Towards the end of 2012, I took up employment but was "persuaded" to leave after just shy of 5 months (amongst other things, my line manager had threatened me with dismissal at my 6 month review and made a great play of "how difficult ii is for people to find work at the moment - particularly those who have been dismissed and with a poor reference").

My contract stated that the job would become permanent after this six month probationary period.

I have a considerable amount of evidence (both hard and anecdotal) showing, I believe, that I was bullied into resignation but - given the timeline - will an Employment Tribunal even consider considering my claim?

Thank you.

Is this the same employer as your other thread?

Why is all this just coming to light now?

Hi Emmzzi,

Yes, same employer. Hope I've not done anything wrong in starting a new thread. As the two problems are quite different, I thought it would be less confusing for anyone (especially thicko me) responding to either point raised.

If I was wrong to do so, I can happily copy this query into that other thread and delete this one.

Could a moderator please let me know? Thanks.

The reason it's all "coming to light now" is that it is only now that I have exhausted my options with the organisation's internal complaints procedures. I felt it only fair to afford them the opportunity to conduct an investigation - rather than embroiling other institutions or going straight-to-legal.

I appreciate that I may have disadvantaged myself by "showing my hand" to them but I had hoped for a positive outcome (I was sorely disappointed).

Thanks for your reply and if you could advise me on any matter (including the two-threads issue), I'd really appreciate it.

so. what hard evidence do you have of bullying?

I hope you will understand that that information is rather too sensitive to publish on a public forum and could even prove sub judice.

Suffice to say, it exists.

your bullying = my performance management

sub judice sounds more like whistle blowing than an ET

I can't give a view with no information, sorry. Best go see a solicitor.

Considering I've provided you with "no information" you seem capable of making two quite profound assumptions re performance management and whistle blowing.

Thanks for your kind interest, anyway.

Hopefully someone else may be able to advise me in regard to the initial question regarding the time frame and how it might affect an ET application (evidence notwithstanding).

Thanks again and I hope your day improves.

I'm not making any assumptions!

Without evidence *I cannot tell* if it is bullying or performance management

Without evidence *I cannot tell* if it's really whistle blowing

My point is that people cannot help if you are going to be all secret squirrel about it

We covered time limits for ETs in the last thread.

*I* hope you find someone to talk to in real life who can therefore offer proper advice.

My day is just fine thanks

Captain Fantastic, the tribunals have no jurisdiction over bullying. Merely being an unpleasant character would not be grounds for a claim. You need to show discrimination to win on harassment.

Thanks, the whole catalyst for the bullying was, indeed, of a discriminatory nature (it began immediately following my inadvertent disclosure that I did not subscribe to the manager's - somewhat extreme, in my opinion - religious beliefs). Prior to that point, things had been going quite swimmingly.

Had I been able to foretell the manager's subsequent behaviour and the stress I would be subjected to, I would probably have resigned there and then.

Unfortunately for me, I persevered as I both needed the wage and naively expected things to "settle down" again (instead, it got increasingly worse as my final review approached and the manager became ever more desperate to be rid of me).

Tricky. It depends on who disrespected whom. If say, you ridiculed his religious belief then it could be hard for you to argue religious discrimination. However, say you were a Hindi and your boss dislikes you because he or she is a Muslim (say) then there could be a case. I get the impression your boss is some kind of Christian and you are an atheist. Is that correct? Not sure an atheist could claim religious belief discrimination. That would be interesting.

I'm agnostic. I don't believe in any deity but fully respect the rights of anyone to believe in (almost) whatever they like - provided I am equally allowed to not believe.

It transpires that the manager is a member of what can only really be described as a sect (their church believes in healing through the laying on of hands and prayer, they believe they can "speak in tongues" (to talk with angels) and whip themselves into trances to do so. It is not unusual for members of the congregation to quack, bark, bray, cluck and bellow during worship. All seems pretty extreme to me!!!

I don't think I was expected to join in, but the revelation (see what I did there? ) that I am not even Christian, sent the manager into a shocked frenzy!!

Tolerance, of any sort, is not this particular manager's forte.

Unless they are an excluded group, sounds like religious discrimination to me! So long as you did not fan the flames (ahem! as it were:)) in any way, then go for it.

I understand that there is a time limit on seeking to commence an employment tribunal (3 months??).

It has taken two months for the internal investigation to be concluded.

I've sent them a Subject Access Request to help in my claim - but they have 40 days to reply (which will take me beyond the cut-off-date).

Can I ask the Employment Tribunal people to extend this period in order to accommodate my receiving of the SAR information and prepare my case, accordingly?

No, it is a hard deadline.

Y0u said you already had the evidence?

Indeed.

But there may be more.

you can bring any extra into the picture later.

get the forms in now.

Thanks. Will do.

I didn't know I could bring in further evidence and was scared of going off half-cocked.

So, thanks again.

Oh my giddy aunt, I just had a thought!!!

As my contract stated "a 26 week probationary period" and assuming (rightly or wrongly?) this means I could be dismissed without cause up to that 6 month point in time, would that not mean I could also be "constructively dismissed" with impunity, within the same period?

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/advice-and-guidance/information-for-advisers/taking-discrimination-cases/the-employment-tribunal-claims-process/

Jurisdiction

Protection is normally confined to workers or employees who are employed in Great Britain though there are a number of specific exceptions.

There is no requirement for a period of minimum service in order to qualify for the protection of the various anti-discrimination statutes and casual workers, part time workers, temporary workers and workers on fixed term contracts may all potential claim under the various Acts.

So, it would be best to state the CAUSE of my eventual resignation (Religious Intolerance) rather than the METHOD EMPLOYED (threats and other bullying tactics) to elicit that resignation, in the reason for seeking the judgement of the ET?

If that makes sense........

If you started work after April 2012, you have no unfair dismissal rights until you have been employed for 2 years. This basically means you can be dismissed with impunity at any time in those 2 years, with only a few exceptions (the main one being discrimination on the basis of gender/religion/race and so on).

If you do not manage to prove discrimination the right you do have is a right to notice pay. Employees who have worked for between a month and a year are entitled to one week's notice. This is a statutory minimum and overrides any "probationary period" written into your contract. The exception is if you are dismissed for gross misconduct in which case no notice is needed.

Thanks.

Religious Discrimination it is, then.

Now have a look at the average payout, the percentage of times that happens, and how long it takes.

I keep asking about your evidence because it has to be solid. I don't know how many times I've seen a handful of slightly snarky emails something thinks is worth £20k.

Solid = "I am letting you go because you do not follow *deity name*" - in writing with a signature.

Woolly = "You don't want Sunday off? But I thought you'd need to worship *deity name.* Ooh, get you." With one witness, who was in the tea room next door at the time, and won't put anything in wirting for you.

So. What you got? Assume anything under an SRA will have dissappeared by magic. What is in your hand today?

Just to add - this will be especially difficult because you are claiming constructive dismissal after a short period of employment. You will need to prove the discrimination was so bad that you were forced to resign. Unless you have good evidence I would let this one go (after checking you received the right holiday pay and notice pay).