Friday, February 27, 2009

{Husband's Appeal Update}

Some of you have been asking how the appeal went for my husband, so I thought I would update you here. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers - I really appreciate people thinking about us.

On Wednesday husband went for the final appeal about his sacking from work. The outcome was the same - they upheld the decision to sack him. They have admitted there is no evidence against him - but they have “reasonable suspicion” based on rumours.

The charge against him is based on the fact that they have sacked his colleague on suspicion of theft. They think my husband knew about the thieving and have actually claimed that he took cash bribes to keep quiet about it!!! They don’t actually have any evidence on this other chap thieving either - again it’s just rumours - they have even admitted that some of the stuff has gone missing when the chap wasn’t around.... *sigh*

One piece of so called “evidence” was that someone had seen my husband and this “thief” in the work van heading towards the area of the “thiefs” then girlfriends house. The story goes that the guy stole things and took them to his girlfriends house. Apparently they had a statement from an “anonymous person” saying that he clearly saw my husband and this guy in the van. This guy couldn’t even say what day he saw the van or a time - as it was over a year ago. This “evidence” was bought into the appeal process at the 2nd appeal after a manager had already backed up my husbands version of events which would have cleared both the accused.

So, with the rumours, and this “evidence” they have concluded that it’s all true and have sacked both people involved.

On Thursday morning my husband got an email from someone that works at the company, saying that he had been talking to the person that had made the van statement. This person said that he had been “encouraged” to say that it was my husband and this other guy in the van, when in fact he had clearly said that he didn’t know who was driving or who was in the van. He said it could have been the mechanic on a test drive, or someone picking someone up for some reason or anything - he couldn’t even say if it was one person or two. He refused to sign the statement as it was untrue. This person has said that he would be willing to tell a tribunal this if necessary. At the same time my husband got this email, someone else phoned the “thief” saying the same thing.

We knew all along it was a stitch up - and I think this just proves that them having to falsify evidence means that there is no evidence against my husband or this other guy. Isn’t it so unfair that firms are allowed to get away with dealing with people like this to save redundancy money?

We are now playing the waiting game to see if the guy that made the statement really will back us up or if he is pressured into taking back his claim. We are also waiting for the union solicitors to get back to see if there is enough for a tribunal. If they say there isn’t - then we plan on taking it to an outside solicitor to see what they think as the whole situation is a complete joke and unfair.

1 comment:

  1. Gosh, that's extremely unfair and must be putting you all under so much strain at the mo. Taking it further seems a good idea to me - don't let them get away with it.

    Big hugs - keep us posted.