ET cost award

[vexatious]

Hello and good afternoon all,

Where to start..... i guess i dont need to run through the entire situation blow by blow. So lets start on the fact that i asked for a reasonable adjustment for a impairment (later defined as a disability under the equality act 2010) which was deemed unreasonable by my employer despite Occ Health reports (x5) stating that i was fit for my role over a 3 year time scale. This resulted in a re-grade to a different role. At this point a SAR request went in and a gold mine of info came back, such as the HR dept recommeded giving me the requested adjustments as other options had a high legal risk of discrimmination. So a grievence was sent in, this was rejected despite policy.

Jump ahead and at the ACAS meeting the respondant again refused to give me job role back.

Jump ahead another period of time and defense submissions state i haven't got a disablilty, state facts and submissions that are untrue (proveable via the info from the SAR request)

Jump ahead - impact statement - disability proven under the 2010 act

Jump ahead till now - a return to job role offer in an open letter (after the first offer 'without predujice'), however this second offer has several detirmental caveats that go against the requested reasonable adjustments!!

to the crux of the issue......

Now after all that context (waffle) i have been warned , due to the open letter they (respondant) can put in a cost warning to regain the costs if i go all the way to the tribunal and win and the panal gives me my job role back !!!! despite me being treated unfairly from the start and what i can only describe as witch hunt to remove me from my orginal job role and i have genuine concerns about my treatment if i go back under an settlement.

So i am in quandry .. as to why the respondant can ask for cost awards when they have been the unreasonable party, but this even small risk is putting me off court which would put some of the evidence into common law (helping out other work colleagues)

A: i have acted without malice or vexatiously (love that word)
B: i have a very good chance of a reasonable outcome

Yet it seems the respondant still have means to bully you into settlement, so my question to the WWW is this just a tactic to back off or is it a valid hi-risk/low-risk that i should take into account. I hope all the back story gives some context to the outcome.

Thanks for your time.

[vexatious]

Any mods or Admin able to move this to the correct Area (employment) Thanks

[Amethyst]

Done

[ULA]

Was the offer letter made to you headed up "without prejudice save as to costs" or was that phrase somewhere in the context of the letter? If so, they are putting you on warning that if you refuse the offer and then either lose, or get awarded less than they have offered, they may show the employment tribunal the letter in support of an application for costs at the end of the case. Their argument will be that your refusal of the offer amounted to unreasonable conduct of your case.

[vexatious]

Hi Ula,

thanks for for the reply... the first letter was titled ‘ without prejudice offer’ the second offer was ‘open’ both had addendums that go against my original reasonable adjustment. Example... I cannot claim any personal injury if an injury occurs within my role. That’s not even related to my disability considering I have been medically signed off by occ health 5 times who recommend the permanent reasonable adjustments, There is no mention of those reasonable adjustments in the letter.

[ULA]

It seems like at the moment you are still "negotiating" in advance of the Tribunal hearing. Just because they have put an offer to you it does not mean you have to accept it as they have determined. You can go back to them with your view as to the parts that you are not happy with and maybe some suggestions that would be more acceptable to you.

Are ACAS still involved as it is pre Tribunal?

[vexatious]

Are ACAS still involved as it is pre Tribunal?

Past that. At the Acas stage my request was refused (to return to my role). At the pre tribunal, the judge dictated that I had a disability and gave me 3 day tribunal later in the year. At that point and only that point have the respondent made me an offer (with restrictions), now despite all the negative treatment and refusal at Acas they can claim I’m unreasonable!!!

Sorry but , I find that shocking..

[ULA]

I do appreciate your view, however they do have a responsibility to inform you that i

f you refuse the offer and then either lose, or get awarded less than they have offered, they may make an application for costs at the end of the case. Are you conducting your own case? If so, then it is even more important that they inform you of this type of action.

As mentioned at my post #6 I think that in a constructive way you need to respond back to their offer detailing the parts that you have a concern about accepting and provide alternative proposals to these. If there are also elements missing that you want assurances on, such as the reasonable adjustment recommended by occupational health, then make sure you detail those.