An Advance member was recently invited to a Disciplinary hearing for Procedural Non Compliance.  This is the only occasion in their 5 year career with the Bank that his has happened and no other warnings or plans are currently in place for the member.

On reviewing the call, the Advance Rep identified that the member had fully covered all mandatory areas, but had failed to follow up with an action required.

It was also identified that the member had correctly fully actioned a number of identical calls on the same day without fault.

The Advance Rep and member have had a  number of meetings (fact finds, attendance, disciplinary) over the past few months called by the manager, all of which had not been upheld by any of the independent Chairs, and no further action had been taken.

On the day of the PNC incident, the member had again been in contact with the Rep several times, very stressed about yet another example of poor support from the manager relating to an long term UMC and the manager attempting to step outside the recommendations of Occupational Health and insisting that the member attend the office when appropriate equipment was not available – in order for her to be present for a 15 minute on site event.

At the disciplinary hearing, the Rep, raised concerns about the ‘micro management’ and the stress the member was experiencing.  Also that the manager had failed to follow procedures on a number of occasions –

1. The manager had failed to complete a mandatory Work Stress Assessment when the member had on more than  one occasion made her aware she was suffering Work Related Stress (caused by the manager).
2. That the manager had failed to provide a letter after a previous fact find, advising the member that no further action was to be taken – again causing the member unnecessary stress.
3. When the manager made the member aware that a formal meeting was to be held, on each occasion, she sent the invite only a  few minutes before the member was due to finish for the day, and would insist that the member would make contact with the Advance Rep immediately to check their availability (The Advance Office was already closed on each occasion).  This has meant the member would be held back at least 30 minutes after their finish time.

Points 1 & 2 were factual and could not be denied, but the manager refuted point 3.  The Rep however, was able to provide the Chair with evidence of emails, texts and a call logs from the days in question (with the members permission) which confirmed the statement.

In summary the Advance Represent quoted from the Santander Disciplinary Policy  (page 2)

Conduct versus Capability.

 Our approach includes informal support where appropriate to resolve any problems.

 This includes understanding if a concern is about your capability or conduct. Disciplinary action will only be taken if we reasonably believe you’ve deliberately not reached our expected standards of conduct or behaviour.

 If the problem is because of a gap in understanding, training, or a genuine mistake, and capability our Performance Management Policy is followed.

 The Advance Rep summarised that the member had been put under unnecessary stress for some time, but in particular on the day of the PNC fail by her line manager and this was a genuine mistake – a ‘one off’ incident in an exemplary 5 year career.

She had never had an previous issues until the current manager took over the team less than a year ago.

She had demonstrated her intention to carry out the follow up admin actions by talking the customer through the full process on the call – why then would she not carry out the action ?

The Chair took time to consider and liase with the People and Culture consultant and both agreed that NO FURTHER ACTION would be taken.

Case not upheld !  The member is delighted with the outcome.

Less than an hour after the hearing ended the member received a letter from the manager confirming the outcome of the previous fact find was NO FURTHER ACTION !

The Advance Rep is now in discussions with the BM to address her concerns around the management style.