Settlement offer too low - what now??

Takeaway_Addict

I would get the union to ask them to improve their offer, don't counter offer and then counter their offer.

18.5k is ridiculous

inapickle9

Thanks for all your advice guys.

I think I may have come across wrong here, I never in a million Yeats expected to get 18.5k and the 14.5k was a starting point for negotiating. I was hoping to settle for between 8-10k which is a lot less than what I am owed. I have nearly 3.5k owed in commission alone.

My union rep is on holiday so it's in my hands. The 4k has only been offered via a phone call to my union rep yesterday and I need to respond to negotiate.

I was considering requesting 11-12k and hoping they will meet Ne at 8-10?

sniggings

inapickle9 wrote: »

Thanks for all your advice guys.

I think I may have come across wrong here, I never in a million Yeats expected to get 18.5k and the 14.5k was a starting point for negotiating. I was hoping to settle for between 8-10k which is a lot less than what I am owed. I have nearly 3.5k owed in commission alone.

My union rep is on holiday so it's in my hands. The 4k has only been offered via a phone call to my union rep yesterday and I need to respond to negotiate.

I was considering requesting 11-12k and hoping they will meet Ne at 8-10?

in that case, if they owe you £3.5k already then providing the £4k didn't take this into account, which it could as empoyers know how hard it is for you to win if this goes ahead, then I would ask for 10k with an aim to get the 4k already offered and the 3.5k commison and being haggled down from your 10k starting point, but if they have already included the commison in the offer then asking for 10k will be almost certainly turned down, no harm in asking though.

It may be an idea to get your union to suss out if the offer incldes the commision then go from there, until you know that it is hard to know what to try and aim for.

fruitedeli

inapickle9 wrote: »

Thanks for all your advice guys.

I think I may have come across wrong here, I never in a million Yeats expected to get 18.5k and the 14.5k was a starting point for negotiating. I was hoping to settle for between 8-10k which is a lot less than what I am owed. I have nearly 3.5k owed in commission alone.

My union rep is on holiday so it's in my hands. The 4k has only been offered via a phone call to my union rep yesterday and I need to respond to negotiate.

I was considering requesting 11-12k and hoping they will meet Ne at 8-10?

Don't be stupid and ask for £11-12k. The employer will likely say they go ahead with the Tribunal and you are most likely going to end up without a single penny. The £4000 is all you will get. Don't bother asking for £6000 and trying to negotiate. You have utterly no chance of claiming anything and they're just giving that £4000 to shut you up, but if you make enough fuss they won't give anything and you can't do anything about it. Accept the £4000 and a decent reference.

lulu650

No need to accept the first offer. It's less than 2 months gross salary tax free.

Explain that you have lost 6 months salary but state you would be willing to sign and their solicitors can draw up the paperwork for 3months gross + equiv. commission with the usual agreed reference. There is some recent case law that commission is counted as part of the salary. The total is circa £8,200 gross and is probably equivalent to 5(ish) months nett.

A settlement agreement wouldn't have been offered at all if they felt you had nil chance of success at an ET. Show you're serious about signing it off and moving on.

As others have said your union should be negotiating for you on your instructions. They are well aware that a first offer is an opening offer.

theoretica

Have a look at the figures at the bottom of this page which include the median and mean figures awarded for by employment tribunals http://www.morton-fraser.com/blog/employment/3932_employment_tribunal_statistics_2012-2013
What your employers are offering is not far off the median award for unfair dismissal.

sniggings

lulu650 wrote: »

No need to accept the first offer. It's less than 2 months gross salary tax free.

Explain that you have lost 6 months salary but state you would be willing to sign and their solicitors can draw up the paperwork for 3months gross + equiv. commission with the usual agreed reference. There is some recent case law that commission is counted as part of the salary. The total is circa £8,200 gross and is probably equivalent to 5(ish) months nett.

A settlement agreement wouldn't have been offered at all if they felt you had nil chance of success at an ET. Show you're serious about signing it off and moving on.

As others have said your union should be negotiating for you on your instructions. They are well aware that a first offer is an opening offer.

sorry you are wrong, settlements are offered as it can cost employes more than the offer to just go to court, the time involved, solicitor's fees and the bad publicity, so they tend to set the offer just below what their costs would be, that is why asking for more than the costs is never a good idea if you have little chance of winning, as the employer will loose less if the go to court than if they don't.

That is why the OP needs to judge if he will win, if he is sure he is then he can ask for the amount he would likely be awarded from the court, again no point asking for more than this figure.

If he thinks he may loose, then he needs to ask for an amount that is equal or just below the likely costs the employer would have if he went to court.

Dovah_diva

inapickle9 wrote: »

Hi thanks for your advice. Unfortunately taking time off to recover is impossible. I have a £4,000 credit card bill which has reached its limit, I have to live of this for the last 6 months. I need a job asap to make the minimum payments, thats without paying my normal bills. The 4k will literally only clear my credit card, I have accumulated debt over the last 6 months so I can live.

To be honest, if the alleged bullying has made you so stressed, anxious and depressed that you are not well enough to work, you might struggle to recover and find a job.

My husband was sacked for gross misconduct (unfairly, I might add). We went down the Tribunal route and won, but it didn't instantly make him better. It took a year to recover and get another job.

So, I would suggest that you be careful with any payout you might get - it might take longer than you think to get a job.

Plus, it can't be emphasised enough, that you have no witnesses for your case and even the Union are refusing to back it. If you ask for too much and they force your hand you could very well lose at Tribunal and have nothing to show except a truckload more stress. Also, money aside, what are you intending to do about a reference?

FBaby

If you want to claim on the basis of loss of wages, you might need to provide evidence that -assuming you have managed to proved without a doubt that you have a case for bullying- that had you not been bullied, you could have reasonably expected to have remained in your employment during that time, and that the whole reason for your illness -stress- was fully caused by the bullying, and that there were no other alternative to manage the stress than by being off sick.

monty-doggy

If you went to a tribunal they would also account for tax and NI you have requested 6 months salary before deductions. You need to take that off.