Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

[Skaatiii]

Hi
OH has had claim accepted for ET and Im trying to prepare case paperwork, but noticed that info sent with hearing date includes a page refering to CMO's which says
"the claimant shall set out in writing what remedy the Tribunal is being asked to award. The claimant shall send a copy to the Respondent. The claimant shall include any evidence and documentation supporting what is claimed and how it is calculated. The claimant shall also include information about what steps the claimant has taken to reduce any loss (including any earnings or benefits received from new employment)

Claim is for unfair dismissal and breach of contract for other issues and failing to act upon a grievance or follow their policy for the same.

My questions are:
1. The claim relates to Unfair dismissal due to various failings by the Employer during the redundancy process and their failure to adhere to their redundancy policy. OH has found another job and has not lost out financially as they paid him enhanced redundancy payments and the claim solely relates to the failings by the Employer during process - what remedy do I require? and how do I evidence this as surely its for the ET to decide?
2. What remedy should I ask for concerning the Employer ignoring the Grievance? Financial ??? again surely thats for the ET to decide?
3. Do I only need to send evidence for the remedy or for the case? I think just the remedy but I want to check lol

Any help or advice from someone who has been through the process would be really really appreciated...

Finally I HAVE to submit this evidence to the employer before Monday next so please leave me some advice even if its just - go seek help from ......

[mariefab]

Re: Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

The purpose of Tribunal unfair dismissal awards (remedy) it to put you in the same financial position that you would have been in if you hadn't been unfairly dismissed.

There are 2 compensatory awards, basic and compensatory.

The basic award is calculated like this:
For each complete year worked between the age of 22 and 41 - one week's pay.
For each complete year worked over the age of 41 - one and a half week's pay.
(Up to a combined maximum of 20 years.)

However, any redundancy payment made by the employer will be deducted from this amount.

The compensatory award is based on the difference between the amount your OH would have earned if he hadn't been unfairly dismissed and the amount that he actually earned (or received in unemployment benefits if applicable).

If his income from his former job included benefits (e.g. company car, pension contributions from his employer etc.) that are not matched in his new job he should start by providing a breakdown of his wages to show these amounts.
It may be easiest to demonstrate his losses by working it out on a weekly basis.
i.e. Week 1 (??/??/??-??/??/??) Old income - Actual income = £difference
If there are several weeks where the £difference doesn't change just group the dates together.

He can claim up to the date of the full hearing and (assuming that new job pays less than the old one) a reasonable amount of future loss (2 years?).

If the redundancy process undertaken was flawed the Tribunal has the discretion to apply a % increase to the compensatory award. It varies according to the seriousness but you could probably add a 25% uplift to the final figure if you believe that you can evidence serious failings.

Be aware that if the enhanced redundancy payment received wipes out the basic award any excess can be deducted from the compensatory award.

Hope this helps
Marie

[Skaatiii]

Re: Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

Hi Marie,

Thanks for your reply. At least I understand where they are coming from regarding the 'remedy' now. The problem is - OH doesnt want financial restitution, he actually did very well financially when he was dismissed - BUT he feels very strongly that the employer should be 'told off' for the many failings during the process, i.e. failure to follow company policy/consultation/selection process etc.
He formerly worked for a major national/international employer who has dismissed hundreds, if not thousands of people and we certainly are not alone in taking them to tribunal, but he wants to try and prevent the company from continuing to act in the manner that they are, mainly IMO because they have been getting away with it for so long.

Im worried now that the ET may feel that the redundancy part of the claim is vexious or frivalous...Should (or could?) we alter the claim to remove the redundancy element? I dont want this to influence the breach of contract complaint and TBH the redundancy issue always felt like a weak spot in my view.

[enaid]

Re: Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

Hi, I have actually attended a Tribunal as support to a friend. I did go through the motions myself but took a settlement before my tribunal.
Both my friend and I went for unfair dismissal and both of us were only doing this because of the money we had lost.
As far as only giving the firm a ticking off for the way they went about dismissing your husbnd am not sure if they will do that to be honest.
Here is a link Employment Tribunal contacts
I would give them a call and if the can not help you then ACAS are brilliant and their number is on there as well.

Enaid x

[Skaatiii]

Re: Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

Hi Enaid

Thank you for the link it was very helpful. I have spoken to the ET who have advised me to put everything in an email to go before the judge as a query. So hopefully I should hear something shortly, if not - I have decided (due to the tight timescale involved) to ask for the full amount he received as a redundancy payment plus a nominal amount i.e. £10 and to offset the amount he received as reduction of loss. That should enable the claim to proceed without asking for damages against the respondent and will ensure we comply with the CMO.

[mariefab]

Re: Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

I'm a bit concerned that you (or I) might have misunderstood. So, let's try this...

Could you work out how much your OH would have earned if the redundancy/unfair dismissal had never happened and he was still doing his former job. Just what his normal wages would have been from the last day he worked for the Respondent up to this week (or the last usual monthly paydate if that's easier).

Then work out how much he has actually earned in the same period and add on the redundancy payment.

Is he worse off? If so by (very roughly) how much?

[Skaatiii]

Re: Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

Hi Marie,

He's actually much better off because he was paid PILON to mid-August and was very fortunate to be head hunted to a new job almost immediately his employment was terminated. The new job has a similar salary - although the job is only on a six month contract initially. Hence my problem with a 'remedy' because financially he hasn't suffered - however, as previously stated the employer acted badly during the process and many others have been treated this way, OH is adamant that this should be included in the claim. The only way I can see to persue this element of the claim and specify a remedy is to claim compensation for additional stress due to the failure to adhere to redundancy policy and infringing his rights as an employee whilst going through this situation, but its really difficult to quantify as a claim which is why I was going to ask for a nominal amount. How much do you claim for stress/anxiety?? and how on earth do you evidence it?

[mariefab]

Re: Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

Apologies in advance for the negativity.

Although an Employment Tribunal has jurisdiction to deal with lots of types of claim, the remedies that they can provide are mostly limited to compensation/damages and (rarely) reinstatement/re-engagement.
For the most part it's all about the money.

Before April 2009 there were strict statutory processes for redundancy, disciplinary and grievances and employers could be penalised (compensation again) for any breaches. Since then, as long as an employer can show that they followed some basic steps, no uplift would be awarded.

In your OH's case, if it wasn't the case that he is actually better off financially, they could (if he won) have awarded a basic and a compensatory award for unfair dismissal and damages for breach of contract if he was owed unpaid wages, notice or holiday pay.

Unless your OH has a disability that his former employer could reasonably have known would be likely to be adversely affected by additional stress and he can evidence that the way that they went about things was bound to cause that stress, or he evidence that their behaviour caused him to become disabled (and he also claimed some form of disability discrimination in his ET1) I don't see how he could be awarded any compensation for this.

As enaid implied it's unlikely that a Tribunal would give his former employer a telling off. It's not really their purpose. They tend to just stick to facts and generally tend not to express criticism. So, if that's what he was hoping to achieve he's likely to be disappointed.

If someone has been unfairly dismissed for gross misconduct but had suffered no financial loss it could be considered understandable that they would want to still proceed to Tribunal so that they would have a better response to a potential employers question on why they left their last job.

Unfortunately redundancy is so common these days that there's no stigma attached to it; and my concern is that once the Respondent discovers that your OH is better off they may ask the Tribunal to strike out the claim on frivolous grounds because there's nothing to achieve other than possibly agreeing with him that the redundancy process was unfair. If they have had to pay legal fees to date it's possible that they could ask to be awarded costs.

[Skaatiii]

Re: Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

That's my concern as well. The claim also relates to two breach of contract issues; which is why I was considering altering the claim. Would it be frowned up by the ET if the redundancy/grievance issue remained 'tacked onto' the claim for breach of contract - both of which I can evidence quite happily

With regard to the redundancy issue the main gripe centres around mis-use of the process and the wrong consultation period being used, and general failings.

Could I PM you as there are specific reasons why OH wants to persue the redundancy issue and I would really like some advice on these.

The remedy for the breach of contract and evidence is ready to go off to the Respondent for them to receive prior to Monday - so this is the only loose end I have now.

[Skaatiii]

Re: Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

OK.... further update. Having spoken to ACAS this am, seems although OH can't claim compensation for the redundancy issue - he can claim 'loss of statutory rights' which can be awarded £350.00 by the ET if upheld. There is also the potential for a 'protection award' if the consultation period is found to be incorrect. So all paperwork is now ready to send to Respondent.

Thanks for your help, No doubt I'll be back when things progress....

[WendyB]

Re: Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

And although he is better off now, would the fact that his new job is only a 6 month contract be brought into play? As surely if he hadn't been made redundant he could have looked forward to being employed for more than 6 months? Ie when the new job ends, you'll be worse off. If that makes sense?

[Skaatiii]

Re: Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

Thanks for that Wendy - thats an angle that I had missed tbh. Am amending the paperwork now

[mariefab]

Re: Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

(Note to self: Pay attention to what is written!)

I'm sorry, I completely missed the significance of your reference to 'major national/international employer who has dismissed hundreds, if not thousands of people'.

ACAS is right. When a collective redundancy is involved there are stricter processes required and failure to comply with these can result in a protective award of up to 90 days pay being ordered by a Tribunal.

I'm a newbie here, so I don't yet know what the ettiquette is on this forum regarding PMs.
If Teaboy (waves hi to Teaboy) or one of the other regulars here says it's OK feel free to PM me. Otherwise you could post all the steps they folowed here and we can compare their process to the required one.

[WendyB]

Re: Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

Anyone can PM whoever they want. Some people prefer it all put on a thread, rather than PM, just in case it's wrong, then others could correct ( not getting at you Marie, you obviously know your stuff. ) of course, there may be confidential stuff that the OP doesn't want on a thread, hence the use of a PM.

[Skaatiii]

Re: Employment Tribunal Hearing booked. Urgent need to send info by Friday

OK I now realise that I have 'mucked up' the remedy I sent to the ET. I didn't realise that what they wanted was a one page schedule of loss.

Is there any way that I can change this - without alienating the ET judge and more importantly, I am obviously out of my depth.... Does anyone know how I can get free legal help..I would like a referal to the FRU but 1. have no idea how to go about this and 2. am worried about the time I have available due to CMO.

The ET have confirmed that the respondent has replied contesting the claim - but Im waiting for a copy of this response to come through the post.

Would I be better off trying to push for an ACAS meeting to try and settle without going to the ET - bearing in mind I may have 'mucked things up' already?

Help please....