Employment Tribunal

[LuckPeter]

Hello,

I have a question regarding disclosable documents.

I have given the Respondents Purchase Orders which I have raised as proof of my work. The Respondent has redacted all those documents and placed them in draft bundle.

I made application to have these documents not redacted in the bundle and during the hearing the Respondent told the ET judge that these documents contain BACs information and ET judge ruled that these documents contain sensitive commercial details and BACs details that is why my application was refused.

Now I know that these Purchase Orders (POs) don't have any BACs information, the only contain requisition number, order number, date the PO was raised, total cost of order, description of order and some descriptions of order also include company name (since it identifies the company then this part should be redacted) and if this PO was approved or not.

All these redacted PO prove that work in Capital Projects continued as normal and it proves that my manager lied to the the Director of Finance who told my manager to remove me from the PDR list as I worked for Capital Projects. The Director of Finance was placed in charge of the Facilities, Estates and Capital Projects untill vacancy post for Director of Environment, Facilities, Estates and Capital Projects was filled but since he did not work in Facilities, Estates and Capital Projects he did not really know how the Capital Projects worked and my manager took advantage of this and told the Director of Finance in November 2020 that my move to Capital Projects did not happen yet because of (name redacted) leaving and team being left in flux. Other evidence show that my move to Capital Projects was part of the Cost Improvement Program for the financial year 2019-2020 approved by previous directorship of Environment, JP and current Head of Capital Projects.

The Respondent prevented disclosure knowing that the name who they redacted, I would know who it is and that I could expose my manager lying in this email. Also, because someone left, the team we not being left in flux, work continued in Capital Project's and all these POs support that.

Can I make screenshot of these POs and put it in my witness statement to prove that my manager was lying in that email and work continued as normal? I would redact the companies name from these POs so that no identifiable information was seen.

These POs don't have any sensitive information, if you would find these POs on the street you could not do anything with them or from them. No detriment this could have caused my employer or companies mentioned if someone found these POs. If it did then they can sue me in civil court is that correct?

[ULA]

Without know the details of your claim I can only provide an answer once I know the answer to the following question:

What specifically does the Judgement from that hearing about the PO documents?

Although my view is that if the Judge has made an order that the documents remain redacted in the bundle then redacted they will have to stay.

[LuckPeter]

The application for disclosure was refused

[ULA]

If the application for disclosure has been refused then my view is they cannot be added in.

If you did the respondent will have the right to refer the Tribunal to the refusal of your application and seek to have the documents removed
.

[LuckPeter]

Yes I understand that but the judge refused this application because the Respondent said there is BACS information and commercially sensitive information on the Purchase Orders but those purchase orders have no BACS information or commercially sensitive information. The Respondent lied to the ET judge to prevent disclosure which confirms that works in Capital Projects continued as normal. These Purchase Orders confirm that my manager lied in email to the financial director by saying that my approved (by director of Capital Projects) move/promotion to Capital Projects did not happen yet due to this person leaving and the team being left in flux. These Purchase Orders prove work continued as normal after this person left and team was not left in flux as my manager gave as an excuse for my promotion not happening.

This is the reason why I want to make screenshot of these Purchase Orders and include them directly into my witness statement. If I put those screenshots in my witness statement and show the relevance, why I needed them and if I not show the company name in those Purchase Orders then no harm will be done, right?

[ULA]

I presume the application was done via email communication with the Tribunal and the Respondent rather than a hearing. Can you upload your application (anonymised) and confirm you attached unredacted copies of the Purchase Orders to support your application.

[LuckPeter]

I provide the Purchase Orders to the Respondent to put in the bundle, the Respondent then redacted them, I made application for these Purchase Orders not to be redacted, at the hearing the judge refused it, now I want to make a screenshot of the Purchase Orders and include the iny witness statement, I want to show, dates, amounts and what works were done and any name of company I will redact. Thes Purchase Orders will prove that work continued as normal in Capital Projects because these Purchase Orders are from 3 years worth of work so I can show work done the previous year to work done that year which my manager lied when he emailed the director of finance by telling him that my approved move to Capital Projects did not happen because this person left the the Capital Projects team being lef in flux. These Purchase Orders show that work continued in Capital Projects as normal and the Capital Project team was not left in flux after this person left.

So if I include these purchases ordered in my witness statement without any name of the companies and show that they support my statement and the Response lied during the preliminary hearing because these purchase orders prove that my manager lied inorder to block my move/promotion to Capital Projects.

[ULA]

As I have previously stated if there is an Order from the Judge that the documents are not to be disclosed then even in the format you are suggesting I would strongly advise against it for the following reasons:

1. As soon as the respondent sees your witness statement they are likely to make an application to the Tribunal for the screenshots to be removed.
2. That will then incur the irritation of the Tribunal/Judge who resided at the hearing as you are going against the Orders of a Judge.
3. Given there has been an Order made in regard to these purchase orders, the respondent could legitimately put in a Costs Award application against you for continuing to deal with this particular matter, given it had already been decided upon.
4. You potentially become considered as a vexatious litigant.

A suggested way to deal with this would be "delicately" within your witness statement set out the specific detail on the PO (not commercially sensitive) that you wish to rely on. This will need to be a very fine balance to ensure that you do not infer anything in respect of the Judge's decision and you must be able to directly relate it to the relevance of your witness statement. Anything you do put in, that is taken from the PO, will need to be put in quotation marks.

[LuckPeter]

Thank you for your advice and information.