Employer says I have left my Job ....Where Do I stand?

britters1

Hi All
Being new to this site I would be greatful or glad to receive any advice on going to an employment tribunal.

After working for a kitchen Manufacturer for over 8 years, my employer told me that due to business being slow he had to let me go but not paying me any notice or redundancy pay,he told me over the phone on a Friday eve and changed the locks to the factory over the weekend that I had to wait for the other lads to let me in on the Monday morning which was so humiliating.The other employees have been warned not to speak of my name again or they too will lose their jobs.I was the factory manager.

He is making out that I have left the company and wrote a letter to me saying "Thanks for all your hard work and Good Luck for the future..." along with my P45.
I have had all sorts of advice and cant afford a solicitor to represent me, my only option is to take this to an employment tribunal.
The company is still trading and my ex employer refuses to speak to me and wont even give me a reference!!!.
I have wrote a greivance letter asking for written reasons for unfair dismissal which he has responded to saying that I left the company.
Its so frustrating I am at my wits end, any information or experience would be extremely helpful.

ceridwen

I suppose one hopeful thing from that is that your employer cant produce a resignation letter from you - as you havent given him one. So - I'd like to see him try and prove you were the one who terminated the contract - that being the case...:rolleyes:

I guess you'd better give ACAS a ring about this and see what they have to say.

If it was redundancy - you are due to be told the reasons why YOU were the one selected and receive redundancy pay due.

If it was dismissal - then, by law, they needed to follow the standard procedure of verbal warning/written warning/etc.

Instant dismissal - as in escorted off the premises (or, as in your case, finding the locks changed) can only be done in the case of Gross Misconduct.

Have you done anything that could be construed as Gross Misconduct?

britters1

I have never been in trouble all of my working life,
This is a complete shock to me that I'm in this awful situation.

I have given no resignation letter as I didnt give my job up!!
This happened at the end of Feb and as I had to sign on and apply for as many jobs as poss to support my home and family I hope will speak volumes in a tribunal.

My ex employer is a complete snake and has had this whole thing planned out I think to cut costs.

britters1

He has admitted to several people he knows he owes me money but cant afford to pay me.

So he is sticking to his story that I left the company??? and therefore doesn' have to pay redundancy or notice pay

Spirit_2

Claims for unfair dismissal have to be lodged with an employment tribunal within 3 months, so if you are going to do this, and you were dismissed in February you need to get on with it.

mumps

Spirit is right, there is a three month time limit so get some advice and lodge your claim. Also have you kept a copy of your grievance letter and his reply? His failure to deal with your grievance correctly means if you win your case you might get more compensation. Good luck

britters1

I have had to wait for 28 days for response so filling in employment tribunal claim form and sending off in next couple days.

Is procedure straight forward. ?

If I represent my self and he takes a solicitor..
I dont want to walk away and let him get away with this, he has broken the law on so many levels, so are there any unexpected problems I might have to deal with and is it understandable language they speak in there??

Thanks for help

ceridwen

Doesnt look like you have much option then but to go to Tribunal.

I guess you really need to emphasise he has no resignation letter from you - as you havent resigned. Also your reasonable length of service - 8 years service would seem to indicate that you are okay at your job or you wouldnt have had it that long.

I also hope you kept a copy of your grievance letter - if, by any chance, you havent then I guess you'd better write him another letter (in which you refer to the previous one "my previous letter of (date)" - and make sure you keep a copy of THAT one.

I would think you need to send him a second letter anyway (make it recorded delivery!) - requesting again that he pay you monies due. I would list them - x weeks of holiday pay due, x weeks of notice pay due, £x of redundancy money due (giving your calculation of how you worked this out) and finishing with "I look forward to receiving money due by (give a date 2 weeks time) - otherwise I will proceed with bringing a claim for this at an Employment Tribunal."

That might be sufficient to resolve the problem - hopefully. If it isnt - then you DO proceed with going to the Tribunal.

(NB: MSE Martin on this website has just produced a Redundancy Guide - see the Home Page. As I recall - it covered pretty much all angles - including a link to a website that will calculate how much redundancy pay you are due.)

Part of the reason you need to go through with this and head for a Tribunal if need be is to be able to prove to the D.W.P. that you ARE due for benefit to be payable immediately. You dont want them wrongly thinking that you resigned from that job - you need it to be very clear to them that you have been made redundant (even if, at this point, you dont have any proof of that). Your "proof" that it IS redundancy at this moment will be to give them copies of your grievance letters you are sending this recalcitrant employer.

fengirl_2

Your local CAB may have an employment specialist who can support you.
Just a word of warning, a resignation does not have to be in writing, so do not rely on the fact that there is no resignation letter. It just has to be 'communicated', so your employer may try and say that you told him verbally that you had resigned.

timbellina

Why are we talking about redundancy here? Granted that OP's often are so distressed that they forget minor points etc; but this seems pretty clear. It's dismissal; and as such I don't think the OP should be threatening to go to a tribunal if they don't get paid, they should simply be going straight for unfair dismissal and nailing the beggar. Or am I missing something here?

maninthestreet

timbellina wrote: »

Why are we talking about redundancy here? Granted that OP's often are so distressed that they forget minor points etc; but this seems pretty clear. It's dismissal; and as such I don't think the OP should be threatening to go to a tribunal if they don't get paid, they should simply be going straight for unfair dismissal and nailing the beggar. Or am I missing something here?

My thoughts exactly - if what the OP says is true, it's a clear case of unfair dismissal.