help needed with employment tribunal case!

[jules2008]

Hello and hope everyone on this site is well and enjoying the fab weather.

I would like some advice if possible, on my ongoing employment tribunal which was originally filled on july 2009 since this time i have been to a tribunal once in bury st edmunds (not my local town) where things were adjourned until information could be amended this being done my case has been postponed 3x due to the fact there were no judges to hear my case the most recent postponement being for today where there was supposed to be a remedial hearing regarding how much i am owed and other matters which i will go into later. I have been fobbed off since july 2009 now obviously being july 2010

Is this normal as i feel very peeved by all this especially as i could do with the money urgently as i am being taken to court for non payment of council tax is it any wonder???? which they by the way will definately have a judge for.

i will go into more detail about my case but i would like to know if anyone has any experience of the whole tribunal thing as any info would be greatly received.

I am seriously thinking of putting in a major complaint about how all of this is effecting my life due to the stress and inconvenience who if anyone can i complain to as in an umbudsman or is this normal practice for employment tribunals.

any help gratefully received as always.

[jules2008]

Re: help needed with employment tribunal case!

i presume that nobody has any experience with this but i have now written to the director of the tribunal and acas and i will see what comments they make regarding my complaints.

If it comes to it i may have to bring a negligence claim against my advisers from ACAS but i dont think i will get legal aid for this but as a considerable sum is at stake it may be worth while. ( £ 11, 400 )

Has anybody got any advice re lawyers legal advice for negligence claims just in case i need it.

thanks again

[Tools]

Re: help needed with employment tribunal case!

Hi Jules, if you could give details of the issues surrounding your tribunal it would be much easier for people to assist.

Start from the beginning and give as much factual detail as possible please.

[jules2008]

Re: help needed with employment tribunal case!

ok thanks i will try my best.

I worked as a barmaid for a company for 4 mnths and was never paid all in one go i was paid in a piecemeal fashion. Then the final straw came when i was told that i would not be getting paid for the whole month i had just worked. You can imagine i had worked a whole mnth and had bills to pay etc

so i phoned up acas who advised me to fill in an F1 form which i did online and that was fine within the time limit which is 3 mnths after the incident.

I finally got a court date which was a priliminary hearing which went ok but then it came to light that one i had put the wrong person on the form eg i put the landlady personally but i should of put the company name. Anyway this was amended but the next thing that i was told about was that i should of claimed constructive dismissal as well as non payment of wages .

i have actually been told that i have won the case from the point of view the company in question has not replied to any correspondence but that is only from the original claim.

Given this information i asked for the original form to be amended which they declined to do as i was out of time eg outside of the 3 mnths time limit. However, they did say i could put in another claim for the constructive dismissal which would mean i could claim for loss of earnings.

I hope you are with me so far???? lol

I now have another court date which is for the 2nd August which by the way has come after 2 postponed court dates which i have put in a complaint about.

Anyway i have now been told that i could claim not just for non payment of wages which would be £800 plus a mnths notice which would be £800 plus holiday pay which is i dont know. If i could claim for loss of earnings this would be £11,500 so can you see there is a big difference between the two amounts.

anyway now it seems that it is all riding on my court appearance on the 2nd August

I have since had advice from an employment lawyer but this is a bit late in the proceedings and they can only advise me of previous cases and the fact that the company i am sueing has not responded from the start so any case i bring albiet out of time does not affect them at all.

My problem is at the moment that my second claim is out of time and i am claiming that it is still relevant because i was not advised correctly to start with i only received the correct advice after the time limit of 3 mnths.

I have tried to explain it the best i can i hope that you understand my difficulties and have some advice do you know of anyone who has gone through this same thing.

[Amethyst]

Re: help needed with employment tribunal case!

As you only worked for the company for 4 months your rights are limited.

What were the company's reasons for witholding your pay for that month, and was that the reason that you left the job ?

The only claim you would have would be unlawful deduction of wages.

Constructive/unfair dismissal wouldnt apply after only 4 months.

What were your terms of employment ? You say you were employed /paid on a piecemeal basis - did you have a contract as an employee or casual worker ? Were you paid weekly or monthly ? What notice period is specified in your contract ? Holidays - what holidays are specified - they would accrue at something like 2 days each month worked if you were entitled to something like 24 days so you could only ask for 8 if you were entitled to anything.

I can;t see any circumstance where you would be able to claim future loss of earnings after being at a company for 4 months unless you had been injured at work which restricted you working.

Who / what company have you received this advice from and on what basis ???