Assault by senior staff

Former Member

What if when out at a christmas party an employee was assaulted (drunken hair pulling / pushing / pulling earing out, so not GBH territory but still common assault) - which has many also employee witnesses - by a senior member of staff?

Would it fall solely to the police to deal with? Or what...? The employee only gets paid the equivilent of £2 an hour because they're officially training, and 'graduate' or so in the summer when they will be on minimum wage but with a qualification. They've been working at this for 18 months now and have had mild bullying before (you know the kind of miserable senior staff I'm talking about who have nothing better to do but make life difficult for the new ones).

However this is in a different ballpark and I've got concerns over the employee because they don't want to 'throw away' those 18 months - they have in the past looked to see if other companies in the area will carry over their aprenticeship but no joy. Leicester is a bit of a hole when it comes to employment and things like that.

It's a small business too (15 or so employees total) and the supreme manager may 'turn a blind eye' because obviously the senior member of staff is more important than a trainee... (even though they get away with giving them full time work for £2 an hour).

If only the employee makes it to the summer tho they'll be qualified and could potentially be taking in hundreds a week privately.

Former Member

It's up to that employee to decide if he wants to make a complaint. Making a complaint "shouldn't" affect his career and if it does he can take legal recourse, but we all know it won't work like that if the head honcho is friends with the offender or the offender makes the boss loads of money.

I think the police should be called, but maybe the victim should have an unofficial word with the boss first to test the water?

As for the £2 an hour, that's disgusting.

Former Member

They're going to have a word with the head man, and their parents are getting involved too. There were plenty of witnesses but the senior member of staff sent a drunk text later apologising, so knows she was in the wrong.

She's double her age, too. Hopefully it'll be sorted so the employee can get to summer and get qualifications to earn a living that's what I'm trying to keep them focused on.

Former Member

Depending on how serious I'd expect a formal written apology from the senior member of staff and for the boss to give the senior member of staff at least a written warning (assuming it wasn't either totally unprovoked or six of one and half a dozen of the other argument).

That said unless it was serious I wouldn't call in the police. Drunken fights happen all the time at Christmas do's and generally they're best dealt with in-house, unless someone is seriously injured.

I'd also expect everyone else to be gossiping about it for the rest of the year. I love Xmas parties

Former Member

It's a really tough one.

In theory making a complaint will not affect your friend's work, but in reality employees with less than two years' service have little protection and trainees have even less. Any complaint that is made is likely to have repercussions, especially if the senior member of staff is more important to the company than your friend.

I wouldn't get the police involved as it's not something that serious and the police are likely to put it down to two people being drunk and it being six and two 3s anyway.

I'd be tempted to say that your friend should have an informal word with her boss to test the water, but beyond that to keep her head down. And when her training is up, absolutely nut the stupid old bat.