Sacked for making a complaint against bullying and harassement at work

[fifimcr]

Hello

 

I have been sacked from a contract job and i was not disclosed teh grounds of dismissal

 

My employement contract

 

i am a contarctor employed by an agency for their client and i work on client premises, it is the first time i have done contracting

Precisely i beleive i am agency temp working for agency's client

 

The incident

 

I am a female and had made a complaint of bullying and harassment against a fellow female colleague,. The relationship between this colleague and myself were friendly initially as same team colleagues but then she started bullying me for one reasons or another which i avoided initailly but one day it just crossed its limits and i had o go down teh route of complaint.

the complaint was not raised formally by manager and in the meantime that manager got promoted and we had a new manager, teh new manager had aone to one sessions and mentioned about teh issue i have raised and told me that she would follow up ad update me

she sent me an email confirming that she had followed up and this has not been raised formally, and she would urge me not to go formal as teh agency (who employed all of us, including both managers, on this project) wold frown upon this.

 

after having a small discussion on it i agreed to it as long as it doesnt continues with me. the next thing i knew next day was teh agency were in client site and wanted to talk to me, asked me abot the incident and had teh view from th person who bullied me and we had a mediation meeting in which it was decided to end th matter by changing our team and make us stay apart from each otehr so that it should not go further, which was agreed by all th parties involved and we carried on our jobs.

 

next day before th close of teh business the agency rep called me and said that i have been removed from teh project as the client has found that this matter is still being talked about in work necessarily not by me.

 

I told them that i havent spoken to anyone about it and i have been working normal in my new team and have no issues what so ever, but they wouldn't listen to me and said that with immediate affect my contract is terminated.

 

I am in real shock of being victimised at work and treated unfairly, i dont know what are my legal rights in this situation, please help

[GenvievePipi]

I'm so sorry to hear about your bullying. A very good mate of mine is going through the same thing now, except that she's been threatened with the sack.

 

How long have you been in your contract?

[becky2585]

Did you raise allegations of sex discrimination in the grievance?

 

If not, there isn't much you can do. You can't claim unfair dismissal as an agency worker, but you can claim sex discrimination/victimisation if you were dismissed. You would have to have actually cited sex discrimination in your grievance, though.

[fifimcr]

I have been threatened of sack in the mediation meeting n next day told over the phone about the contract termination, I wasn't made aware of grounds.

My contract says about 20 days notice but on grounds of misconduct that would be immediate termination.

I don't understand how one complaining against a bully is gross misconduct !

 

I have been in contract for 14 weeks, its really unfair n I feel victimised for complaining n standing fir myself

 

I cannot claim under unfair dismissal I believe but how can my complaint not being justified n I font know why I have been sacked when I m the victim.

What should I do

[altobelli]

Hi, really sorry to hear about your situation.

 

Unfortunately, under statutory employment law you have very few rights. As Becky says, there would have to be an element of discrimination for you to raise a claim.

 

Were you given anything in writing after the mediation as to the change of teams and that the work would continue? What exactly happened after the mediation - were you suddenly told out of the blue that you were terminated?

[becky2585]

You may be able to claim breach of contract for your 20 days notice, if your contract does entitle you to this.

[san_d]

In my opinion the OP has made two capital mistakes:

1) Not speaking to the agency immediately. The agency could have found another position somewhere or put the OP on hold

2) raising the complaint with the manager directly.

 

At the end of the day fifimrc has lost the job and has a record of not being a team player.

[fifimcr]

In my opinion the OP has made two capital mistakes:

1) Not speaking to the agency immediately. The agency could have found another position somewhere or put the OP on hold

2) raising the complaint with the manager directly.

 

At the end of the day fifimrc has lost the job and has a record of not being a team player.

 

 

I have made a written complaint to my line manager, i have teh copy of email, nothing was done after that email.

 

there was nothing given in writing in mediation meeting, we were just interviewed on individual basis, made to sit together and told that this should end and our teams were changed, and i thought that was end of it but on tuesday around 4 pm i got a call from agency to tell that the contract has been termnated and i would have to leave immediately.

 

i checked my contract and that says teh immediate removal is possible only in case of gross misconduct and i didnt do anything of that nature, howver on th call from agency i was told that the matter was still talked about but not necassarily by me !!

 

i have no confirmation in writing about teh termination of contract by agency.

 

my line manager is a male and i am not comfortable telling him all teh details of teh bullying which were of private nature.

 

I beleive the bottom line for me is i raised a complaint, whcih was not dealt with, i had to bear with teh bullying and i was repimanded and sacked for complaining, even if i m a agency worker can i be treated like this and i have no legal standing?

[fifimcr]

hi becky

 

i demanded a formal complain to be raised against teh bullier which was not dealt with at all, instead i was asked not to report it formally as teh agency would frown on this (i have an email copy to say so)

i agreed to that and even after that agreement i was made to sit with teh agency on th very day of agreement and a so called mediation meeting took place.

 

nect day out of th blue i got a call for termination of teh contract and no grounds were told, as i was asked to leave th premises immediately i reckon it was on grounds of misconduct, which i dont undersatdn as i m th victim of bullying and harassment and now being victimised for being a minority, a person of colored skin and on a work permit in th UK !

 

isnt there any way i can fight against teh agency ?

[assisted blonde]

Are you still working for the agency at another site?

[fifimcr]

Are you still working for the agency at another site?

 

No i am not. the contract was terminated yesterday on phone and via email in writing today

[becky2585]

hi becky

 

i demanded a formal complain to be raised against teh bullier which was not dealt with at all, instead i was asked not to report it formally as teh agency would frown on this (i have an email copy to say so)

i agreed to that and even after that agreement i was made to sit with teh agency on th very day of agreement and a so called mediation meeting took place.

 

nect day out of th blue i got a call for termination of teh contract and no grounds were told, as i was asked to leave th premises immediately i reckon it was on grounds of misconduct, which i dont undersatdn as i m th victim of bullying and harassment and now being victimised for being a minority, a person of colored skin and on a work permit in th UK !

 

isnt there any way i can fight against teh agency ?

 

Sadly not, unless you can claim discrimination on the grounds of a protected characteristic.

 

I greatly dislike agencies - its highly unpleasant to have to tell someone that despite sometimes having years of service, there's little or no legal recourse!

[altobelli]

Hi, in terms of statutory employment law, its as Becky says unfortunately.

 

The only options I can see are as follows, and these are long shots and likely to be expensive:

i) Damage to reputation - if you have been branded by the company's actions as not being a team player or if they have failed to protect your reputation by allowing gossip of a personal nature about you to circulate, you may have a claim in this area. However, this will be expensive, difficult to prove, and may cost more than you receive in damages.

ii) Stress - if you suffered stress because of what happened, you may be able to claim. However, I believe that this will be difficult to prove in your circumstances.

iii) Wrongful dismissal - you should be able to claim for your notice period on this basis as you weren't dismissed for gross misconduct and there appears to have been no procedure whatsoever followed re your dismissal. Normally, wrongful dismissal damages are limited to wages in lieu of notice, this is to a large extent because statutory remedies exist for unfair dismissal, etc. via the employment tribunal. In your case you don't have recourse to the ET as you are employed via an agency so you may be able to claim for the circumstances surrounding your leaving on the basis that due process wasn't followed and that the outcome of the mediation was that you would change teams and everyone would move on. If this didn't happen there may have been a breach of contract which you could claim damages for in the sense that you are out of pocket until you get another job and that had you known that this company would act in bad faith, you wouldn't have accepted employment with them. Wages for notice period aside, this would be a difficult claim though, this part of the law is something of a grey area and a challenge of this sort may be appealed by your employer if you were succesful.

 

Reading between the lines, it sounds as if something has happened, maybe outside of work, which has damaged the relationship between you and your colleague. The mediation process suggested and agreed that you would move to different teams, but your colleague has been gossiping about you to other colleagues and the company has taken the decision to remove you from your position in order to try and stop the gossiping. Is what happened something along these lines? If it is, and the gossip was of a personal nature regarding you as a female, you might have the discrimination element you need.

 

One thing you might be able to do, since you haven't been dismissed for gross misconduct you are still technically employed by the agency/company while on your notice period, so you could raise a formal grievance. They might not take much action but it could be worth a try.

[Emmzzi]

altobeli, don't agree with wrongful dismissal - poster was not an employee. Maybe breach of contract but I will be amazed if the agency don;t have that stitched up tight, and OP does not seem to fully understand what being a lt company means (from other thread) so I am guessing they did not have their own contract in place.

[altobelli]

Depends whether a contract of employment was in place - was the OP employed by the agency or via a limited company, i.e. self-employed?

 

If employed, then wrongful dismissal is a potential remedy. If self-employed, then wrongful dismissal isn't, but breach of contract might be an option, certainly if there was a notice period in writing and it wasn't honoured. To get more is difficult, but possible if something was promised following mediation but not kept to. Also, limited company status could allow any legal advice/action to be funded by the company, i.e. tax deductible.

[Emmzzi]

op has another thread explaining they are director of a limited company.

[altobelli]

Thanks Emmzzi, then it depends on the contract with the agency as to the status.

 

Shouldn't really affect any claims for unpaid wages though.

 

In terms of anything else, if self-employed, the claim wouldn't be via wrongful dismissal, it would be breach of contract and would have to focus on any assurances that the work would ongoing following mediation, and that then without any reason the contract was terminated. Depending on the industry, the OP could argue that had they known the agency/employer would act in bad faith they wouldn't have chosen to accept the contract.

[fifimcr]

@ above

 

I was working like usual after the mediation meeting, no talks about that topic to anyone whatsoever.

 

Yes I am the director of my limited compmay as the agency when doing teh contract with me gave me an option to tak umbrella company or pvt ltd company. I chose private ltd co as it was tax efficient.

I understand its very very bleak possiblity in my case to do anything on grounds of employement law.

 

My main concern is the complaint tht i requested to me rasied as I was being harrassed by someone in work who like me was put of th project by same agency, i was teh complainant and i dont understand why my complaint was no raised in first place and secondly why i was sacked on th grounds of misconduct,

 

On the phone call where i was told about teh project termination, it was mentioned that some one out of all three parties involved was still talking about that topic not necessarily me.

 

I just want to know under the equality act can i take the agency to employment tribunal, as a director of my own company do i have any rights against this unfair termination of contract.

 

Also if i was self employed i would be able to do teh work as i liked, i mean in terms of working hour, process and decide who i can send to work on my behalf but i was not entitled to do any such thing

 

i am very confused as it was for teh first time i did contracting and landed into mess

 

any clarification on my stuation would be great help, thanks

[fifimcr]

@ all

i found this, can someone clarify is this my siatution?

 

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Understandingyourworkstatus/Agencyworkersandemploymentagencies/DG_10027514

 

If you have your own company

If you have your own company or work through a limited company and use an agency then you are still protected as an agency worker. You can choose to opt-out of some of these protections but must do this before you are introduced to a hiring company by your agency. The opt-out has to be given by both the limited company contractor and the person actually doing the work (eg, if the limited company contractor engages its own workers).

In most cases you will still be covered by the Agency Worker Regulations.

An agency cannot make their work-finding services or an offer of work conditional on you opting out of your rights.

[san_d]

Let's make it clear: were you a true contractor or a hidden permie?

 

In either cases you have no chance to get your job back. Once you've chosen the contracting route you have to take it on the chin and move on.

[altobelli]

Hi, I don't think you would be able to successfully argue that you were an employee - did your contract say you could work whichever hours you choose? Yes, its possible to argue that you were an employee if you worked in one place only, didn't employ anyone else to do the job, etc., but its very rare for a ltd company to argue that they are in fact an employee, normally its the other way around and the Inland Revenue for example, would try and argue that you're an employee to make you pay more tax.

 

If you can show that what happened in any way related to your membership of a protected characteristic you may have a claim for discrimination, but aside from that I can't see any employment claim aside from wages due in lieu of notice.

 

Any claim is more likely to be related to either damage to your reputationor breach of contract. You could pursue the angle that you entered into the contract in good faith and that following the mediation you could reasonably have assumed that the contract would continue. Had you known that following these assurances the contract would have ended you wouldn't have taken the job. You would have to show loss, e.g. loss of earnings in the time it has taken you to get another contract. You have some evidence in that you were asked not to complain formally, as the agency 'wouldn't like it'.

 

You've been treated unfairly, but unfortunately employment law remedies aren't open to you. You may want to speak to a lawyer about the breach of contract - they will be able to advise you on liklihood of success, costs, and likely awared to be made.

[fifimcr]

@altobelli

I worked in client premises, was obligated under DPA, the hirer is a management consultancy dealing with specific claims involving money and redress. so i cannnot work outside that premises, cannot take anything outisde of work like papers n all for DPA, i would assume that i was trained on client processes i cannot send anyone in my place to work !!

 

I rasied a complaint that someone within in teh work is detering me from working and asks me to take unscheduled breaks, impacts my efficiency mentally and work wise as i feel pressured by it and i wrote teh whole account of it in my complaint email, whcih was not even read becasue of length i beleive.

 

Yes i have a written proof an email that syas that i shouldnt raise this as teh agency wouldnt like this, the email was sent by new manager as teh old manager was promoted and taken to diff post.

 

I have specifically mentioned in my complaint that i m being bullied and harrasased at work place which impacts my work n my personal life, no attention to any of it was given.

 

I was asked to agree not to take it further and they will keep a check on things which never happened even after that agreement i was made to sit in so called mediation meeting where we were interviewd invidually and no clarification or discussion was done face to face between both parties

 

the termnation was initially doen over phone and then via email the reasons for termination are - underproductivity and misconduct. Under producivity was never mentioned and discussed with me in work ever and realistically it could never be discussed as i never under produced except certain occasions where my line manager was aware of issues in well time

 

The reason given on call was that 'someone' of all the alleged parties was still talking about the issue in the work - Can i ask the agency to prove this as it WASNOT me for sure.

 

misconduct - i have not done anything of that nature, i was asked NOT to talk about it (i wasnt talking about it anyways) and I never talked about it after that meeting

 

 

My questions

 

1) does the agency has to prove both teh grounds i.e. under productivity AND misconduct?

2) Can i ask agency to explain those grounds with proofs?

3) can agency give me a bad reference - or more realisitically are the employers or whoever permitted to give bad references or obligated for a factual reference?

4) Can i ask the agency to deploy me on another project of similar nature in my home town (i moved to some other place coz of this project)

5) can i fight the agency on the grounds that i was bullied and harrased and asked for help but wasnt protected but sacked !

[Emmzzi]

Do you want to get work through this agency ever again?

 

They are a role finder. Not your employer. You are self employed. (Did you call HMRC to check that yet? I think I mentioned it a few times!!)

 

Agencies talk. Most of the staff know each other and rotate between compnaies a lot. if you want to be the subject of their Friday night drinks gossip go ahead. You'll be well remembered!

 

Or, you could move on.

 

1. the agency do not need to prove anything

2. you can ask the agency to explain things but they are not in the business of managing people, so it'll be a PITA for them. I woulfd let that sleeping dog lie.

3. Factual reference. But there's factual and factual - the reference would be better if you let this lie

4. Sure, you can ask.

5. Probably not a great ideas if you want them to give you work again. And, you were not sacked! Your contract was terminated.

[altobelli]

@altobelli

I worked in client premises, was obligated under DPA, the hirer is a management consultancy dealing with specific claims involving money and redress. so i cannnot work outside that premises, cannot take anything outisde of work like papers n all for DPA, i would assume that i was trained on client processes i cannot send anyone in my place to work !!

 

I rasied a complaint that someone within in teh work is detering me from working and asks me to take unscheduled breaks, impacts my efficiency mentally and work wise as i feel pressured by it and i wrote teh whole account of it in my complaint email, whcih was not even read becasue of length i beleive.

 

Yes i have a written proof an email that syas that i shouldnt raise this as teh agency wouldnt like this, the email was sent by new manager as teh old manager was promoted and taken to diff post.

 

I have specifically mentioned in my complaint that i m being bullied and harrasased at work place which impacts my work n my personal life, no attention to any of it was given.

 

I was asked to agree not to take it further and they will keep a check on things which never happened even after that agreement i was made to sit in so called mediation meeting where we were interviewd invidually and no clarification or discussion was done face to face between both parties

 

the termnation was initially doen over phone and then via email the reasons for termination are - underproductivity and misconduct. Under producivity was never mentioned and discussed with me in work ever and realistically it could never be discussed as i never under produced except certain occasions where my line manager was aware of issues in well time

 

The reason given on call was that 'someone' of all the alleged parties was still talking about the issue in the work - Can i ask the agency to prove this as it WASNOT me for sure.

 

misconduct - i have not done anything of that nature, i was asked NOT to talk about it (i wasnt talking about it anyways) and I never talked about it after that meeting

 

 

My questions

 

1) does the agency has to prove both teh grounds i.e. under productivity AND misconduct?

2) Can i ask agency to explain those grounds with proofs?

3) can agency give me a bad reference - or more realisitically are the employers or whoever permitted to give bad references or obligated for a factual reference?

4) Can i ask the agency to deploy me on another project of similar nature in my home town (i moved to some other place coz of this project)

5) can i fight the agency on the grounds that i was bullied and harrased and asked for help but wasnt protected but sacked !

 

You could argue that you were an employee, but I don't think this would succeed as you chose to form the ltd company and entered into the agreement as a ltd company. If you were re-assigned as an employee you could find that you end up with a tax liability. Also, worst case is you could end up classified as an employee for tax purposes but not in terms of employment rights. I don't think you have employee rights except as regards the wages in lieu of notice, and I don't think there is mileage in trying to get your status changed to that of an employee to pursue a claim.

 

I think you were treated very unfairly, I don't think your complaint was given due consideration, you've being dissuaded from raising it formally so that they can try and drop it and they've then terminated you over the phone and not even had the guts to do it to your face, even though you were the one being bullied. I can't see how anything you've done could be called misconduct. There was no investigation, nor did you have the chance to express your view. But the problem is I don't think you have recourse in employment law, the only options I can see are breach of contract or damage to reputation, but these might be difficult. Is this company regulated by the FSA?

 

In answer to the questions:

 

1) The agency doesn't need to prove anything in terms of employment law. If they tell third parties you were dismissed for misconduct then you may have a claim.

2) You can ask the agency for an explanation, but they're not obliged to provide one and probably won't. If they've acted in bad faith and this has caused you loss, e.g. you turned down other work because you reasonably thought this contraqct would be long term, then this might be part of a breach of contract claim.

3) References should be accurate. They can state factual information and give an opinion, if that opinion has a reasonable basis. The agency or employer could say that the contract was terminated for misconduct, but I doubt they will, more likely they'll just give a standard reference containing dates and job title.

4) Yes, you can ask the agency to place you on another assignment, they're not obliged to do so though, and may not if you're involved in legal action against them (strangely enough though, they won't necessarily blacklist you because of this if they can earn commission by placing you in another position).

5) I don't think you can fight them on bullying and harassment. There is unfortunately no law against bullying and what they have done is I don't believe enough to constitute harassment. You're best bet would be to fight them on some type of breach of contract. You could take them to the small claims court, which is cheap, but I think the most you can claim is £5k. I would talk to an expert on contract law though, as this is a separate matter from employment law.

[fifimcr]

Thanks for eply emmzzi

 

well in all honesty no i dont want to see them ever in my life but i think this is the moment for me to swallow my pride as i NEED money and that will come only through work, i have lot of committments to fulfill and my family looking at me for financial support, i might have to compromise my pride, i know it sounds lousy but thats the reality in the end.

 

i did called hmrc and the lady wouldnt let me go beyond teh point that i have a private limited company hece i m self employed. The ESI tool says otherwise and she said ESi tool doesnt applies to me, did u see teh link i posted in prev post that suggests that people using employment agencies nd pvt ltd companies can be employees ! lot of confusion on that ground

 

i want to move on but there is no work available in that field, i m not sitting hand on hand but trying to find work, i dont want to work on same contract but similar one at different place would do me, i dont have to see agency once i m on contract and i learnt a lesson not to make friends at work or atleast judge people better before they become obsessive. fun times lol

 

on teh grounds of ref i believe they wouldnt give a bad ref for two reasons one their own reputation and two i hold experince and as u sad they could earn money by placing me on a contarct

 

I want to know my legal standing as the last resort but i think i initially want to speak to them and see if i can get work, i can put this expericne aside forget about it(well try to) and earn money and support my committments, who knows even after not doing anything wrong i m still the friday night gossip for them anyways

 

sorry i m not washing my laundry here but we al work for money dont we?

 

thanks