Hello, I feel this is gonna be a pretty long post so I hope someone will give me some help, sure enough that I am not the only one that had to go through something like this.
So, essentially, at the end of the october I have been suspended due to some pretty heavy allegations made against me by a female member of staff that was also one of my colleagues.
Everything started from a misunderstanding from her side, the misunderstanding was about me looking at her breast (which I never did) while I was trying to look at the tv behind her.
In that part of the office there is a tv with Spotify on and we have dedicated keyboard and mouse to change or queue our own music, she was aware of that the whole time but apparently she didn’t care about the fact I was in charge of that and kept on standing in front of it for minutes before leaving, this person does not like me (I didn’t know that at that time) and she definitely twisted and contorted some facts to make me look bad to HR and managing.
After this episode me and another colleague of mine did some mild comments about it between us but nothing sexual.
Ofc this guy did not get fired and he still works there no problem.
The accusations were about me doing sexual harassment, she and her colleagues-friends defined me creepy and that they did not feel comfortable around me and when I got to know that I felt so heartbroken and in pain cause during all my work experience I never had any problems like this and I always tried to be friends with everyone (lesson learned).
After being suspended for two weeks then I finally had a meeting where I could explain to the management what really happened and how twisted all the declarations were, I tried to explain in so many different sauces that I would have never done something like that, that all the people in the office that actually know me (like my colleagues that worked with me for 7 months) never felt uncomfortable around me and that they never would think of me in that way, and people that know me in the office are loads.
I apologised saying that If I said something that upset someone I didn’t mean it, that I always try to care for others and that I never had any strange or sus intentions, especially with this person since I thought she was my friend.
NOW, what happened a few days ago was essentially HR and GM firing me on the base that these people (the person that I thought she was my friend and I guess 2 more) said that they feel uncomfortable around me and that essentially they do not believe me, they really stressed about my comments.
They showed me no proof about why those people that feel uncomfortable, no chats, no videos, nothing.
After requesting to review the camera’s tape that recorded everything from the corner of the room and that would have really helped me to fight against these lies multiple times, It got denied.
The reason why they never checked it was,quoting what they told me “IT manages it and it’s really difficult to obtain a copy”.
So, long story short, I got fired based on false allegations, when I requested the cctv it got denied, I felt absolutely left alone and treated like a criminal, like the worst offender ever.
I want to say that I am in my mid 20s and always worked with loads of people all my life, from University jobs like being an ambassador to working in multiple hospitality jobs and never ever had to experience something like this and I wish nobody to be in the situation I have been in for 3 weeks.
Now, something that I would like to ask, what would you do in my case? Would you wrap up all the proof and docs that you have and go to a lawyer and file for moral damage, fired based on false accusations and so on or would you appeal? The appeal process is done within the company so It’s way more like a dead end.
Thanks for any help.