Employment tribunal I am the claimant.

[MaydayMayday]

I am taking my employer to an ET for the following.

Direct discrimination.
Discrimination arising from a disability.
Indirect discrimination.
Victimisation.
Harassment.
And failure to make reasonable adjustments.

I have already completed the PH, out of the 7 claims put forward, the judge agreed that these six had legs.

It's an international company, who have access to a full legal team, me, well I have my wife as my representative, and what coaching we can get from Valla and the house insurance.

We will be doing this as LiP, which the tribunal is aware.

As concise as I can be;

September 2023 suspended on full pay due to alleged 'gross misconduct''. (There are two members of staff involved, the other is my actual comparator)
Disciplinary set for October was delayed due to my mental health.
Grievances were made (x3) over the next 6 months, this was regarding the handling of a complaint made to them about discrimination. All three grievances were not upheld and that avenue of complaint is now closed, regardless of their aggressive and defamatory responses they now believe they are untouchable.

Disciplinary hearing took place via teams, where I was given a written warning.

The following day I was requested to attend another meeting with HR and a manager to discuss my disability, and the 'risk' I pose to the public and other colleagues.
My actual comparator was not requested to attend such a meeting because, in their own words, 'he is not disabled'.

The advice I was given at that time from ACAS and an employment solicitor was that I was under no obligation to discuss my disability with my employer UNLESS I wished to, and that the meeting could only be used to discuss reasonable adjustments or a capability assessment, which it was not.

I agreed to the meeting on the proviso that it was to discuss reasonable adjustments or a capability assessment.
It started and then was brought to a close 3 minutes later as it was clear that they were fishing for information to justify 'objective justification'. Something that ACAS warned me about.

Even though the disciplinary has concluded, they are saying I cannot return to work unless I have this PCP that HR have invented solely for me. Again, in their own words, 'no other employee has to have this meeting''.

I have worked for this outfit for just over two years.

They are still paying me, however, the ET isn't until the beginning of next year, my MH and that of my poor wife, is taking a hammering, and I believe that they have deliberately delayed the tribunal in an attempt to withdraw my claim.

Constructive dismissal is now an option, is that a new claim via ACAS?

They will be going for objective justification, in that it will cost them too much to bring me back up to speed on the equipment and legislation etc.

Plus they keep saying that I am a risk to members of the public so they'll use that too.

If they sack me then I will go for unfair dismissal.

This is quite complex, although I bet everyone says their case is complex?

The 'lists copy bundle & relevant documents' is the next phase...

In light of the delay to the tribunal, (is there anything I can do to stop them delaying the process?) do we still go by the Judge's orders for the documents to be sent etc?

Any help, will be eternally gratefully received, as will signposting to any other assistance that may be able to help too.

Thank you in advance for your valuable time.

[ULA]

So my understanding is that you are still working for the company (not sure if you are still suspended!) and you have an ET claim in play for which you have already had the outcome of a PH and 6 claims are progressing.

This means that you are now in the timetable of the Employment Tribunal (ET) which I am sorry to say is not moving quickly these days. If you have Case Management Orders (CMO) then that is your timetable in terms of agreeing the index of the bundle between the parties for the final hearing, exchange of the documents related to the index, exchange of witness statements, documents being sent to the ET in advance of the final hearing and then the final hearing date.

What you need to be aware of is that deadlines between the parties does have a leeway of 14 days, if agreed by both parties, however this agreement does not always happen. Any extension beyond this requires an application to the ET by that party but copied to the other party, who can then put into the ET and also copied to the other party any objections. I am sure you are aware that anything you send to the ET must be copied to the other side. If there are slippages of time within the 14 days then this has to not impact the ET deadline for documents being send to them, as they do not have this leeway and need to be adhere to, otherwise it could impact the final hearing taking place and would absolutely require an application to the ET.

Hope this assists and in terms of as you progress through the ET claim, you can come back to this thread at any time for support and guidance. As you may have seen from other threads in this employment area, there are a number of people we are supporting as LiP through the ET process

[MaydayMayday]

Many thanks ULA.

Yes I'm still employed by them but suspended.
Yes we have the CMO, so will stick to those dates, give or take 14 days....
Thank you for your help.

[MaydayMayday]

Am I able to withdraw my consent after the fact?

A document which is factually incorrect, or rather contains untrue statements is being used by my employer to push through objective justification.

It's a medical report if that helps any?

[ULA]

If it was a medical report were you not given the opportunity to review it before being sent out?

[MaydayMayday]

Yes I was given that opportunity but declined.

I'm going to wait for the outcome of the complaint first, as theyre saying it is the Drs "opinion "....

The plot thickens, there might also have been a data breach with the company now too.

Last year the trouble and strife emailed my employer and referenced a medical condition i have.

Now that information has been shared, without consent within the company, who are now using that as a weapon to come up with objective justification.

What recourse, if any, do i have?

[ULA]

Potentially you may be able to use Article 7(3) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to withdraw your consent.

In terms of the medical condition referenced, who was emailed about it. If you feel that personal sensitive information has been spread beyond personnel who were directly given that information, then you should raise a grievance and you may want to visit the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to assist with this.

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/ho...ion-complaint/

[Retromau5]

If you choose to withdraw your consent for the processing of your data, your employer is likely to try and rely on 'Legitimate interest' as their lawful basis. With this there are a few hurdles for them to overcome to prove they are processing your data correctly, and this is then made even more challenging for them as they are using information relating to your health. This is known as 'special category data' and requires a lot more care and security for the processing to be lawful. In a nut shell, if they can't prove they've processed it properly with documented evidence, it's likely to be viewed as unlawful. As ULA said, you should speak to the infomation Commissioner's Office (ICO) as they are best placed to help you with this.

[MaydayMayday]

Apologies for the delay, thank you for your time and responses.

The medical report that was completed has now had clarification from the DR who wrote it, and it now swings in my defence. So I'm happy with that.

A complaint has gone to the ICO regarding the medical info that has been passed between different departments, and a complaint has been made to the ICO regarding a DSAR that wasn't fully complied with.

My next question is, the respondents' rep has asked me to 'set out the relevance of documents to issues' exactly how much info do I need to divulge?

Can I simply respond by saying that they are referred to in my witness statement, or do I need to add anything further?

[ULA]

In response to your question I presume these are documents you have asked to be in the hearing bundle.

Not all documents in a bundle are necessarily referred to in a witness statement, so for those that are then yes you can confirm that documents a, b, c are required because of this reason. However, other documents may be evidence to support your various claims, in which case you can confirm that is the reason for requesting documents e, f, g to be included in the bundle.

[MaydayMayday]

Excellent thank you, so they don't need any further explanation than that?

[ULA]

At the moment i would go back with that and see if that satisfies them. If not them you will need to come back to this thread, post up what they have said (removing any sensitive or personal information) and provide some more explanation of the documents you are wanting to include.

[MaydayMayday]

OK, they have been informed that the documents will be referred to in the witness statement and are evidence to support my claim and are to be included in the bundle.

The next issue is that the employer wants to hold a meeting with me to discuss my disability and other issues blah blah blah...

However, they have made a direct reference to the ET case and want to discuss a point that was raised in the PH.

On the instruction of the Judge, I am, (we are) forbidden to discuss the ET outside the four walls of the court.

The employer seems to have ignored this advice, I have told them THREE times that this cannot happen, and three times they have ignored this.

HOW do I get them to stop this harassment?

[ULA]

Taking an employer to ET whilst still employed can be very difficult in terms of separating the two but that is what is required by both parties in this situation.

Obviously meetings / discussions / interactions in order to perform your duties (albeit you may still be suspended but not aware of any update on this since your post #3) and as would be expected in the normal course of a business day can still continue but anything related to the case must, as the Judge has said, be left for the Tribunal room and any correspondence between the parties to progress the case.

I would therefore go back in writing to your employer confirming that must be the position. That any request for a meeting should include a detailed agenda to avoid "straying" off what is permissible. I would also suggest that if the meeting goes ahead you do so on the basis you are accompanied and that full notes are taken, for which you are provided an editable draft (in case you need to make changes) to approve they are an accurate reflection of that meeting.