Employment Tribunal

[Nata0788]

Hi there!
I need help with my schedule of loss and understand the best escenario for a settlement.
I have an ongoing tribunal case for unfair dismissal and unlawful deductions from wages.
anyone here knows where or can help!
I have called every law centre with no luck yet.
The company made an offer that I don’t believe is fair claiming that if I don’t take it they will claim the tribunal costs to me.
Please advice!!!

[ULA]

What help do you need with your Schedule of Loss (SoL)? If you need a template then I can post one up for you.

The rule in the Employment Tribunal is that each party pays for its own legal costs unless where a Tribunal considers that:

a) a party or their representative has acted vexatiously, abusively, disruptively or otherwise unreasonably in either the bringing of the proceedings, or part, or the way that the proceedings, or part, have been conducted; OR
b) any claim or response had no reasonable prospect of success; OR
c) a hearing has been postponed or adjourned on the application of a party made less than 7 days before the date on which the relevant hearing begins.

So you need to be aware that yes, a costs order could be made, if the above circumstances arise and a Tribunal either of their own judgement or after an application is made by either party and they determine that an award should be made.

[Nata0788]

I have a schedule of loss and I need to make some amends to it that the other side has made me aware off.
Do I send this new to them to continue settlement discussions or directly to the tribunal?
Am I allowed to put awards in there for not consulting as a best practice? I understand the code says needs to be for >20 people but could the tribunal find it fair as its a best practice. When made redundant I was not offered options, consultation, time to litigate or any other.

[ULA]

I am not sure where you are in the Employment Tribunal (ET) process but if it is early stages and you just want to update your SoL for the purposes of settlement discussions then just send it to the respondent for the time being.

If the company did not consult at all, even for less than 20 employees, then if your were successful the tribunal may consider an award for this.

Not sure what you mean about giving you time to litigate, redundancy is not litigation, it a process.

[Nata0788]

How many days can I add the award for?
They claim that there is no law about that so it shouldnt be part of my claim.

I already had a Preliminary Hearing and we have started the disclosure of docs.

They stated not paying me and put me on unpaid leave due to financial circumstances, and made me redundant owing me 2 months salary. Now they don’t want to disclose things like banks statements or receiving a considerable sum of taxes. Allegation is not relevant but since their financial circumstances where told as the main problem I believe those are relevant.
would this be ok?

[ULA]

There is only a determined award of up to 25% for not following the ACAS code when it comes to dismissals. Redundancy exercises are specifically excluded from what the ACAS code covers

Redundancy non consultation only has a formula for more than 20 staff. As I said it would be down to a tribunal deciding this as part of a successful claim if they felt it relevant, so no at this stage you cannot add any formula as an award.

Can you confirm what you claim is for, I presume at least an element is unlawful deduction of wages?

[Nata0788]

Yes unlawful deduction of wages and unfair dismissal

[ULA]

Thanks for the confirmation of your claim and where ypu are in the process.

In terms of disclosure of documents you need to pull together everything you have relating to the non payment of wages and the unfair dismissal.

Is the respondent representing themselves or do they have representation? I presume they have responsibility for producing the final bundle?

You mentioned lack of financial information being provided by the respondent are they a limited company? Is so they have to post annual accounts at Companies House so the last set of accounts should be accessible from there. That may give an insight into their finances at least foe rhe last financial year.

[Nata0788]

Thank you.
So, can I add any uplifts for unfair dismissal?
I wasn’t offered a right to appeal.
I added a basic award. But I'm not sure if it applies as I might have been paid the redundancy under a different description on the payslips.

they have representation, and so they have asked for 2 extra weeks to complete the disclosure, and by the time it ended, they only provided a few documents.
Now they want to extend all dates because of this, which I have clearly outlined when giving the extra time they could not do.

can I still ask to see the documents, I request it? If they are in fact not relevant like they outline will this play against me?

They are putting together the bundle.

the unpaid wages they are trying to claim I was under the unpaid leave although I did formally expressed before it’s commence that this was not a mutual agreement. And later raised grievances to get clarification on it.
I understand the ACAS code uplifts 25% here.!
Anything else?

[ULA]

Was your termination reason given as redundancy?

From your basic award you will need to deduct any redundancy payment. You may be able to work back on the payslip as to whether you have received statutory redundancy as this is a set formula which I have detailed below:

* half a week’s pay for each complete year of service you were aged under 22
* 1 week’s pay for each complete year of service you were aged 22 to 40
* 1.5 weeks’ pay for each complete year of service you were aged 41 or older

When is your final hearing due and by how much are they asking to extend the deadlines. I presume they have written to the ET with this request if they have already delayed by 14 days? Parties can agree a 14 day extension between themselves, so long as that does not impact information being provided to the ET, however any more than that should require an application to the ET, copy to you.

If documents are not relevant to either your claim or the respondent's defence then they are irrelevant and should not be in the bundle.

You say "the unpaid wages they are trying to claim I was under the unpaid leave ..." please can you provide more explanation.

Yes there is an uplift of up to 25% for not following the ACAS code however that does not apply to termination due to redundancy.

[Nata0788]

I am In brief: They said they could not pay me anymore. So they put me on unpaid leave for 2 months, and when I got the official letter about it, I learnt it was not a temporary thing or that the salaries would be paid after the time while they were finding resources.
I emailed them before, starting with several questions about this, and after no response, I stated that this was not a mutual agreement. They ignored my emails and stopped paying me. A month later, I consulted with an immigration lawyer ( they were my sponsors), and I realised that this was all unlawful, so I asked to be reinstated in my job or follow the accurate redundancy process.
The first month unpaid was August.
They waited until October to send the letter and made some payments, one of which I presume is the redundancy, but it is not confirmed whether taxes were taken from it.
They didn't pay the months of August and September = unlawful deductions of wages. So, I have added those to my SL and a 25% uplift.

Now, regarding the redundancy, I was not given the right to appeal.

I was told this was all because of financial problems yet they received big amounts during my last year, when they also asked me to start helping the Operations Department with recovering moneys from clients.
Now they said that there was a fair redundancy, that my job was no longer needed and that I have not been replaced so the job disappeared entirely.
They don't want to disclose financial documents which is what I was told.
And are partially disclosing conversation.

They have offers a settlement that I don't find fair 6 months after I made my claim. And the lawyer is saying she will use this settlement in case of not accepting it and getting less from the ET to make me pay for the costs

[ULA]

The Employment Tribunal works on the basis of each party pays their own costs and this is typically what happens. However costs can be awarded against a party of there is an application by the other party for costs and it is successful, or a Judge orders that costs be paid. Costs can be awarded in the following situations:

a) when a party (or that party's representative) has acted vexatiously, abusively, disruptively or otherwise unreasonably in either the bringing of the proceedings (or part) or the way that the proceedings (or part) have been conducted; or
(b) when any claim or response had no reasonable prospect of success.
c) a Tribunal may also make such an order where a party has been in breach of any order or practice direction or where a hearing has been postponed or adjourned on the application of a party.