sorry i should have mentioned before. By hardship i mean i may struggle to pay the bills. My medical costs have gone up as not only is there medicine costs there is also the parking charges everytime i attend hospital which is quite frequent.Any grievance i raise goes to my line manager however he is fully aware of the situation so is his manager who is overseeing the whole thing.

Thank you all for your replies. I have always stated to the company that i will pay the money back that is owed, however theya re being extremely unreasonable in the amount they wish to be paid back and as result i will be caused financial hardship. I have given the company my expenditures and this clearly shows i cannot afford to repay the amount they propose however they are standing their ground. I had to agree the amountthey proposed as i was told if i did not then my pay would stop till they recovered the money. I was also advised by a hr rep to increase my hours knowing i cannot as i suffer from an illness which disables me and i have to have weekly chemotherapy which makes me extremely tired. Thecompany is a very big company making millions in profit they are hardly going to miss a few thousands. i really dont know what to do.

I wonder whether someone can help me. About months ago i reduced my hours at work from full time to 30 hours per week due to ill health. At the time my manager confirmed that he would put the change of hours through. A few months later my wages didnt look right so i contacted hr to say that my wages didint look right and i think i am being overpaid. I was advised it was all correct and i am being paid correctly. It has now transpired that the change of hours was not put through properly and half the systems were corrected and the other half were not and have to repay overpayment. I have given the company my incme expendiure and told them what i could afford to pay back however they have made me agree to an amount way over my means and i dont thnk i will be able to repay however i was told f i didnt make a decison wouldn get paid. I was told this month only my overpaid tax and national insurance woul go out and i would start repaying from next month, however i have now realised that they have started taken payments out my wages aswell without advising me. Can the company do this?

Thanks for this will have a look through...

papasmurf1cx...hope your tribunal went well. My brother lives with parents so not sure whether their insurance policy would cover him however will check. I do not think given the size of thecompany they would let this go to tribunal as there is a fear of negative press.

ill have to check through his contract to see what it stated for performance. However when i looked through the disciplinary procedure it clearly states he would be invited to an interview, facts and figures would be provided. He would also be able to take a rep in with him. He would then get a decision in writing and then he would have a right to appeal. However none of this has been followed. as he is out of work at the moment would he be able to get legal aid?

He had a temporary contract with the agency and due to his hard work, punctalit and performance he was given a permanent contract with a three month probationary period. If it was performance related they didnt even give him time to improve put him on a performance plan on monday and he was out the door on thursday. Brother is in bits he was out of work for quite a while before he got this job. He is totally depressed hence teh reason whi i am doing this for him.

My brother works for a large company and has worked there for the last 16 months. Twelve months of that was on a agency contract and then he was made permanent. He has always been a good worker and last month won an award for high achiever. Lat monday his manager took him to one side and told him that he was not meeting his targets and would be put on a performance plan to be reviewed in a months time...Nothing was given to him writing. Thursday of that week he was called in to a meeting without prior notice with his manager and a hr rep and was sacked on the spot and escorted off teh building. Reason being he hadnt hit his target. He has not recieved any letters from the company with regards to the dismissal or right to appeal. He called HR this morning and was told there is no letter and he has no right to appeal.. He wasnt sent any letters prior to this informing him of this. He was not given an option of taking someone independent with him to the meeting. He has recieved nothing in writing at all. And he has been told he has no right to appeal. Please can someone advise whether the company can do this, and do you think he was unfairly dismissed.

The delivery office maagers are very unapproachable. he can never get to speak to her.

The area he is in is Leicester. It is the floor manager who has told him diabetes is not covered by the dda. He also went to his union rep who advised him he is not covered by the dda who also advised him any appointments he takes will need to be unpaid. a grievance claim has not been done yet as he is going to take the details he has recieved from here to his manager on monday and see what he has to say then. I am quite surprised though that he has not even been referred to the ohs.

Thankyou for the above it has been really useful. As far as appointments are concerned whatever he can he takes outside of his shift however as you are aware hospital appointments are a little hard to negotiate. i have printed off the document from the royal mail website hes going to take that in to his employer...I will keep you posted.

he has to make up his time for everything. He had an appointment last week in the morning where he was out for an hour he then had to go back to work and finish his delivery which took him over his finish time. His union ar C**p excuse my language they have told him he is not covered by dda and he has to make up all hours lost for appointments and sugar testing. however i have checked the internet and do know he is covered by the dda.

thanks all i will pass on the details to him and see how things go. The only problem he has is the union at his place isnt all that and cannot get hold of a union rep when he needs to.

I have looked up diabetes and it is covered under the dda however royal mail are refusing to accept it is. He has been told any appointments will need to be taken outside of work hours or unpaid.

I have a friend who has recently been diagnosed with diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. He is currently on various medications. He works for Royal Mail who have told him if he is to go for appointments relating to his illness during work time he will need to take it as unpaid leave. I believe he is covered by the dda are his employers allowed to do this? Any help will be appreciated.

Thankypu to all who posted i emailed the managing director and i have now had all fees waived...result

I have just emailed them as i was not getting any joy over the phone and i have copies in the managing director aswell....fingers crossed. Thankyou all for your reply it has been most helpful.

she has no problem paying for the part...the problem is this was explained on the initial call and one of the reasons why an engineer visit was booked...I will try writing to the company...see what happens.

The parts are under guarantee however teh part my mother needed replacing is not covered under the pats guarantee she had to pay for teh part. They told her because she cleaned teh cooker teh numbers rubbed off....she was advised over the phone she shouldnt have cleaned the cooker....i think this is totally absurd. They are refusing to budge with the engineer visit.

can somebody please help....my parents have a cda cooker and last week called the helpline to book an engineer vist as the knobs on the cooker had become loose and the writing on the panel had rubbed off. This was advised to teh agent at the other end. When the engineer came he dealt with the loose knobs however said to my mum he will need to order teh other part and he will come back. We didnt hear anything and so called back the agent on teh other end said she would order the part and they can fix it themselves, however the part that was ordered was wrong so i called asking to speak to a manager the manager has now ordered the right part however has charged my parents for teh part as well as another £80.00 engineer visit. My dad didnt argue as he is a pensioner and the lady on the other end was quite rude and abrupt. Please can anyone advise are they allowed to charge again for another engineet visit.

Thanks all i think my next steps will be the small claims court as i have exhausted all options available....do you think it might be an idea to complain to the fsa?

I have already wrote to them stating i will be contactting trading standards and i have emailed them stating the same thing however i have still had no response.

The link is http://www.electricshopping.com/shop/ I have been contacting them since June to say that the repair is unsatisfactory however there supposed engineer keeps calling me to tell me i am using the iron wrong....how can i be using it wrong when everytime i switch it on it short circuits the house.I really dont know where to go from here.

I bought a tefal iron in september 2008 the iron went faulty in june 2009 whereby the iron was leaking water and the tank was leaking water aswell the iron cost me £200.00. I contacted the company i bought the iron from however at first they were unwilling to take responsibilty and so i wrote to them and tehy agreed to repair the iron. When the iron came back the faults were still there and so i contacted teh company asking for a replacement nobody ever got back to me eventhough i wrote to them emailed them and called them a number of times. I then contacted my credit card company to get the money back they sent me a letter stating it was too long since purchase and there was nothing they could do..so i wrote to them still nothing back. I also wrote to tefal explaining that an iron costing £200.00 should last more than 6 months i was given detaisl of their repair centre who arranged for teh iron to be taken away and repaired. The iron came back repaired last week it worked fine the first week i had it however i have just tried it again and it is once again leaking water.Please help what can i do....I am in tears at the moment. By the way forgot to mention online store was electrical shopping direct.

I bought a tefal iron in september 2008 the iron went faulty in june 2009 whereby the iron was leaking water and the tank was leaking water aswell the iron cost me £200.00. I contacted the company i bought the iron from however at first they were unwilling to take responsibilty and so i wrote to them and tehy agreed to repair the iron. When the iron came back the faults were still there and so i contacted teh company asking for a replacement nobody ever got back to me eventhough i wrote to them emailed them and called them a number of times. I then contacted my credit card company to get the money back they sent me a letter stating it was too long since purchase and there was nothing they could do..so i wrote to them still nothing back. I also wrote to tefal explaining that an iron costing £200.00 should last more than 6 months i was given detaisl of their repair centre who arranged for teh iron to be taken away and repaired. The iron came back repaired last week it worked fine the first week i had it however i have just tried it again and it is once again leaking water.Please help what can i do....I am in tears at the moment. By the way forgot to mention online store was electrical shopping direct.