I don't think Papa's wife will let him. But you are only entitled in law to a work colleague or a trades union rep (bet you wish you'd joined now - remember that for the fiuture!) - you can ask for someone else but they are within their rights to refuse. A statement from hubby will be useful. Make sure you take your own notes too - they will have to wait while you scribe. Don't sign anything without reading it and agreeing it!

Well you cannot prove a conversation, so I doubt that you have any claim to be paid for these. So at this stage you would have to send her an lba (letter before action) asking for payment of the days for which you worked but were not paid, or in the absence of payment, a full explanation of the deduction which you allege to be an unlawful deduction of wages. You also need to get a move on - you are running out of time to make a claim as it is three months less a day from the date of the action you are complaining of.

I have had a look. This is not an employment agency and they are exploiting a loophole in the legislation. They are not finding you work. They are not matching you to jobs. They are charging you to uplaod a CV and for other "services" - employers (they claim) can then search the site and contact you to offer work. Because there is no offer of finding or seeking to find you employment, they are exempted from the legislation because they are not operating as an employment agency.

I am a bit confused. How many inmstances of sickness were there and on how many occasions? You refer to a first incident! There is a three day waiting period for SSP for each separate instance unless the illnesses are linked.

I am sorry for what you poor mum has been through. But I think that I have to concur with the company in so far as her current role would appear not be be suitable for adjustments. This does not mean that she in inacpable of any role - and they must first determine whether there is any other role that she could be moved to before seeking termination on capability grounds. So I think she should wait it out and see what happens. In situations like this, termination on capability grounds is not like dismissal for misconduct. There are certain jobs that she could not now do, and that is simply a fact of life. It would not affect either her reference or her seeking work that is more suitable. I would suggest letting it play out and see what the company do, but doing so as amicably as possible to preserve that reference in good order. A good reference is worth gold, and they obviously have some regard for her and her situation or they would not have hung on for two years or let her try to return to work - many employers (especially in this sector) would have gone for capability many moons ago! Things may have gone wrong in admin (and postal re-direction would have helped!!), but they do not seem to have acted as badly as I would have expected given the circumstances. So I would suggest talking to them about any possibilities for redeployment - and come back if you have any worries about that.

It deepnds what their premium service entails. Agencies are allowed to charge for "additional services". Can you post some links to the relevant sites so that we can see what they are doing?

Or "I haven' a clue, but since you are a woman and prone to stupidity, I'll call it this to save myself some work"

This is a normal managing absence process, and so far the employer has, it would appear, acted better than the law requires. The migraines certainly do not yet consitutute a disability if they ever do (migriaines are one of the grey areas) and they had no reason to give you extra days absence allowances. So they have treated you with a reasonable degree of fairness over and above what they are required to do. This hearing will consdier the circumstances, and will either decide to take now action at this point; or set you targets for reducing your absences; or you may get a first stage warning (similar to a first stage disciplinary) and targets for reduced absences. There is no possibility that you will be dismissed at this point - an unreasonable employer might try (but it wouldn't hold in law) but your employer really doesn't sound like they are going to be unreasonable! But I agree with Papasmurf - it is unusual for migraines to just suddenly appear from nowhere at this level of intensity and frequency, and there may be a lot of reasons. You need to insist that your doctor takes them more seriously - "women's problems" is a lazy diagnosis, or guess, which is closer to the mark, since he has no clue what is causing them. There are many allergies not related to food, and there are lots of other possible causes, and you should have been referred to a specialist by now.

No - the point of consultation is for you to suggest all these things. So you should raise them now, and there is no reason why you shouldn't do so in writing.

An employer cannot claim back training costs unless they have a signed agreement to that effect. Knowing that (i.e. being told this verbally, if you were) is not acceptable. However, your problem may well be that they take it anyway and leave you having to make a claim for it. You should also be very careful before disputing it - ask to see the signed agreement, because it is amazing what people forget they have signed.

I realise that you don't like this advice, but I am going to givve it you anyway: You were asked whether you wanted help with the disciplinary and did not respond. But yet again - there is another timescale - 8 months. I know what you are doing, and I am telling you this for your own good. You are confusing the stress of a disciplinary investigation and hearing which started 9 months ago and is still ongoing (partially as a result of your actions) with a specific incident around a hearing date which coincided with Eid when initially scheduled. You see these things as connected - in law they are not. It is not discrimination to investigate someone or to bring disciplinary allegations. As you have pointed out, this process is not yet complete, and it is something which in its entirety the tribunal must ignore. They cannot substitute their own opinions for the employers as to whether that investigation should have taken place or whether a disciplinary was warranted. And since it has not resulted in dismissal and is not even completed, they will ignore all of this entirely. Your alleged case therefore rests solely on that one incident around Eid. Even if the tribunal agree with you, and it is by no means certain they will for the reasons I have explained to you here and in January, you will be lucky if you get £1k - certainly nowhere near £50k.

Ermm - the alleged injury was refusing to change a disciplinary hearing date from the day that Eid fell - a hearing date which was subsequently changed anyway. And a manager "embarassing you" by commenting that Eid in North America fell on 9th September. Where on earth do you get aggravated damages, and psychiatric illness from? Did your wife leave you because you were attending a disciliplinary on Eid? You are confusing the impact of a disciplinary in which the employer has 1300 pages of evidence against you with race / faith discrimination over a minor part of the process. No way are you going to get £50k ! You simply cannot claim that all this resulted from the details that you have already previously provided as to the very minor level of alleged discrimination. The disciplinary itself is not discrimination.

I think the lottery ticket would be the safer odds!

As no disciplinary charge has yet been brought it is impossible to say whether he coulde be sacked - it depends what the allegation is. But yes, it is possible. Racism is a very serious allegation and although I accept he was severely provoked, that doesn't make it right. I am afraid at this stage you can only wait and see what happens. It is equally possible that the employer could decide not to proceed any further. Since the colleague was also suspended, he may wish to brad a little less - it is highly unlikely that the employer would have done so if they were not treating the entire matter seriously.

Did you sign a training agreement?

Well if that is all you are worried about then we can help with that. Plenty of us do tribunals and can help advise on relevance. And know more about tribunals than CAB do.

Really? You mean, like a small family firm? Or perhaps a voluntary organisation? A public sector employer? You have been reading the other threads, haven't you? Try a lottery ticket

No. This is a globalisation. Nobody can be forced to transfer, but the alternative is called resigning

No they cannot force you to work any time that you aren't paid for unless your contract allows for unpaid overtime or compulsory overtime. But to be honest, and I know you won't want to hear this, I think that if you refuse you will be dismissed. Only you can decide what to do about it and how much you care.

Save us from desktop lawyers! Different law! The employer has the right to the money back yes, and you are not disputing that. But the law says that deductions from wages cannot take the wage nelow the NMW - even if you agree - with the sole exception of a final wage packet (and you aren't leaving, are you?). If the employer wants it all back they must ask you for it all back and take you to court when you refuse - where the court will order installments anyway based on your ability to pay. Which is a lot of trouble for the employer to go to when there is a real risk that the court will order lower installments!

You need to calm down a bit. I know this is distressing, but you have voiced your concerns and these are being looked into. That is the whole point of this exercise. Give the employer a chance to answer these points - you may well find that they agree with you. Or you may find that three of you end up being made redundant. But you won't know until they say what they have decided about the points you raised.

I wasn't suggesting it may not help - just that it is a bit late in the day and lawyers won't generally take on a cae when it is part way through! OP - Tribunal judges rarely fail to accept such reasons. They may not believe them, but they cannot prove them false. If they were to refuse to believe them without cause, then this would land the case in an EAT - which take much longer than tribunal hearings. And the EAT would invariably overrule them, so they would just end up getting the case sent back to be heard.

Oh that is bad news. I suppose all that can be said now is at last you can move on. I do think I recall warning you on this one. Comparing disciplinary cases is poor law - no two are the same, and a tribunal is generally wary of accepting comparative cases. I hope you'll stick around - at least you can advise others after all you have learned.

You can find a redundancy calculator at http://www.direct.gov.uk/redundancy.dsb But off the top of my head - and not having a clue what you earn - it sounds in the right ballpark. I'm afraid fair doesn't come into it - only what they have to pay. Don't forget that this is on top of your notice period, although you obviously may have to work that.

I am afraid that there is little that you can do - you have less than one years employment and therefore have no rights to claim unfair dismissal. So in the end, if they aren't happy, for whatever reason, they can simply dismiss you. It would appear that the best option here would be to quietly look for another job. Raising a grievance is only going to rock the boat, and it would appear that the ship is close to sinking anyway. They don't seem to be very nice people to work for, and cutting your losses as soon as you can would probably be in your own best interests.