words, because of the call mentioned above, she didn’t have time to do it (she had 4+ days to approve since the call)

After finding out the issue with the pay. She made 2 further requests to approve her pay, the line manager eventually did.

I gave advice to meet HR & outline this as the record would show she had approved others and did not approve hers, but her reason would be struck out as no more than hearsay.

Just before her HR meeting, the LM brought her in & told her she wouldn’t be able to keep her on as her stats are out of line. The key stats were impacted by this call. Unknown to the LM her contract was extended. She also has been rewarded & commended by others about her performance.

She went to HR to discuss the pay issue & brought the meeting & the stats up, they discounted the call mentioned and with it removed her stats were all exceeding her targets.

There has been follow up from HR and LM & the LM today took her aside & said she will move her in to late / Early shifts which means she will change team, she currently works days & a senior manager put her on days early on to reward her hard work she had put in. There is other teams short staffed on days but shift impacts the work/life balance as we have kids - this is known to the LM informally.

She then called her in separate meeting and removed her access to tools & systems used to adhere and reach her targets & told her she has to find a superior to do it for her in the building, which could mean a queue and her target is to carry out all work within 75 seconds - the LM blocked access and did not compensate the targets to accommodate for these steps to be taken.

She also was pulled into a 3rd meeting on a mistake she made on day 1 (while under supervision of tenured peers) and given a written warning - it was literally one letter typo, however it impacted a record.

I have never seen her so upset, she worked extremely hard to get this job, passed a strenuous training program, and has been provided written documents that the intent is to put her on full contract directly once she keeps up the hard work (not from LM)

All of this came from the LM who has gone above and beyond to ensure she will not get the contract she rightfully deserves.

Really hoping someone can shed light as to what she should do? She enjoys her job and doesn’t want to go back to HR over the above but knows she cannot avoid missing her stats before contract renewal.

All sounds like a constructive dismissal case waiting to happen and from. The above, she'd win it hands down. The LM sounds like they're on a power Trip. Your OH is being treated differently to other staff, having shifts changed, having tools removed and being reprimanded over errors made a long time ago.

I'd recommend they go to HR and make an official complaint of bullying at this stage and see if anything changes.

OMM 0000

This is extremely messy.

What is this line manager doing? It's very hard to understand the logic here.

Could she have an informal chat with the senior manager who rates her, and clearly explain what's going on and how to proceed?

ckeogh

OMM 0000 wrote: »

This is extremely messy.

What is this line manager doing? It's very hard to understand the logic here.

Could she have an informal chat with the senior manager who rates her, and clearly explain what's going on and how to proceed?

This is what she has said she would do today, so will know the outcome later

ckeogh

ckeogh wrote: »

This is what she has said she would do today, so will know the outcome later

Spoke to her on break there & senior said he couldn’t get involved as it is gone above him. Going back to HR

Dav010

whampiri wrote: »

All sounds like a constructive dismissal case waiting to happen and from. The above, she'd win it hands down.

Not necessarily, a lot will depend on length of service. If it’s less then a year, far less protection under the Unfair Dismissals Act.

As asked by another poster, how long is your partner working there?

TheChizler

Should the contracting company not be involved seeing as they're legally her employer?