I work in healthcare in the UK and my employers HR department have dragged their feet for years on a grievance I took out against a co-worker
Backstory:
This coworker didn't like a 60 y/o woman we work with and wanted her fired, she bullied this 60 y/o whenever they were alone and one day the 60 y/o snapped and called the coworker a bitch. Coworker loved this and took her to HR and dragged me into as a witness as I was in the room when it happened. I was interviewed and at the end of it HR basically ruled that nothing would be done except those two are not allowed to work together/in the same office. Once the coworker found this out she went mental at me – she kicked open the office door, screaming in my face threatening me with her husband before she went off on “stress” – she did this openly and I have a few witnesses. Then two months later while she was still on “sick leave” she emailed HR directly a photo she took of me without my consent (from 6 months before) holding a vape in the office – she told HR that I regularly vape cannabis in the workplace; this led to a formal investigation and me defending myself as I could have lost my job. Eventually I and everyone who was present in the room at the time including this coworker was handed a 6 month warning as we all including the coworker vaped at that time.
I then opened a counter grievance as this woman clearly did this to get back at me and having witnesses who saw her aforementioned lashing out at me as well as the malicious complaint when she was meant to be on sick leave showing that she is coming after me due to her not getting her way with the 60 y/o woman – who she had hoped would be fired.
I raised this with management and HR and they said the case was in progress I then became ill and went on sick leave – during this time I presumed the case had continued but returning to work 7 months later I was informed that my case had been closed by senior management in my department because she didn't think it was fair for it to continue while I was ill. I then had to fight for 4 months to get the case reopened (HR asked me to sit in a room with the coworker in a mediated meeting to get an apology and “return to work by turning a new page”). I refused the mediation as I had after all witnesses and her email being clear indication of targeted harassment.
Eventually they conceded and my case was reopened.
It has been nearly two years since I reopened my case and nothing has been done. Management and HR have left since I reopened it and every few months there is a new person assigned to take on the case. Most recently I was contacted about it from a HR, the guy seemed like he wanted it to be resolved and yet nothing has come of it; he did tell me however that he thinks it has been too long of time has passed and they wouldn't expect the witnesses to remember an incident from nearly 3 years ago. I have been emailing him since November and he hasn't replied since December when he told me he couldn't update me as he was waiting to hear from my manager.
I chased this again recently and got a generic email from the HR mailbox that the guy heading my case was on leave and would get back to me on my return.
That email was sent a month ago and still no update and I'm really at odds on what to do about this situation, this coworker is a notorious bully and when she returned to work a woman literally cried because she was bullied by her and didn't want to be bullied again. The new management were shocked to see this but shrugged it off and said “She can't be that bad as only one person (me) has made a formal complaint against her” – as everyone else is too scared to say anything given that my employer hasn't disciplined this woman for her actions ever as she uses mental health as her reasoning. I was told off the record that this coworker has been offered mental health support through Occupational Health but when approached denies she needs it. My employer is very VERY lenient with staff and it seems nearly impossible to be fired (there is a woman who is consistently 3 months behind on work and is rude to patients), this coworker who came after me has since bullied others and even lied about management throwing documents at her to try and get herself fired as she is planning to use her mental health to try and sue my employer if they fire her.
As it stands although we are part of the same department I don't work directly with this coworker and only have the occasional email or have to be in a Teams meeting with her but I don't know what I should do about this grievance. I've even tried reaching out to the CEO but this has been shot down.
I am with a union but as I wasn't with them at the time of this incident they refuse to help me.
I'm honestly not sure what to do and the staff support network have also ignored my emails – I don't know if I should just let her win and drop the case since my workplace clearly won't do anything.
TLDR:
Coworker was unhappy about a grievance outcome against another colleague and after dragging me into the investigation took it out on me as she didn't get her way. She kicked open the office door, screamed in my face and threatened me with her husband before emailing HR that I take drugs in the office for which I was formally investigated (this was false). I launched a grievance against this woman but management closed it after I went on sick leave for some months, it took 4 months to relaunch and its now been almost 2 years since I reopened the case (and close to 3 years since I opened the initial one) and HR have not done a single thing and as far as I can tell they just are hoping I close the case.