Ask to be witness in employment tribunral against my current employer

Southend1

surfamakikomi wrote: »

Thanks Southend1,

I am not a union member so that is out of the window. I think that legally I cannot be victimised by being a witness but i do think that in the real world things could be difficult for me.

I think that I may have to be a witness but I think that being honest with the company and telling them whats going on will protect my position the most.

The most frustrating part is that my statement to the company doesnt support/go against the colleague so will be no use at all.

Cheers for your advice

You may be right about all of the above, but please take some proper advice to be sure.

surfamakikomi

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

lol tell your employer and they may call you to back them up!!!

I just want it to go away as I think that the evidence against him is a lot and hes just stubbornly fighting.

zzzLazyDaisy

Southend1 wrote: »

Your number one priority here is to protect yourself.

I agree with this comment.

In any case - your former colleague can only call witnesses who have relevant evidence to give.

In an unfair dismissal case, the employer has to show that it carried out a thorough investigation and the decision maker came to an honest and reasonable decision based on the facts revealed by the investigation.

So unless you were involved in the decision to dismiss (which doesn't seem likely) it is difficult to imagine what reason in law the ex-employee could have for calling you as a witness.

In any case, if the ex-employee asks you to be a witness on his behalf, you simply say that you have nothing to say that would help his case, and politely refuse.

If he so wishes, he can ask the tribunal to make an order compelling you to attend, in which case he must tell the tribunal what evidence you will give that they need to hear. If the tribunal does make the order, that is the time to inform your employer, and show them the tribunal order. It is contempt to disobey the tribunal's witness order (though in practice I have never heard of anyone being sanction for this) but even then you still have the opportunity to object to the order and explain why you should not be ordered to attend. Tribunals can and do rescind witness orders if the proposed witness objects and gives a reasonable explanation why their evidence would add nothing to the case.

hth

Daisy

ValHaller

surfamakikomi wrote: »

I just want it to go away as I think that the evidence against him is a lot and hes just stubbornly fighting.

He may well be very much in the wrong, but it seems that his claim is not about fighting the issues raised in the disciplinary - it is probably about whether you made a statement and whether the process was fair.

Even if you are reluctant, he could get the tribunal to order you to attend and I suggest that you suggest that he gets the tribunal to order your attendance. Your testimony is simply that you made a statement and to confirm that statement. You don't even have to remember it - just confirm it if it is produced.

Ultimately, I think that the very fact that he claims you made a statement and him getting you ordered to attend will be that your employer will own up to the fact of your statement

Remember: All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. If you made a statement, you should at least be honourable enough to stand by the fact of having made it.

ValHaller

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Good ol emotional blackmail...do you stand by that statement if it goes against he employee?

Of course. You should not make statements to disciplinaries either way if you are going to have sloping shoulders about owning up to having made the statement.

If suggesting that people act with integrity is emotional blackmail, it is probably the case that cold rationality is to urge people to lie and deny anything and everything

surfamakikomi

Cheers all,

I think that from everyones replies (which I thank you all), my best option is to speak to my boss and let him know what i've been asked to do.

If I do get asked to attend then I will get some professional advice on my position.

Best case scenario is it gets settled without me

surfamakikomi

Oh and I dont mind saying what I said in my statement at all. I just think that its an awkward position to be put in that could affect my career.

Southend1

surfamakikomi wrote: »

Cheers all,

I think that from everyones replies (which I thank you all), my best option is to speak to my boss and let him know what i've been asked to do.

You're welcome, but I don't think anyone here has recommended you go to tell your boss about this yet! Check out your position and ensure it's safe and necessary for you to tell the boss before you do so.

Yorkie1

surfamakikomi wrote: »

The call was from the ex colleague who says that he is going to a tribunral and wants to call me as a witness. he says that it will just be to go through the statement as this was never given/shown to him when dismissed. My problem is that I work for a company who I enjoy working for and I think that things will be difficult if I was a witness to "support" the colleague. During the call he also told me other witnesses who he was going to call.

A former colleague was going through the tribunal process and rang me out of the blue to ask about how I had been treated in a particular situation. She was, I think, trying to demonstrate that I was treated differently from her (better) owing to her BME heritage.

My situation was different from OP's because I was not involved with the disciplinary against the former employee, and had not provided any witness statement. But I really didn't want to get involved and therefore a) made a full record of the conversation, and b) told my manager (again independent from the tribunal process) about it immediately.

Just looking at the extracted section above, and referring back to zzzLDzzz's post, it looks as though OP's former colleague wants to call OP to find out the contents of the witness statement. If that's right, I wonder how the former colleague would be able to satisfy the court that the evidence from OP would be sufficient relevant etc to justify a court summons.

surfamakikomi

Southend1 wrote: »

You're welcome, but I don't think anyone here has recommended you go to tell your boss about this yet! Check out your position and ensure it's safe and necessary for you to tell the boss before you do so.

Thats a good point, I really must stop listening to those voices in my head.