Employment tribunal withdrawal

claireloupul

Laisydaisy


Thanks very much for this, I am going to write these tomorow and any questions will let you know.

Really appreciate your help thanks again xx

thanks burnleymilk.

uknick

OP, did you get this settled?

natalie66

Just stumbled upon this thread and any advice would be helpful. My husband filed for tribunal some months ago after he was sacked at the end of april this year. He was given no notice and no disciplinary procedure was followed. They are saying it was gross misconduct so this is justified. However we believe they did it quickly believing he had no grounds of appeal based on length of service being just under one year. However he had a bank contract previous to this and were able to appeal based on this which I don't think they had initially realised.
In any case he went through appeal and nothing changed so we decided to take it to tribunal. We had a date set for early December which his companys lawyer couldn't attend and they have now given new dates at the end of January. We received a letter from the tribunal office today who had enclosed a letter from their laywer saying he could not attend those dates either. The tribunal have simply asked for 'request for comments' from the claimant on this matter. I am not sure what we can reply?
In honesty we have thought of pulling out of the tribunal as the dates keep being changed and I am pregnant and am due at the end of January so really hoped it would be over by Christmas. On the other hand we begrudge letting them simply get away with it, its not really about money. We are only claiming loss of earnings for the months he was out of work.

My husband has no legal representation as we simply cannot afford that. He has been told by others that the company he works for do not really need to prove anything so we may have little chance of being successful.

Any advice appreciated!

uknick

If your husband is entitled to go to tribunal, the company does have to prove they acted in a "reasonable manner" to dismiss him. Google the term to see the full thinking of how a tribunal will reach its decision. I say "if he is entitled" as I'm not sure what you mean by your reference to the bank contract.

How big is the company your husband worked for and did they have a published disciplinary procedure?

If they did, I will assume it complied with the ACAS guidelines. You can Google the full description, but in essence they say an investigation must take place and the evidence gathered from that must be presented to the accused at a hearing of some sort. If none of this took place I would think your husband has a fair chance of winning, that is of course if he didn't commit the offence he is accused of.

If he did do it and your case to ET is that they did not follow their procedures, you need to Google "Polkey" factor. This is an adjustment an ET makes to any award based on the question "would the dismissal have been fair if they had followed their procedures correctly?" It can mean you win your case but have any compensation reduced to zero.

With regard to the delays, I'd write back to the tribunal protesting they are delaying the hearing to your detriment, i.e. it is causing undue stress. If it is not a small company you are dealing with I'd also make some comment with regard to how difficult can it be for them to find a lawyer to represent them. But, from my experience, don't hold out much hope the tribunal will take any action against the respondent.

natalie66

In terms of his contract my husband worked within healthcare and was initially a full time employee and he left to work somewhere else and enrolled on the bank (flexible working hours) before rejoining the company permanently. So basically he has had three contracts and the last one was just under a year but has been continually employed by the company for over two years at the time of dismissal. So he was able to appeal and take them to tribunal.

It is not a massive company but it has more than one site and must have around 200 staff.

They have got a disciplinary procedure but they did not provide us with a copy if when requested.

The case is pretty complicated to be honest. He was dismissed accused of something which in my experience is not gross misconduct (I work in care too and have spoke to my own manager regarding this and they say at most it should of been discussed in a meeting with him but would not lead to dismissal) But there were other staff to and they are all employed and therefore his dismissal seemed completely inconsistent. Since he has appealed they have added other accusations in which were not discussed in his initial dismissal meeting (which he was given no prior notice of therefore had no representative to take in with him). He had an appeal meeting but Its like they didn't really look into anything he actually said and just repeated the same accusations in there concluding letter following the appeal. They have been quite sneaky in ways and we have also evidence that my husbands copy of the minutes (done by an employee of the company) have been altered as there are parts that are word for word the same as the companys minutes which we noticed on comparison. But in the handwritten notes there is no mention of some of these things. All seems a bit fishy.
There are some things they have said that are just lies. One of these was raised in there response to the tribunal claim but is no mention of in the previous appeal meeting and all other correspondence between both parties (which there has been a fair amount of).

It is complicated and the obviously have legal advice and we don't so are not always sure of the right way to respond. Been a bit of a nightmare to be honest!

uknick

Have you had any legal advice? Even one hour might give you a head's up as to your chances of success.

But, I'm a little concerned he did do something wrong, but in your opinion not gross misconduct.

You ought to be aware just because others have been doing it and have not been punished will not sway an ET's opinion. They will look at the facts in black and white. Part of my last company's procedures specifically stated it is not a defence because others got away with an offence.

As I said, I can't see you losing your case as procedures were clearly not followed. In fact, I think one part of the procedures is normally to give the accused a copy of the procedures.

But, do you want to continue with this hell? Have you tried making an offer to settle or going through ACAS to sort out a settlement?

Finally, you might want to ask the forum administrators to make this a separate thread so it gets better visibility.

Takeaway_Addict

Obviously don't let on you want this finished by Christmas but it might be worth looking at broaching the subject of a compromise agreement. Yes you might lose a bit of the money you want but you may get some, an agreed reference (Yes you have a job now but what if this goes sour?) and the ability to move on.

natalie66

He has talked to ACAS numerous times both before and after we filed for tribunal. We have advised the company of an amount we are claiming and since spoke to ACAS about this but nothing has happened so I assume they are unwilling.

We had some advice (not legal) but from someone who works as a HR consultant when we were appealing. I will look into seeing if we can get some free advice.

In terms of his wrongdoing he has admitted to one part of an accusation, which was missing a daily check. But it was in no way a sackable offence. The reason the check was more important on this occasion was because another member of staff left something out that they shouldn't have. They have not been dismissed. In honesty I don't think the actions of any of the staff would be grounds for dismissal. I think if the same thing had happended a few months earlier he would of been simply called into a staff meeting along with his colleagues. But he had started a complaint against his manager a couple of months prior and this hadn't gone down well as the company is very cliquey.

happylife

This post is very useful as I am in the same situation.

I have one month until my hearing. I have been advised I have little chance of success based on the procedure has been followed fully for a unfair dismissal case. also I have also been advised that the costs of any legal representation and tribunal fees will offset any potential award I will receive even IF I did win (which is remote). based on my schedule of loss. So was advised to try and settle..

I have repeatedly tried to settle this matter with the respondent via ACAS, but they have so far ignored any communication which has added to the delay of submitting a withdrawal notice. I don't want to jump to quickly and potentially lose any settlement I believe I am entitled to.

I believe they are acting unreasonably by ignoring any settlement request and as such would expect any costs claim from the respondent to be refused.

The respondents solicitor has never threatened to recover costs.

What are my chances here.. I have one month until the tribunal.

Should I wait and hold out for a potential settlement before deciding to withdraw or give as much notice as possible ? I am worried about the costs they may try and recover,