Discrimination

[Stopbox]

on 1st February this year I ended up in hospital with suspected meningitis, turns out to be a viral fever. *I rang in on Monday 3rd February to say that I won’t be in due to this. *My husband went off to work and left me having to go out and feed the horses. *So I’m out in a field doing stuff I don’t want to be doing which includes clearing the muck from the area where the horses eat. *When I get down to the muck heap I find a man hiding behind a tree filming me (he’s on the lane outside of the field). *It turns out to be my boss, he then turns around, heads back to work (which is next door to where my horses are). *He then decides that he should come talk to me and walks along the footpath at the bottom of my field, he then has a go at me accusing me of not being disabled if I could push a wheelbarrow or chuck some haylage out for the horses (I have several things wrong with me), he says there’s no way I can have flu, even though I could barely talk and sweat was pouring down my face. *After this confrontation, I went home and rang ACAS and the Independent Commissioners, who advised me to put a grievance in, which I did. *I got a response on Friday 28th February, basically telling me that I had done wrong by feeding my horses, they can’t investigate the discrimination because it’s my word against the managers. *its not the first time he’s discriminated against me or had a lack of duty of care, he’s also discriminated against the only other woman at our depot because she defended me (he hasn’t spoken to her in 2 years and if he wants something from that office he will knock on the window to get the manager out). *But, I do have evidence that another member of staff had a day off ‘sick’ and that his manager signed off his sick form knowing why he took the day off so that the staff member got paid. *He has also told numerous members of staff about what he did. *But he has told me verbally in 5e past that if I’m sick to not come into work just do my horses and go home. *So I never thought there’d be a problem.

In the past I have been excluded from courses due to my manager, saying that he needs me at work to cover the phones, but I’m part time so would never be able to cover the phones for the whole day, *he has made all female staff prior to me cry, he has told other managers to stop their staff from talking to me in my office, even though the talk was about work. *I have written messages about this between me and an ex member of staff. *He’s even caused other members of staff leave because he won’t acknowledge them and they realise that he’s very petty.

im just wondering what I should do now and if I have a good enough case of constructive dismissal or if I need more evidence. *I know I’ve been ‘handled’ by the MD because I’ve already threatened employment tribunal, but they won’t do anything about my manager, they always defend him (he’s also a director of the company). *However, when the MD gave me the letter on Friday he kept repeating that I need to make sure I read the last paragraph, the last paragraph goes on about appeal, but to be honest I don’t know if I should appeal or not because it very much feels like a boys club and they band together.

please help

[Law Student 5]

I am sorry that you need to go through this, and I hope the following advice will be helpful to you.

I would like to clarify the fact before suggesting you any advice, and assuming the manager you mentioned refers to your boss,

1- you called in sick at work and was spotted by your boss (manager) when you were taking care of your horses. He then accused you of faking disabled as you can push a wheelbarrow or carrying our other activities. He also accused you of your flu even though you have show symptoms of the illness.

2- The manager has a history of discriminating female employees, such as the lady who defended you, and previous employees. He will also notify other managers to stop their staffs from talking to you.

3- You have evidence to prove that the manager signed a male employee off after knowing the reason and that employee got paid. You also believe it would not be a problem as the manager had verbally told you to take care of the horses and go home if you are sick.

From my understanding, in terms of evidence, you are only holding (1) the written message between you and an ex-employee regarding the issues of your manager, and (2) evidence of the manager signing off a male employee.
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Constructive dismissal is when you are forced to leave your job against your will due to your employer's behaviour. I believe you are looking to claim either or both - 'force you to accept unreasonable changes to how you work' and 'let other employees harass or bully you'.

This following website will provide you with the idea of what constitutes to bullying in the workplace and other relevant information:https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/wo...ive-dismissal/

Moving on - according to the Government website, it suggests you to resolve the issues out with your employer first, which I believe you have done so. If not, you may want to consider this as your first step.

Then you can consider going to an employment tribunal, or if you are threatened with dismissal (or are dismissed) then you can get help from a third party, such as mediation, conciliation and arbitration.

However, I would suggest you to first gather as many evidence as you can, such as statements from previous employees, and have all the conversation (e.g. text messages, emails) between you and your manager backed up for future reference.

Good luck and if you have any further questions, please reply here and we will answer you asap.*