From grievance 2

A small excerpt

8^th June 2011

I spoke to Richard Watts regarding integrity issues. Richard confirmed that I had raised issues with him in the past. Richard confirmed that I had raised issues with him because my Managers were failing to deal with the situation. Richard confirmed that he received letters and e-mails from me. Richard stated that he thought that things had been sorted out “a long time ago”.

Maybe this is the letter that Scott Fowler accuses me of stealing? If so, I’m sure that I will be able to find the original word document on my old laptop. If I can find the old file, then it's highly unlikely that I would have needed to steal the letter from my personnel file. It’s also very unlikely that my letter to Richard @ Manchester would have found its way back to my file in Dewsbury, but that’s supposition.

I was summoned to speak to Richard on 10^th June 2011 regarding my allegedly inappropriate comments. I quoted from Reggie Perrin about 4 men waiting outside a door. A rather accurate scenario of Steve O’Donnell, Richard Watts, Mike Pope & a man from Redline all waiting like naughty schoolboys outside the canteen for the DfT to turn up. It was a light hearted comment to break the tension. Richard thought it necessary to reprimand me for not taking the DfT’s issues seriously. This was despite the fact that I had raised quite a few issues that had been overlooked by Steve, Richard and the 7 auditors that had been in the building during the week. As I pointed out to Richard, It isn’t the employees on the coalface that are responsible for the position that UPS are in with the DfT. It is, to quote Steve, at a corporate level. How does this compare with Richard’s comments on Wednesday about me stealing a mug? I took this as the joke that it was meant to be. But Richard said that this wasn’t inappropriate because it was done in a jokey banter. How can Richard decide when or where humour is appropriate. If he’d known the content of the notes and appendices from my grievance he would have known that it was a far more inappropriate and very insensitive comment than my ‘Reggie Perrin’. Following on from this conversation we again discussed what had happened in the past at Dewsbury. With Steve O’Donnell present, he again confirmed our conversation from Wednesday, that I had raised issues and that I had done so because my Managers at the time had failed to deal with the situation. Richard again stated that he thought that the issues had been dealt with as a grievance. I said that I wasn’t aware that any grievance had been held and that I had certainly not received any feedback, whatever had taken place. If Richard is certain that this has taken place then there must be a record of it somewhere. If there is a record of it taking place then I must assume that the Managers at the time were interviewed and their comments noted. So, if they can’t remember anything that I said to them, wouldn’t they remember responding to a grievance about their behaviour?

Unfortunately when Howard Stone was in the building on Thursday I was sent out on road, so I was unable to ask similar questions to him.

This should now mean that Geoff Platt & Mo Akhtar’s comments are invalid and inaccurate, because of Richard’s statement.

Karl and Scott verify my integrity in QPR.

Craig Scott has confirmed that Karl McGuinness’s information was inaccurate.

There are e-mails that show I reported to Howard Stone.

There are e-mails that show I reported to Nigel Marsh, and Nigel’s admits that there was a meeting arranged, so we must have been discussing something.

There are e-mails that show I reported to Duncan Coates

Richard Watts confirms that I reported to him.

I have discredited the professionalism of Rob Burrows and therefore his integrity

I have in my “Lisa Bradshaw performance” document discredited the honesty and therefore integrity of Steve O’Donnell.

I have listed approx. 20 employees with vast amounts of service that say they trust me.

I have listed approx 20 employees who say that they have no reason to question my integrity.

Only one of these employees has not given an answer to whether they would trust me more than the Managers that we have at Dewsbury, and that is because she has had little interaction with the Managers over the years. That still leaves over 20 employees trusting me more than Managers.

I have discredited Chris Marchant as his Centre put a Centre board on road.

I supplied 475 examples of Centreboards on road when I was told that the information that I had given in my grievance was too old.

I don’t think I actually have anything to Scott Fowler, so maybe you have me on that one. I can’t prove anything. Although if I logged on to one of the PC’s I used to use upstairs I’m sure that I could find something. (Nigel Marsh must have discussed my e-mail with Scott Fowler as Scott was planned to be at the meeting that never took place)

Is there anything else that I need to do to discredit the contents of the notes and appendices that I was given at the start of my grievance hearing?

................

I find it difficult to believe that in all the years that I have been finding integrity issues, that no-one else seems to have done anything about them. All these reports that show evidence of centre boards are issued every day. The ACIP report which has been high profile for the last couple of months has had hundreds (No exaggeration) of Centreboards in only the last couple of months. Has no-one spotted these? There must be hundreds of people ignoring these reports on a daily basis. What is the point of producing these reports if no-one is going to act on them?

..................

Is there anything in my original grievance or in this grievance response that I haven’t been able to prove? Is there anything anywhere that even suggests, let alone proves, that I have invented a story over the last 10 years?

.......................................

My point is that Managers ignored my original claims. In doing so I have followed up on what I perceived to be a lack of integrity within the Company. I stand by my original claim. There is a serious integrity issue within UPS. The answers in the notes and appendices only go to enhance my claim, even prove my claim. I have over 20 employees, and it’s 100% of the employees that I asked, who trust me and have no question about my integrity. I have 2 Managers that score me 5 out of 5 on integrity on my QPR. I don’t think any other Manager has marked me down on integrity. If I find any more QPR results I will add them.

UPS’s answer was to ignore integrity issues over the years.

UPS’s answer to my grievance was to deny everything.

Is this the answer to Jim Barbers question about trust? Is this why Managers aren’t trusted by their employees?

.......................................

What have I done over the last 10 years? I have acted in good faith, following the Company line, yet I have been made to feel like the guilty party. I have, as instructed reported integrity issues. I was ignored, I went up a level to Division Managers and again was ignored. I have regularly reported to the BEQ, again no action appears to have been taken. Maybe I didn’t report enough instances or report frequently enough, but I trusted my Managers & Division managers to sort these issues out. As they should have done. It is my Managers & Division Managers who have failed to live up to the Company expectations.

Employees may not feel comfortable in doing the right thing if they feel management will not support them. How true. Would it have been right to bury my head in the sand? No.

In following the Company policies I have had to work in a hostile environment. As a member of the management team, I should know that retaliation or retribution of any kind, against any employee, who in good faith asks any questions, raises any concerns, or who provides information in connection with an investigation, is prohibited and is grounds for discipline. Why has this been allowed for so many years? Our policy states, our commitment to integrity includes a responsibility to foster an environment that allows our people to report violations without the fear of retaliation or retribution.

......................................

What is the Company’s current response? Denial and therefore further ignorance. Slanderous & libellous comments generating further depression. Victimisation for speaking out and bullying.

 

Still awaiting a response to this grievance which was raised approx. 6 months ago.

Probably because this contradicts the notes and appendices that were given to me at the start of the hearing for grievance 1. Even if there is only one Manager that confirms what I have reported it proves the lack of integrity........but there's more than that.