Please can somebody advise? Friend was employed by Company A from November 2010 till November 2012. Employment contract said company had right to take back any overpaid wages. Company A has now written to friend saying that they want overpaid wages back - they aren't saying which hours were overpaid merely giving a lump sum amount to be in full settlement. They have said that if friend does not pay up soon they will go to the small claims court - and bankrupt friend if necessary. We know that Company A is of the opinion that friend claimed meal breaks and travelling time when he shouldn't have done. Apparently, they think, he was entitled to claim this ONLY for the first few weeks that he worked there but he was not told this and claimed all the time he was there. His timesheets were seen by the MD (small company) and approved by him before being passed to outside payroll bureau. The timesheets quite clearly show that meal breaks and travel time were being claimed, it is not just buried in the figures but separately shown. As the timesheets do not give a total number of hours - or allow you to show the overtime rate (time and a half or double time) the MD would have had no choice but to read what was on the timesheet. Friend's previous job and current job are in the same industry as Company A and they both paid meal breaks and travel time. Assuming that Company A does go to the Small Claims Court and they ask for a lump sum rather than an amount linked to specific hours that they identify, will the Court allow this? If the Court requires them to identify specific hours then how far can they go back? All the way to November 2010? Lastly, what happens to the amount they ask for as it has already been subjected to PAYE and NI and presumably one cannot get this back from HMRC. Does the Net amount get worked out? Obviously, all this is a bit of a new experience for us. If anybody notices anything that we have missed I would appreciate it if you assume its because I don't understand what goes on. Thanks

Thanks for all your advice. Judge didn't hear the statements, read them for himself and asked questions on what interested him. Not quite what was expected. Need less to say lots of stuff was ignored on both sides. Question now is (bet you thought you had heard the last of me!) If tribunal says my partner is to pay costs of other party, and he really doesn't have the cash If he declares himself bankrupt, that's how serious this all is. Will the costs awarded against him be written off by the bankruptcy or will he still have to pay, albeit at peanuts per month? Thanks PS One day, maybe, we can post all the sad tale. As the administrator for the other side said, this is all getting rather nasty.

Its been a long road but the day is nearly here. One last (I hope!) question for the forum, we would have been lost without your help and appreciate everybody's input. We are putting questions together for the Claimant to ask the Respondent about things he has put in his statement. What we don't know is how to word them. Should the question be, for example; The Respondent says that the Claimant hit a colleague, Mr X, and called him all manner of rude names. Please could you explain when this happened as the two employees have never met. or You say that I hit a colleague, Mr X, and called him all manner of rude names. Please could you explain when this happened as I have never met Mr X. Just in case there is any doubt, violence and name calling will not be issues in the Tribunal. I was just trying to give an example! Fingers crossed for next week

Sorry but I am back for advice yet again - solicitor's fees would be well beyond the reach of my partner. CMD was held. Judge said that the Respondent should go first. We have just had a long long letter from the solicitor for the Respondent. He says that 1. It would be unusual for them to go first and they have yet to decide their position .He is suggesting partner goes first. Does he get a choice or does he have to do what he is told? 2. He says content in witness statements is irrelevant and they should be rewritten. In fact he suggests some evidence is so irrelevant that we should not bother to call them to the Tribunal as witnesses. I suspect as the witnesses are all current employees of the Respondent's customer he would rather not upset his customer. Should we just ignore him? Or should we rethink them? 3. He also suggests that partner's witness statement contains irrelevant information and that it should be rewritten. I think he is wrong....observations please? 4. He again advises us to take legal advice. We have used the CAB but a solicitor is out of reach financially (they charge £250 + VAT an hour round here). This is at least the third time he has written this advice and I have been ignoring it. Personally I would like to tell him where to go! 5. We have asked for certain evidence to be included in the bundle - timesheets in particular. He has just sent us the index for the bundle (the bundle will come in the post) and it clearly excludes these timesheets. Do we go back to him and remind him yet again - or just bring four copies of all to the Tribunal? 6. Lastly, will the Tribunal write to us with instructions for the day? Do we need to prepare a list of questions or anything? The original timetable was ignored by the Respondent (and they were ticked off at the CMD). It said if both parties were represented to prepare a list of questions but made no mention of what to do if you were unrepresented which they knew we were at the time and still are. Respondent's solicitor made an offer of nothing after the CMD - walk away with no money and no costs which we refused ( he did say in the letter he did not have Respondent's agreement to any offer!). Our counter offer has been ignored. I notice that Tribunals from the end of July won't be free for the Claimant - how is that fair?? It won't affect us but will impact on lots of low earners. Is there anybody fighting this that we can offer support to? Thanks

Hi Please can somebody advise? My partner is the Claimant and we have just received the bundle from the Respondent. It includes an e mail statement from a person who claims to know my partner. The e mail goes like this; From William Williams To The Respondent CC John Johnson Dear Respondent I am writing to you to say lots of nasty words about the Claimant PP John Johnson My questions are; Will a court accept a statement that is NOT written or sent by the person who is supposedly making the allegations? Is a statement likely to be accepted by a court without the person making it or the allegations in it attending the court? We were led to believe that statements were only admissable if the person making it stood up in court and read it out loud. Just to clear any doubts the e mail has come from William William's work e mail address John Johnson is probably William's boss All names are made up.

Hi Becky Thanks for your response - and I am confused also (not helped by a bottle of wine!) The quote that I included came from the letter from the court. I don't think they have asked for statements from third party witnesses twice, but I am not sure. I can't get my head round whether they are saying that the third party statements go in the bundle and at the point when my partner writes his witness statement (10 weeks) that we only do his and the respondent's statements not any extras but I wanted to be sure I had not misunderstood. My partner's ex boss has discovered evidence AFTER submitting the ET3 and sent it to us last week. They say they intend to add it to the bundle. Ignoring the fact that it is twaddle I guess I want to know if they can include it? In all honesty, if the evidence is true (its rubbish in my books) then its a matter for an ordinary court but it would be for a third party to take him not his ex boss if that makes sense. They have also asked the tribunal to lengthen the time for the hearing. Their letter was sent a while ago, we had the answer from the court which was 'no'. But they have gone back to the court claiming their letter went AWOL which it didn't, because we have an answer to it from the court. Personally, I think, that because we are not using a solicitor they are trying to scare us into submission. They started with breach of contract allegation and we said 'I don't think so'. And now they are saying theft is involved - again, they have no evidence. I can only assume they think they won't win at the tribunal because their deductions were unlawful, they have breached the data protection act (we have been to the ICO and await a reply,) and more importantly THEY breached the contract first. I hate tribunals.........but the CAB have been wonderful and will get a donation out of anything my partner gets back via the tribunal.........its just that getting appointments can be hard.

Thank you for the response. I am finding the stress of the situation isn't helping my understanding (I am not thick really!) So, we have statements from witnesses and they get put into the bundle which should be done at 8 weeks by the respondent. Then the respondent and my partner (claimant) write their statements at 10 weeks. Nobody else gets to write another statement at 10 weeks, just the two of us? One more question please. The respondent's solicitor has sent us some new information in an attempt to discredit my partner. He says he is guilty of theft, not from his employer but a third party. Having been to the police station no theft has been reported. It is not anything that he's ever mentioned before and was not in the disciplinary hearings, the appeal, the ET1, ET3 or the remedy. He's pretty much saying either back down and tell ACAS that you are pulling out or we will bring this to the tribunal. (He is also threatening civil action for this if we don't back down). My partner is of the opinion that the court won't allow totally new evidence unrelated to anything that has already been mentioned. I am concerned that the court WILL allow it and that we should quickly get our responses together and sent to the respondent's solicitor in time to go in the bundle. Which of us is correct please? I would leave it until next week when partner is going to see a solicitor but he can't get an appointment before the stuff would need to be back at the respondent's solicitor. Thanks again

Hi Honeybee Yes it does relate to the previous thread........the process all seems to take so looong. I tried to add it to the previous thread and it wouldn't let me. I tried to reply on this thread last night and it looked like it had worked but the message wasn't there this morning. Any clarification on my problem that you can offer would be really appreciated. Thanks

My partner is going to an employment tribunal. Please can somebody clarify the timetable for me? It says at 10 weeks > Does this mean that we can include new witness statements that were NOT sent to be included at the file that the respondent was meant to prepare at eight weeks? Or does it mean that we use the statements that the respondent already knows about and has put in the file? If it means that we prepare new statements, then is this what the witness stands up and reads at the tribunal? So it should be written in their words rather that lawyer-speak? Also, am I right in thinking that the file for the tribunal can only include bits relating to what was written in the ET1, ET3 and Grounds of Resistance and that the Respondent can't introduce new issues that have never been mentioned not even in disciplinarys or anywhere else? Many thanks

Thanks for your reply, however, I am not sure how to answer the question. We sent ET1 Not sure what an ET2 is Et3 was completed by the employers solicitor. The respondent. It was the official form, filled in by hand. And as mentioned before, where the case number box is has not been completed. We received a copy of the form both from the solicitor and the tribunal. Do we have grounds to get it rejected?

We received the ET3 back from the tribunal people. I know I am nit-picking but does it matter that the first page we received, the one that starts with section 1, has no case number filled in at the top. The box is left empty. The case number does appear later where they have typed up a few seperate sheets saying "Grounds of Resistance" I thought that if the forms were not filled in that they were bounced? Can anybody advise me?

Thank you for your reply - especially the warning about ACAS. I had assumed that you had to accept what they recommended. My partner will now be very careful what he says (assuming they get involved). I have managed to pull together the numbers for the remedy. I can't see the sense of doing them net though as they are "earnings" and therefore subject to tax, so I am doing two columns labelled net and gross. Makes me feel better if nothing else! Where I am struggling now is how to write the remedy. Do I just have a list of items and the amounts relating to them and a total at the bottom? I know to label all pages with the Case Number and their names. There are two seperate issues. One is breach of contract (employer failed to make any pension contributions although it is in contract). The other is constructive dismissal because the boss only offered him his job back with different terms (which meant a pay cut). These terms have not been imposed on former workmates although letter of reinstatement said they were to be across the board. Is there an example of how to write remedies somewhere? Or could somebody help me? Do I write a paragraph saying that we are seeking payment of pension contributions, unpaid overtime hours and unpaid holiday plus the basic award, compensatory award and future loss. Then put the numbers afterwards? Feeling quite a bit confused and it has to be submitted tomorrow! Thanks

I am back for more advice.... Partner was sacked - then offered job back after successful appeal. New terms were imposed which were totally unacceptable, so he didn't return to work there. As former employer owed lots of overtime, holiday and pension (per contract) we have submitted the ET1. The next step is the Remedy. ACAS called partner and said this was to be done net - I had worked out everything gross before that. So, my question is, how do I work out the net amount? Do I take the gross (which is easier to work out) and then assume that tax is charged at 20% and NI at 12%. So for every £100 gross in my numbers I show £68 (100-20-12) on the remedy? Does this mean that the employer takes responsibility for paying the PAYE and NI contributions? I am confused and any help would be gratefully received. Also, I always assumed that ACAS were there to make sure it was all done fairly but the CAB said it is not the case. That they want to clear as many cases as possible before going to court and they might recomend a very low figure just to get it sorted. Is it correct that we don't have to accept ACAS's deal and that we still have the choice of going to court?

Employer has said he will send a cheque - but it has already past his 10 days as per the LBA from partner. Cheque is for Dec pay....but partner had found new job and worked some of Dec. Employer knows he has a job but is unlikely to know when he started (although small chance he does). I have told partner NOT to bank cheque if it says "in full and final settlement" or similar. He wants to wait till cheque is cashed before submitting ET1 because he is concerned that if employer is notified of tribunal and discovers his start date he won't bother to send the cheque. Partner believes that cheque will not be sent out until month end and will then take three days to arrive (all his post takes forever for some unknown reason). Obviously partner would rather have money in pocket (which is understandable) but I would rather not delay with the ET1. Views please.

Hi Back again like a bad penny. Partner sacked. Appealed - and won. Offered job back but declined for a variety of reasons. Sent LBA detailing outstanding pay owed. Received letter back saying former employer would pay back only part of what was owed and no more. Two questions. 1. Do we just fill out the ET1 and get on with it or do we have to go back to him and argue the case for more money? 2. Employer is going to send a cheque for the money he has agreed to pay. Amount will be GROSS with no tax and NI deducted. Is this correct? He says partner has to sort out paying tax and NI to taxman? Thanks once again