Out of Court - Employment Tribunal Settlement

Duffy1807_2 · 21 January 2016 at 9:53PM

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for a little bit of advise on Settling out of court through ACAS,

I took my old employer to a tribunal, I stood by my ground and they stood by their ground for several months They have now involved their barrister advising them to make me a settlement.My claim was for Unfair Dismissal and Disability discrimination.

I have been out for employment for 7 Months, and during the 7 months I worked a week here and a week their. nothing spectacular.

Anyway, the CEO of the company called me last week wanting me to come into work for a chat before our court date, they basically put it on the table explaining how they were wrong and they should not have dismissed me as they had all the wrong information about me. They offered me all my losses up-to-date and my job back.

Personally , I do not want to work for a company, on the sole reason of how I was treated during my dismissal and felt I was discriminated against. I kindly rejected their offer as I don't feel safe nor feel welcomed, I think they know they are in the wrong and are just trying to minimise their costs.

Does anybody know how I can work out the value of my claim and whether or not if I should settle may be a good idea? As they have now offered me £9,000 with my job back and I still cant think straight about the offer.

Their barrister spoke to me and gave me cold feet, I know this is their job...

Any advise is welcomed. , (I'm representing myself)

Thanks

dacouch · 21 January 2016 at 9:55PM

Good on you.

Stay strong and concentrate on the future

suki1964 · 21 January 2016 at 10:02PM

Hiw long will it take for you to get the same job in another company?

Me mum is being done for ud at this time and the person involved has been told by her solicitor to claim for 9 months loss of earnings, plus notice pay, holiday pay etc, then a personal claim. This claim is coming in at £20k and the lass was only employed for a year

You need to speak to your legal representative, they will advise better then any lay person on the net

daytona0 · 21 January 2016 at 10:11PM

dacouch wrote: »

Good on you.

Stay strong and concentrate on the future

Are you posting just to get your post count up? :huh:

OP, I'm not an expert but I would consider the offer they have made; you indicate that you may be struggling to find work, so a job offer may be good if you aren't like to find work in the future. The CEO isn't typically involved with the management of employees (bosses included) so I would be inclined to look at any offer from the CEO with a bit of respect. Maybe things have changed since last time?

I can't decide for you, but 9k (if it covers out of work expenses etc) and a job offer may be a good deal in the long term IF changes have been made to prevent this (and especially if you're going to struggle to get more work). The CEO is forking out cash for you and you haven't done any work for them in the past few months, so they will probably want to avoid that in the future!

Takeaway_Addict · 22 January 2016 at 12:24AM

Duffy1807 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for a little bit of advise on Settling out of court through ACAS,

I took my old employer to a tribunal, I stood by my ground and they stood by their ground for several months They have now involved their barrister advising them to make me a settlement.My claim was for Unfair Dismissal and Disability discrimination.

I have been out for employment for 7 Months, and during the 7 months I worked a week here and a week their. nothing spectacular.

Anyway, the CEO of the company called me last week wanting me to come into work for a chat before our court date, they basically put it on the table explaining how they were wrong and they should not have dismissed me as they had all the wrong information about me. They offered me all my losses up-to-date and my job back.

Personally , I do not want to work for a company, on the sole reason of how I was treated during my dismissal and felt I was discriminated against. I kindly rejected their offer as I don't feel safe nor feel welcomed, I think they know they are in the wrong and are just trying to minimise their costs.

Does anybody know how I can work out the value of my claim and whether or not if I should settle may be a good idea? As they have now offered me £9,000 with my job back and I still cant think straight about the offer.

Their barrister spoke to me and gave me cold feet, I know this is their job...

Any advise is welcomed. , (I'm representing myself)

Thanks

What do you actually want?

Surely its best to strike a deal and move on? 9k and your job back probably means you could get a bit more and an agreed reference and they get you to leave with no further repercussions

Latazza · 22 January 2016 at 1:19AM

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

What do you actually want?

Surely its best to strike a deal and move on? 9k and your job back probably means you could get a bit more and an agreed reference and they get you to leave with no further reprocussions

Exactly this

Richard6 · 22 January 2016 at 1:31AM

I smell fear if the ceo is speaking to you, must be much more to lose come tribunal and they maybe now know that. Can you seriously return without watching your back constantly or being set up for something they can dismiss you for? Redundancy for another reason? How long could you last out regretting not taking them for everything? I personally think 9k is way short of the mark. Probrobly just wanted to chat to dig and see if you were skint given your 7 months out of work. Some would accept due to mounting debts etc. They were probrobly hoping you had found another job before tribunal to reduce the amount of award you will get if you win and are still out of work. Did they just give the apology verbally or also in writing? Is your employer due to raise funds through share issue etc and maybe trying to avoid bad publicity?

I think you did the right thing and shame on their barrister for trying to give you cold feet. You must have them on something major and discrimination of people under the disability act is frowned upon heavily at tribunal and financial penalties are high for this. Good for you on representing yourself, however I would take a trip pto Citizens Advice Bureau who will look over your case and give advice as to anything you may have missed. I did this years ago and they actually came back to me offering the services of advocates in training begging to represent me on the day free of charge if I felt I wasn't up to it myself as my case was water tight too!

Also Google for previous cases online for an idea of settlements and awards, 50k +, go Google you will be surprised and don't forget the hurt feeling etc as this bears weight on your case and can be a factor that ETAC take into account in the financial totalling up.

Lioness_Twinkletoes · 22 January 2016 at 8:21AM

Richard6 wrote: »

I smell fear if the ceo is speaking to you, must be much more to lose come tribunal and they maybe now know that. Can you seriously return without watching your back constantly or being set up for something they can dismiss you for? Redundancy for another reason? How long could you last out regretting not taking them for everything? I personally think 9k is way short of the mark. Probrobly just wanted to chat to dig and see if you were skint given your 7 months out of work. Some would accept due to mounting debts etc. They were probrobly hoping you had found another job before tribunal to reduce the amount of award you will get if you win and are still out of work.

You do know, don't you, that the OP needs to demonstrate to a tribunal that he has tried to get alternative employment thereby mitigating his loss?

Richard6 wrote: »

I think you did the right thing and shame on their barrister for trying to give you cold feet. You must have them on something major and discrimination of people under the disability act is frowned upon heavily at tribunal and financial penalties are high for this. Good for you on representing yourself, however I would take a trip pto Citizens Advice Bureau who will look over your case and give advice as to anything you may have missed. I did this years ago and they actually came back to me offering the services of advocates in training begging to represent me on the day free of charge if I felt I wasn't up to it myself as my case was water tight too!

Haha, of course they did.

Richard6 wrote: »

Also Google for previous cases online for an idea of settlements and awards, 50k +, go Google you will be surprised and don't forget the hurt feeling etc as this bears weight on your case and can be a factor that ETAC take into account in the financial totalling up.

Yup, absolutely OP. You can EASILY get £50k plus :rotfl::rotfl:

bugslet · 22 January 2016 at 9:27AM

Briefly, we were taken to an industrial tribunal where the employee was trying get over 40k.

As it got closer to the hearing date, we were advised by our solicitors to offer 7k, which at that point would be less than we would pay out for the costs of the hearing. Reluctantly we did offer. The employee turned it down and we went to the hearing.

He got 2k.

That of course doesn't mean that is a template for the outcome for you OP, but be aware that there are no guarantees.

Stevie_Palimo · 22 January 2016 at 9:37AM

For me in this situation I would have taken the offer of the £9000.00 plus the old job back and see how they act towards you if things have changed then happy days and if not then stay until you find something better.

In my view refusing this offer is about greed and hanging out for as much as possible and when it goes wrong as per above post for you then it will be a harsh lesson learned.

FBaby · 22 January 2016 at 9:51AM

I very much doubt they want you back in the job and I would be highly suspicious that they only offered it to you as advised by their barrister for the sole purpose of counter arguing any figure you could come up with as compensation for not being able to get another job if it does go to court, ie. all they will be liable is compensation for your loss up to that date.

If I were you, I would go back to them and say that you both know that coming back to work for them wouldn't be in either their or your interest, that you will gather evidence as to why that is, and you therefore propose that the best way forward is to increase the offered compensation to X and you can then both move on.

Out of Court - Employment Tribunal Settlement

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