Examples: Action taken in respect of personnel matters

These are examples of complaints which were not within jurisdiction:

• An employee of one of the council’s schools claimed that she had been harassed and bullied by the Head Teacher of the school where she worked.
• A complainant had planned to retire from the council’s employment but had not been able to take his pension early, although more senior officers had been permitted to do so.
• A council officer had been given a parking ticket and appealed on the grounds that she had sold the car privately shortly before the ticket was issued. The council eventually agreed that the penalty charge should not have been enforced against her. Meanwhile she said that her line manager, who had no duties related to parking control, harassed her to pay the penalty. The Ombudsman was able to look at the question of how her representations about the penalty charge notice was dealt with in the normal way. But the actions of the line manager lay outside his jurisdiction.
• A council care worker was assaulted by a service user, and complained that she received inadequate support from her employer.

But watch:

• The complainant was homeless following domestic violence. She says that a housing officer was rude and abusive and did not deal properly or sensitively with her homelessness application. She wants the officer sacked as she feels she is not suited to such a role. The complaint against the council for maladministration (rude and abusive treatment of the complainant and failure to consider homelessness application properly) would be IN, but it would be for the council to consider what disciplinary action to take, if any.
  
   

Date Updated: 15/07/09