Advice employment tribunal case settlement received*

[ULA]

Sorry to take a while to get back to.

If you got through to the Tribunal it would be good to know what they said, or you may still be trying to get hold of them.

If the company were monitoring their employees in the workplace then they would need to provide details about the monitoring arrangements and the reason for it, which should have been done via a policy. It's very rare that an employer has the need to carry out monitoring in secret without staff being told they are being monitored. There must have a genuine reason to carry out covert monitoring such as criminal activities or malpractice. It should be done as quickly as possible, and only as part of a specific investigation. The monitoring must stop when the investigation has finished. However my view is this should only be on company premises.

I would just go back to the solicitor and requesting a copy of the company’s monitoring policy provided to staff that has within it the reason for off-site monitoring of staff and the reasons why this is necessary. However maybe wait until you hear from the Tribunal on the CMO issue and you can raise this all in one correspondence.

If you sent the Schedule of Loss (SoL) via recorded delivery, then you should be able to track who signed for it. In which case again in the same correspondence you can confirm the details of when it was delivered and who signed for it. The solicitor can then go back to their client with this information and request your correspondence be sent onto them.

[mave429]

No problem at all and tbh I am grateful for all your help whenever it comes. Anyway I got the info and as such I sent them again a request or disclosure of which they plan on doing by deadline. I also reclarrified the monitoring policy to them with definitions you'd given. They finally came back to me with another offer. It's 3k short of the minimum I would want to accept. When I sent my rejection to them I had mentioned that I believed in the merits of my case based on their ET3 not being in line with the events that occurred etc etc. The monitoring request they have not replied to as well but I know it doesn't exist. Anyway they have added 7k on top of their second offer and tbh I don't want to greedy even though its short of what I think to be fair minimum, I'm now at a crossroads as to what to accept. On my rejection I didn't counter with a figure as I believed as they said final and best offer they wouldn't go up. Now that they have and said final and best and said my 30k is unrealistic, I feel I should take it and be done with the stress. Financially would be amazing as through all this I have built up some debt and would help us. Are you able to help and give me pros and cons here. I don't want to be greedy at all and the stress it's caused etc is more than whatever monetary value they offer or I ask

[ULA]

Well it seems that they are still negotiating which is positive, particularly if you may be thinking that is what you want to do.

I think you need to weigh up whether you want to go on and take this to a Tribunal and if so the factors to think about are 1) it is stressful, 2) the vagaries of a Tribunal who, despite you believing you have a strong case, may not find in your favour, 3) the ongoing time and effort it will take to prepare for the hearing 4) you may find it difficult to move on until you have a resolution and that may be some time away depending on your hearing date.

Although you cannot put a monetary figure to these things they do play a factor in deciding whether to accept a lower settlement figure than you believe you would get if you won a Tribunal hearing, albeit this is not guaranteed. What you might want to do is think about a figure you would be prepared to take as a settlement and walk away, inflate it a bit (gives you wriggle room on a counter offer) and then go back and say if the company was prepared to accept this figure, even though you believe you have a strong case, you would agree settlement by way of a COT3.*

If you do not want to go back with effectively a figure to settle you can carry on preparing for the Tribunal. They may come back later in the process with a further offer. It would not be the first time that an agreement on settlement has been reached just prior to a hearing commencing.*


**

[mave429]

Thanks so much for your help. I countered buy they have restated their figure. I think for me now I am okw ith it and the effort of going through tribunal is stressful. I want an easy life. Anyway thanks so much or all your advice*

[ULA]

I hope that it has been of some help to you. I wish you the best of luck