Employer ruined my life advice on tribunal please?

vicxzy

Thanks guys for your help x

Takeaway_Addict

vicxzy wrote: »

That is disgusting Pauline! So sorry to hear they did this to you did you take any action over it? My boss threw a bin full of my own vomit over my head when I was pregnant in order to 'Teach me a lesson' for being sick in the office bin

If true this is absolutely horrific and nevermind employment tribunal you should have gone to the police!

Nightranger

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

If true this is absolutely horrific and nevermind employment tribunal you should have gone to the police!

TA is right, this would have been assault. For the record, Pauline is right it is not the end of the world and believe me this is coming from someone in the middle of a similarly awful situation. Briefly, I walked out of a P/T job because a younger colleague was flirting uncontrollably despite me being twice her age (there is probably a simple explanation but to be honest, motives are not my problem at this stage). I did all the right things by trying to talk to her and to a colleague because I suspected that my employers would not be sympathetic. Suspecting I was being led a dance, I resigned (I would not have left had it been a F/T job BTW) fearing with some justification the situation was about to be reversed on me. I offered to talk to the management but this was refused...

There is a lot more but suffice to say I have now essentially been accused of stalking, which pretty much confirms there is sexism and ageism at work in a way that we would never credit these days. The whole thing has wiped out large areas of my potential job searches for the time being. The hardest part is trying to get legal action (in this case, clear defamation) because there is no legal aid available and £800 for just a consultation is out given I am now also four weeks into a JSA sanction (if things weren't bad enough).

embob74

Your story sounds shocking.
You may not be able to get JSA but do you receive tax credits? Have you informed them of your decrease in income? They base their figures on previous tax years but you can ask for it to be calculated on current year. Have you applied for housing benefit/ council tax benefit? Put an application in - it can't hurt!
Good luck for the future. I pursued a tribunal claim and was successful but I don't think it gave me the closure I thought it would. I had to just write off the wrongs the employer had done to me and trust in karma.

LannieDuck

You need to have a proper chat to an employment lawyer to give all the details and find out whether you have a case. It sounds pretty awful, but you need to know what the law says. And you need to know realistically what your chances are of winning a case.

As others have said, try to go through your union first. If they really are useless, it would be worth trying a private lawyer as a second step (although be aware that your union probably won't take on your case after that). You could also try posting on https://www.redundancyforum.co.uk and see what advice you get there (the lawyer posting there has a bit of a love-hate relationship with MSE, so others may disagree with this suggestion :P).

vicxzy

Thanks for your support everyone I am still waiting to hear back from the union they seem to be avoiding me
Night ranger I'm sorry to hear you are going through something so awful too
My boss claimed she threw the bin to me & asked me to clean it & she was believed but that wasn't what happened at all & the only witness was not allowed to give evidence as he had also put in a grievance x