Hi All,
I am wondering if you could provide some comments on the following situation.
Two weeks ago, my friend X, who works in a manufacturing plant, was joking with his friend Y. As a joke he said "maybe you could cut that cable". They both laughed. Then Y called everybody's attention, took some scissors and made a performance trying to cut the cable and pretending having an electric shock.
Everybody laughed, including their supervisor. Suddenly Y decided to cut the cable.
The manager was called and Health and Safety representative as it turned out that it was a live cable connected to some operating machine. Y was lucky that nothing happened.
Y said it was X who told him to cut the cable. He claimed to have taken it seriously.
They were both suspended on the grounds of health and safety breach. The manager said it was a very serious misconduct as it put X's life in danger (and the person's operating on the machine life) and there would be disciplinary action taken.
X is worried as he did not mean to provoke any action. He just made a joke. X cannot believe that Y cut the cable and does not understand why.
They both have the disciplinary hearing on Friday.
X is worried that he might be dismissed as the company might say it was a gross misconduct.
X believes he shouldn't be punished as hard as Y.
What are your opinions on that? Do you think that in this case the company will decide to dismiss him? Can his joke be considered as gross misconduct?
Thanks
I am wondering if you could provide some comments on the following situation.
Two weeks ago, my friend X, who works in a manufacturing plant, was joking with his friend Y. As a joke he said "maybe you could cut that cable". They both laughed. Then Y called everybody's attention, took some scissors and made a performance trying to cut the cable and pretending having an electric shock.
Everybody laughed, including their supervisor. Suddenly Y decided to cut the cable.
The manager was called and Health and Safety representative as it turned out that it was a live cable connected to some operating machine. Y was lucky that nothing happened.
Y said it was X who told him to cut the cable. He claimed to have taken it seriously.
They were both suspended on the grounds of health and safety breach. The manager said it was a very serious misconduct as it put X's life in danger (and the person's operating on the machine life) and there would be disciplinary action taken.
X is worried as he did not mean to provoke any action. He just made a joke. X cannot believe that Y cut the cable and does not understand why.
They both have the disciplinary hearing on Friday.
X is worried that he might be dismissed as the company might say it was a gross misconduct.
X believes he shouldn't be punished as hard as Y.
What are your opinions on that? Do you think that in this case the company will decide to dismiss him? Can his joke be considered as gross misconduct?
Thanks