Do I have a case for constructive dismissal?

mennie

I have the passwords for everyones email as part of my job.

I was asked to log on and put on a out of office and check for anything suspicious. I wouldnt know if an email was suspicious until I opened it.

They are saying that I am at fault for logging on for a second time and printing the emails off and takinfg them home.

I felt I had to leave as some of these emails were so nasty and would find it impossible to work so closely with these people.

mennie

And no not in a union. I work in catering and there is no union

SandC

I think you've been treated terribly here. I really think you need to get some proper legal advice if you aren't in a union. Do you have any legal representation from any areas such as your bank or a health plan perhaps?

So the issue is logging on again to print them off. You have a counter issue yourself especially with the private email you sent to your boss being sent around to all kinds of members of staff.

Have you already left the company? I can't see that they can use that defence when you only did that in response to their handling of private emails.

I really hope that others who are more knowledgeable can help with this.

mennie

No I have no cover for things like this.

I have left, I left yesterday. I dont really want to take this to court. I would be happy with a couple of months notice pay and a reference. I just dont know how to go about this?

timbellina

Don't see how you could lose, really. Any half-way decent company will have terms and conditions relating to the use of e-mail which will cover your being asked to review them. So while you may be working for some pretty unpleasant people (from the sound of it); I'd be surprised if they didn't have the right to ask you to do what you did.

Once you discovered the views, beliefs and attitudes of your managers, at their behest (so, not, only pretty unpleasant, but mind bogglingly incompetent, as well); I cannot see how you can possibly go on working there. If they knew by asking you to look at insults about you that you would see them and feel you had to leave, then that's straightforward constructive dismissal. As it was their e-mail, how can they possibly not have known?

Even if they were so stunningly thick as to have forgotten; you're leaving because your job has become untenable.

My guess is that your boss is trying to terrify you so that he/she doesn't get fired. If I was their boss, they'd be walking now. The position they have put the firm in, in my view, corresponds to gross misconduct; and if I were the MD, I'd be grovelling to you, and explaining that the idiot who caused this was signing on as we spoke. But then, I always cared about my staff (I'm self employed now). That seems to be a commodity in short supply these days.

I'd seek a meeting with the MD; without anyone else present, prepare yourself; make your case, tell him you've been advised that you have a case for Constructive Dismissal (you have - several times on this forum) and say that you just want to move on; you don't want to spend a year without being able to look for a job while a case comes to court; and that if he will pay you three months salary in lieu of notice; and undertake that neither he, nor any member of the company will malign or abuse you in any reference he may be asked for; then you'll sign a document forfeiting any rights to further action.

Make sure that what you sign includes the bit about the reference - so they can't renege on it later.

Tim

surreysaver

I would have thought that the person who instructed you would be in breech of the company's IT policy, and acted illegally under the Computer Misuse Act, not yourself, as you were only following instructions from a superior. Also, have you actually been trained in the IT policy?

mennie

No not officially trained, just asked to sign it

SandC

Another place where you can get free legal advice is if you become a member of the Co-Op. If you google The Cooperative anyone can join and if you shop with them your card can be used and you get a share of profits each year according to how much you've spent. Actually costs £1 but that is taken from your first year payment.

Conor_3

mennie wrote: »

They are saying that I am at fault for logging on for a second time and printing the emails off and takinfg them home.

And that's why you have no case, just the same way the Police would lose a case if it were found that they obtained evidence by illicit means.

CFC

Take a long slow read of Cazziebo's post and digest it.

Tis right.

Only thing not clear to me is about the potential sex discrimination - it seems rather tenuous to me to say that there is a potential sex discrimination claim because a manager was annoyed at the time lost from work which happened to be as the result of a sex specific illness; simply because if it had been a male prostrate operation the annoyance may have been at a similar level? Or are you thinking so because it was an indirect outcome of pregnancy, which would make sense I guess?

OP - By the way, lots of people are nasty. Sometimes it's to your face, sometimes it's behind your back. It certainly isn't worth getting all upset and feeling betrayed over.