Page 116 of The Photograph

His face lights up. “Oh yes! Yes, I did. It’s not the finished thing or anything, but it was close …”

“That’s terrific news. Did you comment on it, Desmond?” the lawyer asks.

Oh shiittt. “Yes, I gave him some detailed input. Is that bad?”

“Not at all. It means Alex got an outside expert opinion from someone in the industry,” the lawyer says.

“Does that mean anything I said …?” I start.

“No. It’s good for demonstrating Alex’s document wasn’t produced with the aim of defrauding anyone, and he made best efforts to ensure that what was in it was true to the utmost of his ability. They would have to show malicious intent to have a case against you here, Alex, and it sounds to me like you’re on pretty solid ground. We need to write to them and demonstrate this and clarify a few things. I suspect they’ll back off fairly quickly. Did they tell you what your grounds for dismissal were?”

“No. They just kept asking me questions about the document. Where I’d got the information from, that sort of thing.”

“And did you answer them?”

“Yes, absolutely. They talked about confidentiality a lot.” Alex clears his throat and closes his eyes. “I take a lot of photographs. There’s some of myself and my boyfriend on my phone that would probably be viewed as inappropriate.”

Oh fuck.

“Was your phone provided by your work?” the lawyer says.

“No, it’s mine. But obviously I deal with work messages on it and …”

“It depends on the contract you signed when you joined. Employers don’t generally have the right to look at personal data on your phone, but if you can find your employment contract, that would be helpful.”

“Doesn’t sound like they’ve followed any kind of procedure here,” I hear another voice say on the other end of the line.

“Hmm, yes. That’s good.”

“It’s good they didn’t follow a procedure?” Alex says.

“No matter how grave the charge is, Alex, they still have to act in accordance with the law, and implement a specific process, especially in cases of gross misconduct. There’s robust laws around employee rights and dismissal. Of course, if it was a question of you just being laid off, then it would be a different situation, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. They're accusing you. Is your previous record with them satisfactory?”

“I would have said so, but …”

“Have any problems been raised with you before by the company?”

“No.”

“Okay, that’s good.”

“I think this is quite simple,” the other voice murmurs.

“And did they say anything about next steps?”

“Just that I’d receive a letter from their lawyers. That was pretty scary.”

“Threatening behavior?” the second voice says.

“Probably not, but we can work that angle,” the lawyer says. “The first thing we need to do Alex is find out the grounds for dismissal. The potential lack of a proper process here might give you a case against them, but we’ll write to them and ask for clarification on some of the main points and see where that gets us in the first instance. As I said, I suspect they will back off fairly quickly, given what you’ve told us and once they know you have a lawyer on your side of the table. I’d like to try and get you compensation of some sort. I think you’ve got good grounds for PILON and severance pay as well, and we might be able to get something else from them in light of how they’ve treated you so far.”

“PILON?”

“Ah, sorry. Payment in lieu of notice.”

The other voice comes back. “I think you’ve got very little to worry about here.”

45

---