Employment Tribunal problems - help needed urgently!

Pooky1881

Hi,

Straight to it....

I have taken the step of taking my employer to tribunal. Basically, I was sacked on the 22nd June, and I gave him time (until the end of July/beginning of August) to pay me all of my holiday pay, and owed wages.

I was owed holiday (pro-rata) from Sept 08 to June 09. I had never taken a holiday day in the whole 9 months.

This is where I'm at.....

I've been on the phone to ACAS and visited the CAB on numerous occasions, as well as my own online research. So before anyone says I can't claim unfair dismissal, I know that I had not been employed for a year.

When I started (it was an independent business) I was never given a contract nor a written statement. I was told that the employer did not deal with them.

The previous manager(S) had been sacked and he was refusing to pay them. I understand now that I should of got out then as the writing was on the wall. A tribunal was started against the employer for which he didn't bother to show up for the initial hearing. A judgement was made in his absence and he eventually settled out of court. The business suffered because of this as customers boycotted due to the ex-employees treatment PLUS the recession happened at the exact time I started. The business suffered as did all around.

When my Assistant left the business on November 13th, I did not have a day off until February 17th. Literally, everyday, 80-90hrs a week. I believe my employer did nothing to eleviate this situation despite knowledge of this happening. In the period of my employment I had 39 days off. Roughly one a week on average but bulked up by the fact that I had an Assistant for the first 8 weeks.

During the snowstorm on February 7th all transport was immobilized. I had no way of getting to walk apart from walking 5 miles in the snow and cold conditions. When I told my employer this, they stated that "It was not their problem" and left me to walk there. Upon arriving I saw my employer taking stock from the premises for his own business. So not only had he gone to my place of work, he was taking stock without telling me - a common thing which I'll hit on later. I got constant flack about this for weeks.

At the beginning of June my employer sacked / made redundant ALL of my staff including my new Assistant (employed from February). Of these, my partner was one. We had moved to the area and signed a 12-month tenancy for our flat. We were dependant on both wages. My partners' full-time employment ended around the same time as it was the end of their contract. I was expected to run the business on my own, as the sole employee!

Within the 9 months not only did I manage and mostly work on my own, I also had to do ALL of the cleaning, adding 2-3 hours to my day everyday. I knew about this stipulation before I started, however, not that it would be only me.

Over the course of the next three days the employer made more and more comments of which I kept about my person. Comments like "the business is going downhill so if you want to find alternative employment you're free to". I had a family birthday to attend the weekend after and he made no concession for me. I finally had enough and went to see him two days later stating that my position had become untenable and that the demands he had placed on me were totally out of order. I told him of my decreasing energy and poor mental state as all of this was affecting my personal life. For the next week he was the best he'd ever been. And he agreed for me to go visit my family at the weekend I had requested.

On that weekend I gave the keys to my old Assistant who was covering with the proviso that I was going to collect them on the Sunday I returned (3days later) but when I went to my employer he refused to give me back the keys and said to me to meet him the next day. I went to meet him the next day and he thrust a letter into my hand and proceeded to fire me. I had no notification at all.

The same day (amazingly) a stock report stated that I had lost £5k (retail) of stock when all my other stocks had been spot on - stock being taken and not being told about it no doubt. The stock auditing company agree that this is not my doing, and is most probably the employer or a mistake with the deliveries.

The employer has responded (on the last day of the 28 allowed) and I've heard rumours that he will be calling the Police about the stock. Also, he is stating that this is a personal attack seeing that not only me, but my three staff have also filed for tribunal. I had given him enough time to pay me what I was owed as he did state in my dismissal letter that he would pay me by the end of the week. Also, I wasn't dismissed for Gross Misconduct either - there were no disciplinaries at all.

I have evidence of hours worked, conversations, a tape of my dismissal meeting, and witnesses/customers/staff who would vouch for me.

HELP!!!! I think I'm doing everything I can, but I need more advice! Please!

trevormax

Sounds to me like you have everything covered. If you can get any evidence or maybe some support from previous employee's to say the employer took stock from the business then this might also help.

There might be tax implications if the boss is having stock from the business for his personal use.

My only concern would be if he just shuts up shop and goes into liquidation, then starts up another business.

dharm999

Pooky

I didnt think you could take your emplyer to a tribunal unless you had been employed for a year? I may be wrong, on that, but if I were in your shoes I would just take my employer through small claims court. I did that to a previous employer who wrongly paid me my unused accrued holiday pay, when I left.

HTH

Pooky1881

I have received my tribunal hearing date for the 27th November. I also received a couple of letters - the respondents reply and the statement that I could not claim for unfair dismissal. I knew this already. However, I know I can claim for Breach of Contract on numerous cases but probably need legal advice at this stage.

The fact that my old employer stated that I was never employed by him but by ****** ltd has changed the parameters somewhat. I know that if I change my claim to ****** ltd that he'd liquidate.

Other people have said that because the business/employer isn't big fry like a Next or a Tesco say, my chances of a settlement are slim.

How can this be right?

DVardysShadow

A good tactical point is if you have your original letter of appointment, which shows you have named the right company. It will make it plain that they are wriggling. In your position, I would look at amending the claim to include both companies.