Letter 4

Des Byrth
Wagamama
93 North Rd
Brighton BN1 1YE


16 September 2005



Dear Des

Thanks for your letter of September 14 which I received by special delivery this morning.. I thought my letter of September 7 which included the facsimile I sent to you on Monday 12th made it clear the reasons I could not attend the meeting you arranged and had you been able to read this or any of the other faxes I have sent you there might be less misunderstanding than there appears to be now.

I don’t see how you can claim that this time was specifically set aside for me as you have repeated to me so many times that you routinely spend Monday in the office and hold surgeries every day from 10 to 11.

There is no way I can “switch off” my voicemail as it is a permanent service on the network that will always take calls if I do not answer or if my phone is busy. I also have a record of incoming calls that were not answered and your number does not appear there so it seems Charlie witnessed you calling the wrong number. My email address has been printed on every letter I have sent you, as well as on my application. I don’t see the need to have recorded delivery of our correspondence, but I am surprised that it took your staff nearly a week to deliver my letter.

The reason I had to hand it to this person was that you have changed the door entry code and I have not been notified of the new code. I did not see any managers and did not see the need to report to one as my only reason for coming in was to hand deliver the letter which was lost after being sent as a fax.

I already raised my issues with your line manager but he passed this back to you. I can do so again if you wish but I assume he will do the same thing. I don’t see why it was necessary to carry out a survey of the staff’s appreciation of non-wagamama food, but in any case I think it is very unfortunate that you concluded that this was favoured in place of what the customers want.

Of course you did not ask me if I was in good enough health to return to work - I have not reported any illness since the finger incident. You said have I been seeing a doctor to which my puzzled reply was yes, I had to get help with my finger. It was at this point you explained the reason you asked the question was because you had heard “Chinese whispers” about the fact that I was seeing a doctor. You refused to elaborate any further so I assume that these whispers were of a derogatory nature, referring either to my mental health about some disease which I was not declaring. If Charlie Thong thinks he witnessed something different it would seem that someone more independent is needed to witness on my behalf.

I don’t know how you can state that you do not ask staff to come in to meetings in their own time after our last meeting which was not only in my time but I was kept waiting over 30 minutes. It was the same the last 2 times Charlie called me in for a meeting, but I am not sure if there is any point mentioning this as he will no doubt deny it.

I don’t understand why you have only paid 16 hours since I was absent for at least 5 normal working days between 22/4 and 6/5. I was not due to work on Saturday 23 April.

Regarding the bank holiday pay, I don’t know why you have only paid 6 hours as my payslip indicates I did an 8 hour shift on that day.

I don’t know what calendar you are using as there is no Monday 15th September in mine. I will be seeing my doctor again on Tuesday 20th September and I will give you my decision within a day or two of that meeting.

best wishes





Tom