Employment Tribunal

Honey18

Good Morning Everyone
I am representing myself and taking my previous employer to court over a number of issues, the 2 that I’m most concerned about are that my personal file including my passport, medical details, bank details drivers license etc was taken out of the safe and off the premises for 7 weeks then found on the back seat of my line managers car when I realised they were missing, I raised a grievance which I lost, appealed then was told I had no grounds for a grievance as no wrong doing had taken place, even though I was with the line manager for 8 hours the day my file was left in her car so know for a fact it was left unattended that day and no one will tell me where it was the rest of the time it was missing!
The 2nd is I worked for the company for 7 years and 2 years ago was given a promotion, I have an email quite clearly stating I will only be notified if any terms & conditions change, to cut along story short my new manager took an instant dislike to me last October when she started work and at beginning of February (after being off I’ll for 3 weeks) I received my payslip showing I owed them £100 I contacted her and she said my terms & conditions had changed 2 years ago and that is what I owed them - they had taken my ssp off me as well, I then spoke to her on the phone as she wouldn’t acknowledge my emails anymore and I was told if I went back to worki probably wouldn’t have a wage the next month either as I still owed them money from a few weeks sickness I’d had last year and due to my t&c’s changing I was no longer entitled to my higher rate of sickness only ssp, I have repeatedly asked for a copy of this alleged new t&c’s change but have no reply, and most certainly have never signed a new one, they have offered me a very low settlement already which I have turned down and after submitting my evidence 2 weeks ago have now said via Acas they don’t think I have much of a chance of winning based on my evidence but have increased there offer so to settle quickly, I am so angry that I was treated like that and half of me thinks just take the money & pay my debts but why should they be able to treat people like this & get away with it, I feel the little amount they have offered is laughable as opening my wage packet expecting my wages to receive not a penny is totally not acceptable and they shouldn’t be able to treat people like that! Any advice please I would’ve very grateful, on what I’ve researched and read no one can be sure how it will goon the day so why is the solicitor so keen to tell me my evidence is weak & I have little chance of winning!?

Masomnia

Honey18 wrote: »

Good Morning Everyone
I am representing myself and taking my previous employer to court over a number of issues, the 2 that I’m most concerned about are that my personal file including my passport, medical details, bank details drivers license etc was taken out of the safe and off the premises for 7 weeks then found on the back seat of my line managers car when I realised they were missing, I raised a grievance which I lost, appealed then was told I had no grounds for a grievance as no wrong doing had taken place, even though I was with the line manager for 8 hours the day my file was left in her car so know for a fact it was left unattended that day and no one will tell me where it was the rest of the time it was missing!
The 2nd is I worked for the company for 7 years and 2 years ago was given a promotion, I have an email quite clearly stating I will only be notified if any terms & conditions change, to cut along story short my new manager took an instant dislike to me last October when she started work and at beginning of February (after being off I’ll for 3 weeks) I received my payslip showing I owed them £100 I contacted her and she said my terms & conditions had changed 2 years ago and that is what I owed them - they had taken my ssp off me as well, I then spoke to her on the phone as she wouldn’t acknowledge my emails anymore and I was told if I went back to worki probably wouldn’t have a wage the next month either as I still owed them money from a few weeks sickness I’d had last year and due to my t&c’s changing I was no longer entitled to my higher rate of sickness only ssp, I have repeatedly asked for a copy of this alleged new t&c’s change but have no reply, and most certainly have never signed a new one, they have offered me a very low settlement already which I have turned down and after submitting my evidence 2 weeks ago have now said via Acas they don’t think I have much of a chance of winning based on my evidence but have increased there offer so to settle quickly, I am so angry that I was treated like that and half of me thinks just take the money & pay my debts but why should they be able to treat people like this & get away with it, I feel the little amount they have offered is laughable as opening my wage packet expecting my wages to receive not a penny is totally not acceptable and they shouldn’t be able to treat people like that! Any advice please I would’ve very grateful, on what I’ve researched and read no one can be sure how it will goon the day so why is the solicitor so keen to tell me my evidence is weak & I have little chance of winning!?

Because they want you to accept the offer and walk away! They're not going to tell you that you have a strong case against your client. It's understandable that you want your day in court if you feel you've been mistreated, but you have to make a rational decision and take the emotion out of it when looking at what they're offering.

LondonLiz

If there is any way you can get some free legal advice then I strongly suggest you do. It sounds like you may be in the area of whether sick pay was discretionery or contractual and that is a tricky area to navigate as an unrepresented litigant.

I am not trying to discourage you from going all the way to a hearing if you feel strongly that is your preferred course of action, but do ensure you are doing this with eyes wide open. It will take ages, suck up time and is rarely straightforward. Negotiating a settlement is worth at least considering. As Masomnia says, don't do it just for your 'day in court' and from an emottional place. Most larger employers take these sorts of things in their stride and frankly even losing a case at ET - unless it causes massive reputational damage - is often not a major issue, so you might still feel they 'got away with it' in the end anyway. It will be a far more emotional experience for you and being fired up with outrage about the sense of unfair treatment will be harder to sustain long term.

If you still want advice via this forum can I suggest you give some more details including

• What point in the process you currently are. Sounds like still at ACAS conciliation stage? Has that been extended yet? Have you gone back with a proposed settlement amount that you would accept AND that is realistic compared to what they've offered?
• Do you have a hearing date set down yet and if so roughly how far away is that and how many days? (remember that you'll need to to take these days off from any new job to attend so if that's unpaid leave or annual leave think about the cost of that)
• What is the basis of your ET claim e.g have you alleged unfair/constructive dismissal as well as (presumably) something related to the unpaid sick pay.
• has the calculation of 'overpaid' sick pay been set out in writing to you i.e. number so days taken & paid versus what you 'should' have been paid at the time
• what did your original employment contract - before the promotion - say about sick pay (please quote the wording)
• is there a collective agreement in place at your employer under a trade union which covers the sick pay policy?
• If not, is there a staff handbook or policy that sets out sick pay entitlements

No one here will be able to give full advice as we won't have all the facts nor probably the legal knowledge needed, but by supplying some basic info you might get at least some pointers and food for thought.

jonnygee2

my personal file including my passport, medical details, bank details drivers license etc was taken out of the safe and off the premises for 7 weeks

Unless there was an agreement about where they would store your passport, or you have reason to believe your personal details were compromised, there is no reason for a grievance with this part that I can see.

hey have offered me a very low settlement already which I have turned down and after submitting my evidence 2 weeks ago have now said via Acas they don’t think I have much of a chance of winning based on my evidence but have increased there offer so to settle quickly,

How much is this settlement now? How much would you consider reasonable?

jobbingmusician

I really can't see what your gripe is, under GDPR anyway. Ordinary HR files are just not top secret government material. It seems quite reasonable to me that a manager should be able to take them away and leave them in a locked car temporarily. If you are a particularly vulnerable person, then different rules might apply, but an ordinary HR file is just not this level of sensitive information. What do you expect to happen to your file? Do you feel it would be OK in a car in a locked suitcase? On a desk in a locked office? In a locked cabinet in a locked office? What is the difference, in your mind, between a locked office and a locked car?

Making an unannounced change to T & C is of course something quite different, and stopping SSP (inside the statutory entitlement period) obviously illegal.

steampowered

Generally speaking, the ET does not have jurisdiction to hear GDPR claims. If you feel there has been a breach of GDPR you'd have to go to court. The GDPR angle feels like a red herring.

I am not very clear from your post as to what your claim is actually about.

When you prepare documents for Tribunal and when you attend the Tribunal hearing, you need to be very clear as to what you are actually claiming.

eamon

I agree that Data Protection isn't a direct issue for an ET to consider, possibly if you were dismissed and GDPR was the main reason. But you haven't divulged why you left that employer.
So on what you have said your Solicitor is correct. You have no evidence of anything and will lose at an ET. If the money is still on offer then take it and get on with your life.