Do I have a case for CD? I really need advice

[papasmurf1cx]

Hi jess

 

There a couple of things you must decide. Do you value your health over your job?

 

Do you have the capacity and strength to take this matter ultimately to the Employment Tribunal?

 

You are talking about CD which I take as Constructive Dismissal. The general consensus is that CD is the last possible route to take especially if you are still in employment. It also suggests that you will want to take to a TRibunal but then it would have to be on your own as you have cancelled union membership (which probably wasn't wrong as IMO unions are useless anyway). However check to see if you have legal protection insurance for employment disputes in your home contents insurance. If you have then the situation is better for you as you can get legal advice. If not then again you have to decide if you want to take it all the way.

 

If you do you need to ensure you have written down everything for evidence. Dates times events incidents action emails memos anything and everything should be secured now. Your diary will be excellent for this but anything else will also help. At some point you will need to prove it in court and in any event you may have to tell the insurer what happened and any solicitor appointed.

 

To be clear you should not resign. At all. Never.

 

You should submit a new grievance. You should raise the possibility of discrimination failing to make reasonable adjustments and victimisation. Mental illness, anxiety, depression, panic attacks can be covered under the Equality Act. The condition should have lasted, or is likely to last 12 months for it to be included. The condition has to affect your activities of daily living. Work is such an activity. So the only question is how long have you suffered this? When did you report FIRST time to you GP? Medication prescribed? You will have to have a doctors expert statement for a Tribunal in due course.

 

You can ask for a reasonable adjustment to the meeting, eg a specific person to assist you, (a lawyer could also be a friend) or the location to be changed. The victimisation is having raised the first grievance and won it and they moved you, they then moved you back, started to question your work capability. You have to name names for the discrimination and victimisation.

 

Finally don't resign... did I say that already oh well DON'T RESIGN.

 

 

Hope that is clear. !!!

 

Oh and I do want to hear what they are doing to the children. Whistle blowing is also a route you can go. If you are to go go with a bang!!

[papasmurf1cx]

Thank you for your reply, I will start my grievence letter now and say something around the lines of 'due to this I will not be attending any meetings without a legal representative or support due to the stress I am experiencing...' I do not want to meet with them until they have acknowledged the grievance otherwise it will just be counter productive.

There are so many things I have to raise I don't know where to start!

From experiance the charity itself normally settles out of court, the word 'tribunal' normally scares the living day lights out of them! Even if there were to make reasonable adjustments for me to move out of that office I still wouldn't want to go back I won't be resigning though, I trust in your advice and will not resign. I have never been through anything like this before so I am unsure of the procedures to take and what I should be aiming for all I know is what they have done isn't right!

 

Try and answer all the questions that are asked of you.

 

Cagger's will be with all the way, new caggers will enter the fray and assist you. The only way to win this fight is to face up to the management who condone the bullying. Expect to lose the grievances but win when you go to the ET.

 

There are time limits so you need to buckle down and get on with it. It may be very traumatic and expect lies and knives in the back from people that you think are friends. You are on your own.

[papasmurf1cx]

Read post 10 above.

 

Time limits are 3 months from date of the 'offence' but with discrimination matters there can be continous offences. The point is that you exhaust internal systems and then go to the ET but if the time limits are nearing get the ET 1 in before the time limit goes. It's better having a solicitor but you can do it yourself if you can't afford one. Don't be afraid.... you have nothing to lose... you have already lost it !!

 

Never resign... stay off sick... let them do the dirty deed ie dismiss you on capability grounds... that would be a final act of victimisation.

[papasmurf1cx]

I would write to them, summarise what you understood the HR director was saying. Ask them to confirm in writing what they want to happen. Detail that you are not adverse to coming to an agreement without recourse to going to the ET but that you are not fazed by doing so. If they want to negotiate and ending then they have to make it very clear.

 

If it is their intention to want to settle them you need to get THEM to be clear. It is not that you should take time to think about it..... it is THEIR problem not yours. You have nothing else to lose!!! Classic HR making you feel on the defensive. It is THEY who are worried. It will cost them a lot more if you take them to ET and it is that what they are afraid of hence the swift response.

[papasmurf1cx]

One step at a time. Just get it clear what they want to do to sort the problem out.

[papasmurf1cx]

Hi there

Papasmurf if you are there hope you are well and thank you for your advice so far regarding this, I have written to my employer stating that I want a written statement concluding what was discussed within the meeting and HR have now text me asking me to give them a ring tomorrow to confirm the details as requested, I do not want to do this verbally! As they already did this at the meeting! Should I not call them and write to them again to say that I wish for them to provide me with information in letter format? They obviously must have some issues doing this! Best wishes

 

Yes.

 

Also, they should have a grievance policy that they should be following, have they? Are they?

 

If they are breaching their own policy then they could be further victimising you, and that could be a further grievance.

[papasmurf1cx]

The fact is that you have put in a grievance about a discrimination matter... is that correct?

 

They are refusing to apply their own policy for grievances is that also correct?

 

They refuse to put in writing offers to settle this, have you witnesses that this has been offered verbally?

[papasmurf1cx]

jess be careful on time limits.

You have 3 months from the time of the discriminatory act. If you are writing again, give them a defined time to write back with their proposals to settle and / or to hear your grievance.

 

If they don't comply, issue proceedings in the ET. Don't baulk at it, they will do a jobby in their corporate underwear as they then have to face the prospect of defending in open court.

 

Additionally ACAS then can be involved to settle the matter and a legally binding compromise deal reached.

[papasmurf1cx]

If they are not allowing you to put in a grievance, what are you then supposed to do?

 

Force the issue. Other acts of discrimination and further acts of victimisation can be added later, if it ever reaches that stage.

 

You don't have the wrong end of the stick, but you have to get a sixth sense as to what they are up to and if they are time wasting they are doing that for a reason. That is why I said about getting their Grievance Policy and if they are not keeping to their own time limits then they will hope that the last act of discrimination will fall outside the time limit. So by complaining about victimisation about not following their own policy and they fail to progress the grievance then you have to take it to the ET to show you are serious about them sorting it out.

 

These firms have been this road many times and know the score, you don't and they bank on that.

 

Experience tells us that when you confront them they eventually collapse, even the biggest and worst of them.

 

It is a rocky road so be sure you want to go that route

[papasmurf1cx]

Do not give them wriggle room. If you say something, mean it and when they muck you about do what you have indicated you will do.

[papasmurf1cx]

first write a letter addressed to your GP explaining what has happened, how it has affected you, how you are feeling and state that you feel that you are suffering from a mental illness. Do not be afraid of 'mental illnes' it is an illness as sure as all other ailments. They vary in intensity and can be treated.

 

In the letter you should also explain that for him not to support you by issuing sick notes so you can address the cause of the problem in the way appointed is just not right or fair and that you ask him to reconsider his action. It also may be prudent to ask for a referral to your local mental health teams for specialist advice. You GP should not ignore this or he could become liable himself. You have to be specific in what you are asking. Many GP are not in tune with mental health issues and that is why there are specialists.

 

£2,000 seem rather low. You should NOT have asked the employer at this stage, it makes you seem weak and nervous of facing up to them.... maybe you are but it is bad tactics to show them!!

 

Remember EVERYTHING in writing.