Unfair Dismissal Claim - Forced out after reporting manager to HR

[Flunckk]

I have spoken to CItizens Advice who said I have a claim for Unfair Constructive Dismissal. I have submitted a Formal Grievance against 2 Directors and a Manager of the site I work at. I need advice on what outcomes are possible from my situation for when I go to my meeting next week.

My role is Assistant Manager. Back in December, an employee from another unit came to me with a complaint against her manager that he was sending unwanted nude photos, dirty messages and grabbing her while at work. As the complaint was about a senior member of staff, I did what I believed to be the right thing and contacted HR about the situation. It has been over a month since and I have been treated terribly, to the point I have had to go to the Doctors and be signed off due to Work Related Stress and Anxiety, as well as I have given in my notice as I feel cannot work there anymore.

I have been spoken to by both Directors of the site I work at multiple times about how I should never contact HR or anyone outside of the site. They have told me that everything should only go through themselves and never to HR, speaking to me in a way I have felt the need to apologise multiple times in person and via email for the way I dealt with the situation.

The Directors are very close to the Manager I reported and have frequent catch ups or chats with him. So I felt I couldn’t go to them with this situation with the fear they would cover it up due to their relationship. Then just the other day, the Manager I reported approached me and confronted me about the report in the middle of the shop floor. Nothing violent, but he pestered me with questions until I told him everything that I told HR, as well as what the female employee had shown me. After this confrontation, I had to apologise to the Manager over text message as I feared of him making my job even harder, which he responded to.

The points I have mentioned in my Formal Grievance are that I have been treated differently after contacting HR and the fact that the Manager has confronted me about the situation when it should be confidential.
I am just looking for advice on what outcomes I can request or look for from this? I have a feeling I will be looking at taking this to a Tribunal through ACAS if needed as I have had a phone call with HR already and they seemed to dismiss a lot of my points.

I should also note that the company is across different sites. Each site has a Hierarchy as follows:
Employee - Team Leader - Assistant Manager - Manager - Site Director Designate - Site Director - (External) HR

[ULA]

I am sorry to hear you have found yourself in such a situation.

Since this is at the grievance stage, from the perspective of the person holding the meeting they will be looking at whether to uphold your grievance in full, uphold parts of the grievance and reject others, or reject it in full. If it is decided to uphold the grievance wholly or in part, what should then be identified is the action or actions that it will taken to resolve the issue.

If you are not happy with the outcome of the decision made, then you should be given the right to appeal the decision.

In terms of outcomes you can request given what you have stated are the facts here are some suggestions:

1. If you are still concerned about the employee that came to you with her concerns, then in my view there should be an investigation into the allegations she has made.
2. Given you say the company is across differenct sites, do you feel that the treatment you have been receiving since you went to HR might not continue if you asked to be transferred to a different site if feasible for you? If so that may be an option for you to request.

If you do ultimately decide that you cannot continue in your position and you are going to resign and claim constructive unfair dismissal, then this is a big decision to make particularly if you do not have another job to go to.

I hope this has helped but if you have any further questions ahead of your meeting, just come back to this thread.

[Flunckk]

Thank you for your reply.

It is unfeasible to work on a different site as they the closest is around 40 miles away. I have resigned already with 3 weeks left of my 4 week notice after finding another job. However, the job I have found is of less pay and I am losing out on what I thought to be a good opportunity in management for myself.

The financial loss is going to have an impact on myself due to expecting a baby in June. I am likely to want to claim Constructive Unfair Dismissal if this is possible. What would you say the chances are of this being a successful outcome if I went for Unfair Dismissal?

[ULA]

I presume you have been employed there for more than 2 years?

Did you raise the grievance before or after you resigned? The employment tribunal would normally expect someone to try and resolve the issue/s internally first, by way of the grievance procedure, before resigning.

On what basis did you hand in your notice i.e did you state it was constructive unfair dismissal and then stating your reason/s.

You could not claim unfair dismissal as you have not been unfairly dismissed, you resigned so the claim, if there was one, would need to be constructuve unfair dismissal.

A constructive dismissal claim can be difficult to win at an employment tribunal as the onus is on you to prove that your employer breached your employment contract or acted in a way that that was so detrimental to you that you had no option but to resign. There is also the unknown of what defence your employer may make in response to your claim. In addition you have also gone some way to mitigating your losses by finding another job to start once you have completed your notice period, albeit the new job is on a lower salary. However if your were successful in any claim the Tribunal would take this into account when making an award.

[Flunckk]

Hello
I had my Grievance meeting on Friday 10am. It was held by the Area Director who had HR making notes. However, I am not too sure it was dealt with correctly.

In the meeting, the HR Note taker did a LOT of talking. They were asking me questions as well as the Area Director who chaired it. This made it a 2 on 1 situation.

It has also been 24 hours and I have not received or been offered a copy of the notes/minutes.

In the meeting, they both laughed at me when I mentioned all the advice I had been given. They told me that I had been lied to and barely let me get a word in edge ways when I brought up the legal side of things.

They also spent a lot of time trying to use the fact I am expecting a child against me. Knowing I am off work with Anxiety at the moment, they kept referring to “why would I risk losing money when I have a little mouth to feed in a few weeks.” Which would obviously cause me more anxiety in the meeting.

A few notes also:
I did take in a companion. Due to the nature of the grievance I didn’t take a colleague, and I am not part of a union.

The legal advice I was given was from Citizens Advice, Protect-Advice, ACAS and a solicitor consultation. So I believe it will all be correct.

[ULA]

Firstly I would email both the Area Director and the HR person and ask them to provide a copy of the notes/minutes. They may say that they will provided with the letter confirming the outcome of the meeting but ask anyway. You need to make sure they are an accurate reflection of the meeting including some of the inappropriate comments that we were being made in regard to your pregnancy. If they are not then you need to challenge this but make sure you do so in writing so there is a record.

Did your companion takes notes? If so that will be really useful in comparing when you get the notes from the company.

I am sure, given the list of people you have approached for support and if they have all said the same, then it is hardly likely that they would all be incorrect in the legal advice they have given you.

When you get the outcome of the grievance you may need to consider what your next course of action will be. However, if you are not happy, then you should appeal, as that will complete the grievance process which is a positive for you in the event you do decide to make an claim against your employer.