Can my employer make me redundant whilst i have a grievance against them?

DCFC79

nikkikitch wrote: »

hi all

Im currently off work with stress after being bullied for over a month.

In a nutshell, its constructive dismissal, all the usual stuff, bullying, put on probation without reason, withholding of expenses and bonuses, plus its looking more and more like there could be a discrimination element to my claim given all the issues started when i told my employer about some mental health problems i was suffering with. I've always had a glowing performance record and had my annual review two months before these alleged issues started which was excellent and no issues raised.

After being signed off work with stress , i raised a grievance about the bullying and harassment against a colleague/director, i attended a grievance meeting. I then found out that my employment would be transferred under TUPE to a new company. As you can imagine my old employer did nothing and dragged their feet with it until very last minute when they came back with some preliminary findings but no conclusions. Their findings were also complete lies, all of which i have written evidence to disprove. One particular lie they told was in a relation to a meeting with our HR Manager which they alleged i just did not 'turn up' to which they claim was to discuss my alleged performance issues. The meeting was in actual fact meant to be to discuss the mental health problems i had raised with the HR Manager as she had a duty of care to me. I also told both my line manager and HR Manager that i couldn't make the meeting as i had a hospital appointment that day. (i have all the emails) I think its disgusting that they would tell such a blatant lie to be honest!

The new employer had a conversation with my solicitor two weeks ago where they suggested that there could be 3 options, either mediation between myself and the person involved, transfer to another site or a compromise agreement. They also suggested that my role could possibly become redundant in the near future due to onsite staff restructure (convenient).

After chasing both my solicitor and employer today, my solicitor said that my employer has pretty much said that i will get statutory redundancy and notice only, he has also suggested that he doesn't think they will go down the CA route now and will keep me on SSP only until they make me redundant when i wouldn't receive any kind of payment given i haven't been there for two years. His suggestion was to make them think I'm going to return to the role, which they won't want, and then hopefully they might go down the compromise agreement route.

He has also asked if i wish him to prepare further representations and to collate the evidence i have against them in a formal format.

My solicitor is constantly unavailable and i know my employer have been trying to speak to him since last Wednesday. I also haven't been able to speak to him, so i emailed my employer directly today to ask if they have spoken to him. They said they haven't but are very keen to, to discuss options and next steps.

I havent replied to their initial grievance findings yet or provided the evidence to disprove them as this will incur additional charges with my solicitor. My opinion is that my solicitor should be playing hard ball with them and playing the discrimination card and making them think i absolutely will go to tribunal with this if needs be!!

So i have a few questions really...1) shouldn't they have had to complete the grievance by now and reached a conclusion?
2) is it worth me picking the phone up them and asking if the 3 options suggested by them, are still available?
3) Can they even make me redundant whilst I'm off with a grievance against them and wouldn't it be classed as unfair dismissal if they did?
4) Ive been off work for 3 months now on SSP only, surely they would have to give me the 3 months salary at least given the reasons?

Another point worth raising is that i was meant to receive a bonus at Christmas which i did not i believe this is another breach of contract?

Thanks in advance.

Quoted for future reference.