i need some help and advise with a constructive dismissal claim, so is posting a thread here the right way to get some advice?

Hello and welcome to CAG.

The way to get advice is to tell your story to the guys on the employment forum here. I'll move your thread to that forum and leave a short term redirect here. If you post again on this thread, it will show up in the right place in a mo.

My best, HB

I worked for the same company for 18 1/2 years but during the last 2 years i had 3 line managers, the last being female and nothing short of a witch. As far as i am concerned she was nothing short of being a bully. She would say my work was wrong, she would blame me for mistakes made by others, she started to monitor my emails, she threatened to sack me twice, she accused me of wasting company time, sending personal emails in company time and told me the company could not trust me. When i complained to a director i was told nothing could be done. when i previously made a grievance report over other incidents nothing was done - the company never even acknowledged the grievance. I have had my contractual sick pay stopped when the stress of work got too much. In November work was taken off me because i was incompetent but that work has been given to another member of staff that i taught and they are doing the work the way i taught them so it cannot be wrong!! After i was accused of sending private emails and again being threatened with disciplinary action i chose to quit!!

I have taken the steps to go for constructive dismissal and now have a court date but i am now a little confused.

In a response from the tribunal "case management orders" a time scale has been laid down ans the first part refers to myself and it states:-

The claimant shall set out in writing what remedy the tribunal is being asked to award. The claimant shall send a copy to the respondent, The claimant shall include any evidence and documentation supporting what is claimed and how it is calculated. The claimant shall also include information about what steps the claimant has taken to reduce any loss [including any earnings or benefits received from new employment].

what the hell does that mean!!! I have already stated in my claim that had i been made redundant i would have been entitled to 24 weeks redundancy pay [due to age and time] plus 12 weeks severance pay thus i wanted 36 weeks pay as compensation.

my question therefore is how am i supposed to respond to this.

You need to draft a schedule of loss indicating exactly what you're claiming, with a breakdown.

It could include a basic award (equivalent to statutory redundancy), loss of statutory rights, notice pay and lost earnings under the compensatory award, plus any other loss of benefits you want to claim. You will later need to show evidence that you've mitigated your loss by searching for alternative employment.

You need to set out exactly what you are claiming, including the relevant amounts. I attach a simple Schedule of Loss that you might find useful. Not everything in there will be relevant to you.

An award for constructive unfair dismissal would include a basic award calculated according to a statutory formula, plus a compensatory award designed to compensate you for the economic losses you have suffered due to the dismissal (mainly loss of wages). You are obliged to minimise that loss by searching for a new job. The basic idea is that you can only claim lost wages until you find a new job, and if you don't take proper steps to search for one your award will be reduced accordingly.

Why are you claiming a redundancy payment? This doesn't sound like a redundancy situation.

having been there for over 18 years i am the longest serving member of staff the company has, they are deliberately targeting people to get them out to avoid redundancy pay as the company are in trouble financially their aim is to avoid paying out redundancy pay. other people have been moved around for example the senior works foreman has in effect been demoted to goods inwards clerk. the same thing has happened with the production manager. one of these has now been told his job is no longer viable and is being made redundant. i feel they have bullied me out so as to avoid paying out redundancy pay. The last time i was unemployed it took 4 years to get a job and that was in the last big recession late 80's today i am well into my 50's so it will be considerably harder to find work.

It is difficult, as you resigned. Did you stipulate constructive dismissal as a reason?

I think you are undervaluing your claim. Regardless of the redundancy situation, forcing someone out of their job through bullying is unfair dismissal. The damages you would get for unfair dismissal are more generous than statutory redundancy pay. For unfair dismissal you would get three things:

- Notice pay (12 weeks).

- A 'basic award' which is calculated in an identical way to statutory redundancy pay, so 24 weeks assuming your calculations are correct.

- A compensatory award to compensate you for any losses you have suffered. The main loss will be loss of wages. If you find it difficult to find another job you are potentially looking at 6 to 12 months of lost wages here.

By treating this as a pure redundancy you would miss out on the compensatory award. The compensatory award is given in addition to the basic award, they do not overlap. Personally I would complete the template I posted on the basis of an unfair dismissal claim including notice pay, basic award and compensatory award.

Once your Schedule of loss has been sent to the Respondent you could think about offering to settle your claim, either through ACAS or by writing a separate letter to the Respondent headed 'without prejudice'. You might start negotiations by offering to settle for the 36 weeks you started with. It is sensible to make a settlement offer because constructive dismissal claims can be quite difficult to prove.

The Respondent could perhaps make a technical argument that you have now missed the time limit for bringing an unfair dismissal claim, and so you should be restricted to claiming for the 36 weeks you originally asked for. I think this argument would be unlikely to convince the Tribunal because, although your ET1 does not ask for the full whack, the nature of your claim (constructive dismissal) is very clear.

your reduction of loss = signing on amount.

I think you need to be more specific on bullying behaviour. What I read from the above is someone who wanted you to adhere to a company policy on uze of email (probably) and managed your work, finding errors and asking you to correct them.

You need specific examples of things said and done, with the words used and actions taken. A diary of events would be perfect. do you have that?

The fact that she was female is irrelevant, it makes you sound sexist. I'd be removing that from any submission to the ET.

I am saying constructive dismissal as there is a complete breakdown of trust between both parties.Yes i have a diary of events that indicated what was said. i have witness's that are not prepared to stand up as they fear for their own jobs - which i have in email form as evidence. i taught the others in my office to do the job they are doing. my emails are being monitored but not my colleague who does the very same job. I am blamed for mistakes but my colleague is not. I was blamed for another manager seeking help with his job and even he says that is complete crap!! I was publicly chastised for sending an internal email containing a joke that my supervisor consider to be offensive but when someone else did the same thing and i complained there was no action taken. Work was taken off me as i was allegedly doing it wrong but the person i taught has confirmed she is doing it exactly the way i taught her - she has not been given any other instructions. I was off sick for 4 weeks and my contractual sick pay was stopped but when my colleague was off for 6 weeks his contractual sick pay continued. My line manager has openly told me that she does not trust me. She has previously threatened to sack me not once but twice. the final straw came when i was accused of sending personal emails, making personal purchases in company time and having had 9 complaints made against me which the persons allegedly making the complaints vigorously deny!! that to me is bullying!! that is why i quit and that is why i am pursuing constructive dismissal

Silly question but did you send personal emails? did you make personal purchases in company time?

Thank you for the explanation. I am not sure whether you need any more advice on this as I think your question about the Schedule of Loss has been answered and template provided? Let us know if you need any further help with this.

with respect to personal emails - absolutely not, whilst they may have contained personal details as i get on with all my suppliers they were business based - besides i can prove the company are aware of others sending emails out in company time that are not business related and they are not being victimised.

as for personal purchases - technically yes i did - but the company authorise me to make private purchases for other members of staff in company time - the only difference is that i paid for mine in cash whilst the others put it through the company books to avoid vat and i have documentative proof of this fact