Hi
Apologies if this is sensitive to the person concerned but I was reading an older forum thread by Dragoncat13 (I think) regarding an employment tribunal situation and - as I'm potentially heading down that road myself - I wanted to find out how it concluded, if at all, but can't seem to find anything relating to the original thread?
Thank you x
If you mean you have not found the original thread, try this link:
On your point about going down the Employment tribunal route, it is not for the faint hearted.
You will be expected to have gone through, or are going through the employers grievance procedures, you will be subject to various underhand tactics such as 'protected conversations' and 'settlement agreements'
And there are strict time limits - three months from the first 'offence' and then you will have to go through Early Conciliation before you can put into the Tribunal. On top of that, there are various provisional hearings before you can go ahead and if you fail to agree a 'reasonable' settlement you may end up with no job and no compensation.
The law is firmly stacked against an employee
if you fail to agree a 'reasonable' settlement you may end up with no job and no compensation.
Not only that, you are quite liable to a costs award against you. A further complication is that a settlement agreement may not be enforceable in the civil courts unless you are extremely careful regarding the terms.
As you say Trainspotter, and having been deeply down that route myself, the law is definitely biased against employees.
Thanks ever so much Trainspotter, I'll have a read!
Have you contacted Access to Work? Despite others seemingly having failed with them, they have been very helpful to me.
You do not need an official diagnosis for this, they will tend to accept what you say, especially if you can make out a good case. So list all the ways you are affected, and together with the an xiety/depression that should be enough. Remember long term stress is also a disability in itself, so have you been affected by stress/anxiety/depression for more than a year, or are you expected to suffer for more than a year. Or have you had sporadic episodes over the past going back a year or more?
Write a (polite) email to your manager/HR department, and ask if they consider you to be disabled under the Equality Act. (The equality act also does not require a formal diagnosis, just for you to be able to demonstrate that any condition you have has an adverse and substantial effect on what would be considered a normal home or working life. This is not as difficult as you may think. Also ask your employer if they don't consider you to be disabled under the act to give their reasons. As I say, be polite, it will work against you if this is a bullying email. And give the employer three weeks to respond.
You may find the following useful (it lists all sorts of disabilities)
And I have posted this before but it might make you understand the attitude Employment Tribunals take. For 'withdrawn' cases, it is often the case that the employee did not wish to go to the tribunal or a case that the employer reached a 'settlement'. Often this 'settlement' involves the employee leaving the job, having been offered a sum of money. So basically the employer pays you money to avoid complying with the law anTribunals tend not to look kindly at someone refusing what the judge would consider a reasonable offer in order to have 'a day in court'. The cases on the link require a lot of trawling through to find ones that have not been withdrawn and which have details of the judgements but with patience you will be able to build up some sort of picture.
thanks all!
Yeah it certainly looks to be a gruelling and ultimately fruitless process.. Wonder if there's ever been one found in favour of the claimant and why..
i'm going through the company grievance procedure at the moment but the original grievance and 1st appeal (apparently one can submit 2 appeals, so I've launched that) were quickly dismissed as 'no case to answer' even though I had statements corroborating my claim.
I've recently returned to work after a few months off sick due to the anxiety all this has caused me (not least because of the extreme discomfort and paranoia caused by my former line managers claiming that I was being unfavourably viewed and talked about by 'a number of other colleagues of high ranking' (though no examples or evidence of said behaviours I was alleged to have exhibited have ever been provided). I've asked for reasonable adjustments to be made (which are provided for others) but HR and management have flatly refused to even listen to my request and they claim they have already made adjustments - none of which are in relation to the situation or my illness/condition (they're also unwilling to accept I have autism/Asperger's as I've yet to receive an official diagnosis, having only recently submitted the AQ-10 to my local assessment centre).
I know i'm on borrowed time in there as it's clear they want me to feel so uncomfortable that I quit! As much as I would like to and need to due to the toll it's taking on me, full time employment - especially for someone with no particular qualifications - is pretty scarce around here.
