thank you for your reply, much appreciated

Hi I would like to know thoughts and opinions on where I stand with the recent letter I have received from my employer this week with regard to absence. Sadly during August 2013 I spent 4 days in hospital whilst 200 miles away on business with a further 4 days at home recovering from a kidney infection - (CT scan reveals all is ok last Sunday) I am not usually a sicknote but i would strongly believe that going through a breakup, selling my house and fighting to have decent contact time with my daughter would be a good indication as to why my health has suffered during 2013. Thanks in advance. Dear Barty, Following our recent meeting, i would like to formally state our concerns over the increasing levels of absence seen over the last few calendar quarters. Please see below your absence record which shows the percentage of days you were absent in relation to the percentage of days available per quarter. Sickness % 01/13 to 03/13 = 0.00 Sickness % 04/13 to 06/13 = 4.84 Sickness % 07/13 to 09/13 = 12.31 Sickness % 10/13 to 12/13 = 3.17 In the meeting I explained how the company uses the measure of over 3% days absent against available days over two consecutive quarters as a trigger for investigating further reasons for absence. Then any further individual quarters where absence is over 3% after this if no improvement is seen. Therefore, in our meeting it was concluded your absence levels were above what is acceptable and an improvement was required. I must also inform you that any further instances where cause for concern is noted due to your absence levels being excess of that outlined above could result in disciplinary action. As discussed, I hope things will improve and there will be no further need to discuss this matter again. Yours Xyz

Thank you for your help. I will pass this on to my mum which will reassure her that the sky is not going to fall in!

My younger sister who lived with my mum four years ago has started receiving debt collection letters. - Both my mum and myself have lost touch with my sister and really want to sort out the continuing letters from Nationwide requesting money on a credit card and overdraft. Can anyone confirm if my mums address is likely to become blacklisted? My mum an OAP is really worried about bailiffs turning up at the front door and making demands for money when my sister has disappeared leaving my poor mum to pick up the pieces. Any advice or guidance would be really helpful. Mum has decided to talk to her local branch of Nationwide today to discuss the next course of action. Many thanks

sounds a very silly one but I decided to wear just trousers shirt and tie instead of suit to work with which my boss telephoned me to say this was not appropriate and that this was not the dress code of the company in a very nasty manner. Just wondered where I stand on this - I am only 8 months into the job and will be wearing a suit in future! - i just thought it was a little harsh considering it was a warm day and the occcasion was nothing out of the ordinary! ( i work for a food wholesaler!) Many thanks

thanks honeybee i have had a read and the 4th day is correct! nightmare

I have taken two consecutive days sick this month and have had one sick pay docked from my wages. - I have not received SSP and because it was at the wages cut off point i will be docked one days wage next month. My question to anyone in the know is should I receive SSP? and can i request to take the sick days as holiday. i must add that I have only been with the company two months - it is written into my contract that sickness pay will be paid after 3 months!! Merry Christmas from my company!!

Hi my insurers are Esure and back on the 16th November 2009 a lorry switched lanes and clipped the passenger side of my car and drove off damaging my car with £1100 damage. I finally have a court date set for 26th October 2010. I have had my car repaired at £450 excess and now the court require a further £75. I want to know if I should continue down the small claims court route or should I just give up at this stage and call it a day. I have captured a poor quality image of the lorry driving away and managed to record its registration number. I feel compelled to go to court as I was 100% in the right. I am worried that the judge will go down the 50/50 route and i will get nothing. any help with this would be much appreciated. Many thanks

I need to double check as it is being sorted today by my solicitor. Thank you!

Quick update; I have been offered £950 then £1500 then £1750 from my previous employers to drop the case through ACAS. I have had one last offer of £2300 which I have accepted as the maximum I could recieve in tribunal is £2650.00. Your thoughts and opinions are always welcomed. I am glad that I have found a new job and can now put this to bed. I really hope that they don't do anything like this in the future with other employees. - Perhaps having a court date and going through the correct channels has given them a small warning not to try the same procedure again!

Date now set for hearing - March 2010! My employer have denied most of my points raised and stated that I have received adequate training to complete my previous role..... which I disagree of course! It seems at this stage it will be my word against theirs so now I will prepare and sit tight until March. I welcome any suggestions. Happy Christmas

Thanks Mariefab, I have sent this an await a response. I will not be holding my breath, but we shall see. Thank you so much for your help.

Yes I did. The comments have not been recorded in the minutes. But I was told that they would strongly deny any such allegation.

They are reasonably close to what was said during the meeting, 7 pages long.

I have finally received a copy of the appeal minutes which I requested nearly three weeks ago! Does anyone know how much weight these have at Tribunal? Surprise Surprise my last employer has written to me stalling the appeal decision to add another 3 weeks! They will have had 6 weeks to make a decision against my appeal! Any thoughts?

thank you Mariefab. I have chased them up.

I have since been told that I should expect to wait 21 days for a full investigation to be carried out! I am very much sure that this is simply delaying time and perhaps they think this will all just go away in time!

Hi, thankfully I did raise my concern with other senior members of staff which they agreed it was wrong at the time but did little about to change.

hi mariefab it has been 5 members of the management team contantly asking me to forge signatures which i have been very reluctant to take part in. my lawyer has suggested that the Protection of whistleblowers : Directgov - Employment will come into play due to the short 12 months service

i started work for the company on the 13th July 2008 and was told to leave on the 8th of July 2009 and was first told that i had a one week notice period. but due to the gross misconduct allegation i am short of the one years notice. i am very confused but my lawyer has informed me that in this circumstance it should be OK to move forward with a claim through ET.

Hi thanks for the response, I'm trusting the lawyer but understand that it is my decision. I feel very strongly that it needs to be taken further to get the correct result.

Hi, I would just like to say what a fantastic website first off, truly fantastic and long may it continue! I would like to know from readers if they think i stand a good chance of winning at employment tribunal (or out of court settlement) for the following case of what i believe to be unfair dismissal.... I was told on the 8th of July by a line manager that i just wasn't needed anymore and that they were really sorry that things had not worked out for me and that i was free to leave. (which i did with little fuss due to the shock!) i then received a letter dated on the 6th of July (two days before being 'released') to which it stated that the MD was very thankful for all my hard work and that he was sorry that things did not go ahead as planned. and that i would be paid until the end of the month. I was keen to move on but then just two days later i received ANOTHER letter saying that i had been dismissed for gross misconduct! i was really shocked and decided that i really had better appeal against the decision. - due to it being completely untrue. (not managing a contract to the standard expected even though my job role was loosely linked to the contract but certainly not to manage it) i had the appeal meeting yesterday whereby i was told that i could have the misconduct charge quashed in return for me not moving forward with legal proceedings, however if i decided to move forward with a tribunal case then the misconduct wrap would still stand! I have nearly had one years service close to three days and i think that the the only reason i have been let go by the firm is because i wouldn't take part in any fraud to improve the financial status of the company. (this has been refuted at appeal) surprise surprise i have spoken to a lawer who is keen to move forward but i would like to hear opinions on the case and would welcome any thoughts. thanks