Going to an employment tribunal - advice needed.

Jarndyce

None of that is relevant at all, frankly.

lazarus888

Like a lot of people who have been dismissed from a job they loved, i was hoping for a little bit of sympathy as well as the advice. This place hasnt exactly provided the former.

Can everyone that has contributed to this thread please bear this in mind the next time someone asks for help, Im sure it will be hugely appreciated.

SarEl

lazarus888 wrote: »

Like a lot of people who have been dismissed from a job they loved, i was hoping for a little bit of sympathy as well as the advice. This place hasnt exactly provided the former.

Can everyone that has contributed to this thread please bear this in mind the next time someone asks for help, Im sure it will be hugely appreciated.

Perhaps we could have a template?

• I don't want to get the right advice, I just want sympathy
• I don't want sympathy, just give me the right advice
• I want both - please make it clear which is which
• I don't want either and have no idea why I am posting at all

zzzLazyDaisy

Thanks for the further information.

Here are my thoughts, for what they are worth...

Yes on unfair dismissal, no on any disbility discrimination

I am assuming that you took some advice before submitting your claim and satisfied yourself that this is not a disability discrimination claim. If not, all I can say is that this might have been worth exploring as it might have given you some leverage and the fact that the company did make some adjustments suggests that they are disability aware. However even though the tribunal do have more discretion re time limits in discrimination cases, it is almost certainly too late to amend now (so I am making this comment for anyone else in a similar position who may be reading this)


Received full pay during my absence. Wouldve received full pay for 6 months then half pay after that.

This is a potential breach of contract claim, and there is case law to support this. The argument being that if an employer provides a sick pay scheme they are accepting that there may be times when an employee may be of work on sick leave for the period covered by the sick pay scheme. However, again I have to assume you took advice on this and satisfied yourself that BofC did not apply in your case, since you are out of time to make a BofC claim to the tribunal now (but I raise this for anyone else who might be reading this).

However, it may still be worth raising this in the context of your unfair dismissal claim, on the basis that dismissal may not have been a reasonable response while you still had a contractual entitlement to sick pay and/or that this should be taken into account in calculating compensation.

When I was absent I made one return to work but only lasted just over an hour due to being in severe pain. I then made several promises of returning to work but coundnt due to (what was later understood to be) the side effects of my medications.

at this point we weernt even sure it actually was my back that was the problem, i also had problems with my bowel liver and lost about 3 stone over the course of an month as my appetite completely disappeared. so it was suspected that something else was going on. Ultimately, my medicine was changed and I had an mri that showed a herniated disc in my lower back and my health improved . during my appeal meeting i offered a doctors report but it declined as being 'not neccesary'.

To be honest, the above isn't really relevant to the issues. What you have to realise is that if there was no realistic prospect of you returning to work in the foreseeable future, then any procedural failings will not change the end result, which is that you would have been dismissed anyway, and this will be reflected in compensation. Although this is a good reason to make sure that you ask for a copy of the sick pay scheme to be produced as part of the documentation and ask the tribunal to consider that the decision to dismiss you at that time, rather than later, resulted in you losing out financially by denying you access to the sick pay scheme - and was therefore unfair at that stage. This argument may, or may not, succeed, but is worth making.

MyUserName_4

I have just whizzed through your thread, so please accept my apologies if you've already provided information that I think is missing.

Firstly, LazyDaisy makes a valid point regarding a potential claim for Disability Discrimination (namely a failure to make reasonable adjustments; which could include adjustments such as continuing to pay contractual sick pay whilst your condition improved, allowing time off for treatment or considering other work that you could have done before they decided to dismiss you). I think with a Disability Discrimination claim, your employer would have more hurdles to cross regarding the efforts they made to have a proper consultation with you (including consideration of the medical report that you tried to show them) and to keep you in work, before the dismissal.

It actually sounds to me like you didn't take advice prior to submitting your ET1?

I don't think you've mentioned when you were actually dismissed? So, the question I would ask you is whether you are still in time (i.e. within three months less one day from the date of dismissal) to submit a claim for a failure to make reasonable adjustments before dismissal? If you are still in time, I would urge you to look into submitting another ET1 with details of this claim, with a note (in the notes section) suggesting that this be included as an amendment to (insert claim reference number).

If you're out of time, then there is still a provision to allow your claim out of time if it is "just and equitable" to do so. However, this is a long shot and ignorance of the law is not generally accepted as an excuse.

From what I've read, you may meet the definition of having a disability. You are a disabled person if you have had a physical or mental impairment, and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. If you proceed with a claim on this basis, I would advise that you read the guidance (http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/EqualityAct/odi_equality_act_guidance_may.pdf) in order to understand the requirements that you need to meet in this regard.

zzzLazyDaisy

MyUserName wrote: »

I don't think you've mentioned when you were actually dismissed? So, the question I would ask you is whether you are still in time (i.e. within three months less one day from the date of dismissal) to submit a claim for a failure to make reasonable adjustments before dismissal? If you are still in time, I would urge you to look into submitting another ET1 with details of this claim, with a note (in the notes section) suggesting that this be included as an amendment to (insert claim reference number).

Good point - for some reason I had the impression that the dismissal was some time ago - but you are right, there is no indication of the date of dismissal in this thread.

OP, it would help if you could tell us what date you were dismissed.