I appreciate this may be a little complex, so I will try and be clear. The first paragraphs are background, skip to the for the issue. I am Sales and Marketing senior manager for a business, with 8 outlets. I am responsible for all sales and marketing activity and measured by sales performance (revenue). Each outlet has a manager, and they are responsible for the day to day operation of the unit, and measured against the profit. This structure is a little unique in our industry, where usually the unit manager has control of local sales and marketing, and would be measured against both sales and profit, and my role would be a head office support role. So in effect I have more control than usual and the unit manager has less control than the norm. The unit manager and I are on the same rung in the hierarchy, reporting into the MD. One of the units was added two years ago, and was an underperforming unit. We knew it wasn't a great business when we bought it, but the plan was to invest in it, and turn it around. But we were having to undo many years of neglect and poor management. The unit manager joined when we bought the business - we'll call him P. P and I have had a rocky relationship, and he doesn't agree with our business structure, wanting to have more control over his unit. This has caused us to lock horns on a number of occasions. I have backed off a little of recent, as I was worried I was becoming seen as a 'problem'. Recently our relationship has been better, but only because we avoid discussing anything controversial. P's unit has had major investment, but business is slow to turn round. And last year was pretty poor. We are battling with a long standing poor reputation, and the service levels are still very poor and there is no real change forthcoming. Until these improve, I am restricted with how much more revenue I can generate. :?: The MD is off sick long term, so the CEO has become more involved in the day to day business. - having not been very close to what is happening for a number of years). I have been asked to attend a meeting tomorrow, along with P and another senior manager, the purpose is to explain the poor performance and how we can turn it round. This is where my challenge arises. At this meeting, I will have effectively two options, accept that the performance is not good enough (I.e. I am not doing my job - not that I believe this is true); or pass the blame to P and the continued poor service (I can prove this as we use a 3rd party monitoring service - which I administrate), but this will enviably be the final nail in our poor relationship, and likely leave me unable to perform my role in the long term. Either way. I really feel like I will end up on rocky ground and my career in jepordy. The stress of this meeting is making me sick. Part of me just wants to walk away from the whole thing, but can't really give up the salary or company car without knowing I have some certainty of another role. Roles at my level are limited, so I can't just walk into a job, and would likely have to take a lower paid and lower seniority role. Help!!

Evening. I am hoping someone will be able to help me. I rented a house through a letting agent (lets call the ABC Lettings) on the 15th September 2010. It was a Short Assured Tenancy for the duration of 6 months at the agreed rent of £675 PCM. At the beginning of this year I had a letter from them saying that they would no longer be managing the property, but instead the tenancy was being transferred to an alternative agency (lets call them XYZ Rentals). This all changed without any real hiccup and life carried on as normal. Then yesterday a letter arrives from XYZ Rentals dated 03/08/11.... "We write to remind you that your tenancy ...will terminate on the 15th September 2011. We are pleased to inform you that your landlord would like to offer you a further term of 6 or 12 months at a rental of £695PCM. If you wish to accept your landlords proposal a payment of £60 (inc VAT) is required to cover the cost of extending your tenancy. (it them rambles on about contacting them to make payment or completing the attached form to terminate my tenancy)" Now, I am confused. For a start - as a SAT I believed that it never terminates, you sign a contract for the minimum period - 6 months in this case; and then it rolls forward on a monthly basis. My contract does state "The lease can be terminated on the 15 March 2011 by the Landlord giving 2 months written notice or the tenant giving 1 months written notice prior to the "expiry' date. Unless terminated by either party, the lease will continue on a month to month basis until terminated by the Landlord giving 2 months written notice or the tenant giving 1 months written notice. The Landlord hereby contracts out of tactic relocation" So, where do I stand. I would rather not pay more rent, but I really resent paying the agent £60.00 just to carry on living here; and would rather not sign a further 6 month tenancy, but would rather be on the monthly status I currently am. They have not provided the correct notice to terminate my contract. Any advise on what to do next or where I stand? Thanks in advance for your assistance. Paul (oh and dont be confused by the user name - I am refering to a property in Scotland not Cardiff - I have moved away from there!)

Hello Caggers, it has been some time since I logged in here, I have been moving house and job and loads of other things. Well last week has the Tribunal... After some frantic last minute attempts by the respondent to have the hearing postponed, the hearing proceeded. The respondent, who was representing all 3 respondents, chose not to attend, but the tribunal proceeded anyway. The outcome - the panel ruled that there is a very clear case of discrimination relating to age against me, and upheld my application. The judge was scathing of the respondents approach to the entire process, and awarded loss of earning, hurt to feelings, compensation for victimisation and unusually an award for aggravated damages - totalling a touch under £20k. I am of course very pleased, but fear that we have an appeal and battle to get the money. CB500

It is a tough one here, one persons harmless joke is another persons bullying or discrimination. You need the companies Email and Computer access policies to understand where you have perhaps crossed the line, and how best to defend what ever action you took.

This sounds a right old mess, and I am sorry you have been through it all. Have any of the people who were employed through the agency spoken with them, firstly to warn them about what is happening and secondly to see if they have had their fee paid by 'G'. CB500

They don't!! I am looking for work, I don't know how often I have seen a great job, you apply - hear nothing - chase them up and suddenly - 'oh, it is a mistake, that one was filled last month' They keep them on their books just to make them look popular!!

I am not getting into a slagging match with anyone on here, I have received and hopefully given good advice. Your answers to questions asked have been short and generally negative and give the other CAGGERS very little to work with. However I will leave you to it, as you clearly know best.

You aren't giving us much to work on here!! A 50 mile trip for £600 doesn't seem extreme. If you want to deal with issue, you will have to take some action, not sit back and wait for it all to fall into place. I would suggest a letter before action (LBA), sent recorded delivery to the home address giving him notice that if payment is not received, county court action will be taken. CB500

Time for an update Well we had the PHR on Friday, and boy was it interesting! On the morning of the hearing the clerk gave me a copy of prepared statement and evidence that the Respondent was going to use. Luckily our case was now going to be heard second that day, so I had a few hours to read through this new evidence. At the hearing the Judge determined that there is indeed sufficient proof of alleged discrimination - referring to the letter of regret supplied by the Respondent, therefore there is a case to be discussed. With reference to the deposit order, as I had produced evidence in my claim, there was no reason as to why this case should be viewed as vexatious and the deposit order was refused. Finally the debate about who the correct Respondents should be, it was ordered by the judge that the original 2 respondents should remain on the case, and the 3rd Respondent added and there eveidence, albeit late, should be accepted. Now for the juicy bits.... During the hearing, the respondent struggled to control his temper, and had little rants on a regular basis, including with the Judge!! But during one of these, he called me a "well known litigant". Now as this is my first (and hopefully last) ET case, I am not sure on what grounds he can make such a statement?? Secondly, and quite importantly, in his written statement and evidence he provided, there are a number of irregularities and contradictions with what has been said previously. These include: * On the ET3 he has stated - The interviews were conducted in one single afternoon with a single second interview two days later. Yet on the written statement - There were 5 applicants in total, one of which entered the process late on (who ultimately got the job). Mr ABC (who got the job) was interviewed 2 weeks after the initial applicants. * He has produced for the court a copy of the 'score sheet' he claims to have used to assess the potential of each applicant. However I feel very strongly that these are forged, he claims to have completed them from the notes he took during the interview (although he destroyed the notes so cant provide those). The information on these sheets is very generic and very unspecific. The claim will now be heard at a full hearing at the end of the year. I am thinking of getting some legal advise now, even just to look through all the paperwork and point me in the right direction. Money is really tight though, so I am following up on a couple of leads that a friend has given me for free advise. Thanks CB500

Probably jumping the gun a little here, it will be months before you get to that stage. I started my ET in April and we have our first Pre Hearing Review tomorrow. So I wouldn't worry about that yet. CB500

I am struggling to understand how you have ended up in this situation. Emails are so easy to trace - they have an electronic trail, showing what happened and when. If it was a case of alleged document copying and passing on, that would be much harder to prove or deny. Is it worth trying to find an independent "expert" who can analyse the email and attachments and determine the exact details? Good Luck!! CB500

CRB is not changing, just the Vetting and Barring Scheme. CRB's will still be required for certain roles. This is the information that came out the other week from an organisation I work with. "As you may have seen from this week’s national press the Government have announced a review and remodelling of the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In order to carry out this review the Government have halted the planned implementation of the scheme. Whilst the VBS will not now be implemented as planned, the requirement for Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Access Northern Ireland (ANI) disclosures remain unchanged. In XXXXXX CRB checks are therefore still required for those who: wish to become a Member or Associate Member; or may have unsupervised access to young people; or will have involvement with the handling or management of funds; or will be assisting with overnight activities (including Nights Away); or will be helping out once a month or more. It is also still our intention to implement eCRB (albeit without the VBS requirement) across England and Wales from Monday 26 July 2010, as this will reduce both local postal costs and processing times." CB500

Right the ball is rolling, just spoken with the lovely people at http://www.highcourtenforcement.net/thesheriffsoffice who are going to start pursuing for me. Thank you Fluffy_Bunny!! CB500

It varies from company to company. Avis I find are very lax about the whole thing, and return inspection don't exist. But fair wear and tear should be allowed. I paid £265 once for a puncture on a hire car - haven't used that particular company again since it "hurts" everytime I see that bill!!

Thanks Caggers, my frustration Buzby is that they had the funds last week when they called and discussed how I would like to be paid, and then this week they don't. It smacks of the same stalling tactics - bearing in mind they tried (unsuccessfully to appeal on 4 occassions) they have used all along. CB500