Employment Tribunal

discorabbit

Hi. Hopefully there is some help out there for me. My scenario I'm in is as follows:
Former employer dismissed for alleged gross misconduct with immediate effect and no pay. I appealed and the decision was commuted to dismissal with notice. Before the appeal, they already had a new manager in line to move in to replace me.
I had no prior warnings, and the dismissal was not related to any kind of misconduct such as drugs, alcohol or abusive behaviour.
Anyway, I used on online service which are not really turning up the goods. All forms have been submitted and a date is set for November. I have put in my initial request based on loss of earnings etc. and they offered a laughable £500, ACAS have since contacted me and they have offered £1,000. I again said no. A couple of weeks latter (last week) ACAS called me and said my former employer has contacted them and asked what I would settle for.
Do I stay with my original amount, negotiate (if so by how much) or just wait till they come in with a reasonable offer or go to tribunal?
This has gone on for 7 months now.
Any advice please?

Emmzi

check your home insurance and see if you have legal cover?

any tribunal will not seek to punish the employer, but rather put you back into the position financially had the event never happened IF the employer's action wass, on balance of probablilities, unreasonable.

What are your actual losses? And have you taken steps to mitigate them, like looking for another job?

chuckley

sit it out. they are clearly testing u with their offers. if u have lost xxx amount, y accept xx amount?!

discorabbit

Thanks for input. I claimed for 6 months loss of earnings and rent I now have to pay as previously I lived on site. It has now been 8 months though. Have been signing on since going on anything job centre sends me on and applying for jobs regularly. Would a union take the case on this late, if i joined one?

sunnysea83

Emmzi wrote: »

check your home insurance and see if you have legal cover?

QUOTE]

I wouldnt bother with this, i have just had a bad experience with this. partner unfairly dismissed, contacted legal expenses on home insurance as advised to do so by a lawyer friend. Filed out forms etc, claim accepted as there was a reasonable chance that it would suceed paid excess.

13 months later and 3 weeks before hearing, solicitor writes to say that the amount OH would get would be less than her total costs and therefore under the terms of the policy wont continue cover.

She claimed to have spent £3k already (on what i dont know as she hadnt done anything except send the initial form off) and we had to do everything else including getting the hearing date changed to allow us time to do so.

We complained to insurance company who stated see terms of policy we were not told at any time that they would reasse the claim at a later stage and had been told they had assessed and accepted when we first sent off the form.

We are now an extra £50 down as had to pay excess and have no legal representatives for a hearing next week.

One of my parents works insurance and this was going to be the 2nd case ever in his career which looked to go all the way with legal expenses - it didnt! they will find any excuse to not cover you and pay out. the solicitor doesnt tell you why they need certain information (thats not relevant to the claim) or that they will reasse the claim. my insurance policy is with one of the top insurance companies so not a cheap one.

Googlewhacker

sunnysea83 wrote: »

Emmzi wrote: »

One of my parents works insurance and this was going to be the 2nd case ever in his career which looked to go all the way with legal expenses - it didnt! they will find any excuse to not cover you and pay out. the solicitor doesnt tell you why they need certain information (thats not relevant to the claim) or that they will reasse the claim. my insurance policy is with one of the top insurance companies so not a cheap one.

I would have thought it would be a fair assumption that they would reassess the situation because I would have thought in the first assessment they will only have your information to go on and then when they reassess they make their decision based upon both yours and the employers information giving a more balanced view on probability.

sunnysea83

they never stated they would reasse - they wrote stating they had made their final assessment and had accepted the claim - the policy doesnt even state they reasse - i know have a complaint with them which they have another 2 weeks to respond to. The employer does not reply to correspondence from myself, my solicitor (when she was acting) and the tribunal.