Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

[bluebottle]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

Hi LFC,

This case has Harassment under Section 2, Protection from Harassment Act 1997 written all over it.

Regarding your solicitor's comment about reinstatement, after what has happened, would you be comfortable with this or would you go back, but on your terms only? It's not unreasonable to expect your former employers to give way on this point, no matter how much it might gall them, but if they want to avoid loss of reputation and financial damage before an ET, it is the lesser of two evils and probably easier to negotiate. Unfortunately, you cannot force your former employers to terminate the manager's employment - bullies are notorious for bullying employers as well as other employees. You could and should, however, make sure that the manager cannot engage in any further harassment and bullying. In this respect, you have the law on your side in the form of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. From what you have said, your employer is already in breach of these two pieces of legislation.

The other alternatives - an acceptable reference with suitable compensation or an ET hearing for unfair dismissal and harassment - are, probably, going to be more likely if the appeal does not bear fruit.

[leclerc]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

Thanks Teaboy- I have my appeal on Weds and today I have been to see a solicitor.He said that firstly I cannot claim against my new emplyer as they are within their rights to remination my employment as the reason the quoted was failure to disclose a pending disciplinary and not able to meet the requirements of 2 satisfactory references.

He suggested I attend the appeal and ask them why on earth are we even having this appeal when I had already resigned and you had accepted my resignation. He then said I needed to look to negotiate with them- either by been reinstated, or agreeing on an acceptable reference with compensation and failing that telling them I will be going to ET for unfair dismissal for defamation. to date still not received any copies of said transaction(s) so when i go into the appeal on Weds I still am not going to be able to confirm or deny if the transaction(s) was mine or not!!. so have held off sending the above letter from Teaboy just yet. It was a free half hour consultation I had and whilst he was happy to send me a letter to my old employer it would cost me but if after Weds and the appeal isn't successful he would go down the ET route on a no win no fee basis. What are everyone else's thoughts?

I think it was a fair assessment, the choice of reinstatement or a good reference PLUS compensation. Again, they should be providing the evidence and their continued failure to do so is, in all likelihood, an ET case. The solicitor would not be offering to do so on a no win no fee basis if that was not the case. What you need to be is prepared for the meeting. If you have not received evidence from them then at the meeting tell them that you want that noted down because you cannot defend without evidence of wrongdoing.

[lfc3110]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

Just to keep you all updated. Had my appeal today at 4.30pm . Apparently I was only there to discuss the reasons for the appeal- and not the reasons for the disciplinary. It has transpired that the reason I didn't get the invite to the disciplinary hearing is because the sent it to a slightly different address. It was sent to XXXXXX Road instead of XXXXXX Rise!!. They said it wouldn't make a difference or not as the postcode was cofrrect. Anyway I really didn't get the chance to discuss the reasons for the dismissal at all- but got a few points across about Hr phoning my new employers up even though they said they hadn't and bits about the harassment but not in as much depth as I would have liked. As we ran out of time- they adjourned and said they would either call me back if they needed to see me again or write to me. So really I am non the wiser after todays meeting

[teaboy2]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

In regards to the incorrect address on the invite, they will find that at tribunal it will matter as they would have to provide evidence that its was indeed served on you. Only way to do that would be if they sent it recorded delivery and it had to be signed for on receipt, which i doubt they did. And it is well known fact that an incorrect street name can lead to the post going elsewhere. I only recently received a letter with the same address but for a village located 3 miles outside of town, that just happened to have the same street name accept road is replaced with close.

End of the day the post code is insignifficant as it relates to the area only. When its being delivered and sorted at the local pos depot, they go by the street name and town, not by the post code. Only time the post code is used is when its sorted at the local depot of the sender, so that it goes to the right postal area for delivery.

[leclerc]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

100% it DOES matter because I had a similar albeit it was not the same postcode, thing, which delayed the disciplinary by a further 24 hours because it was sent to the wrong house.

[bluebottle]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

100% correct, Leclerc. Exactly the same for summonses, warrants, court orders et all.

I've seen police officers make serious errors by not getting the street name correct - errors that have let dangerous criminals escape and innocent people get their front doors kicked in by a load of hairy-arsed policemen.

LFC's employers are well and truly in the excrement over this and I cannot, in all honesty, see an ET having much sympathy with them. If anything, I feel that LFC's employers are in for a hammering. They deserve it.

[teaboy2]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

Just to add - An employer should also be registered as a data controller with the ICO, not only that they are liable under the data protection act to ensure all personal data of an individual is recorded accurately, plus as they clearly sent a letter containing personal details to the wrong address, then its also a breach of the data protection act 1998 as the letter will have disclosed personal information and the fact the data subject was facing disciplinary action at work, not to mention inform the person who got the letter through their letter box of where the employee works.

[lfc3110]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

they showed me a copy of the envelope- addressed to me- at the incorrect street name- sent special delivery showing as been refused. Theyy seem to think I refused it- but that was not the case- I never received it. I am disgusted to think that my personal information could have potentially been read by someone else!!

[leclerc]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

they showed me a copy of the envelope- addressed to me- at the incorrect street name- sent special delivery showing as been refused. Theyy seem to think I refused it- but that was not the case- I never received it. I am disgusted to think that my personal information could have potentially been read by someone else!!

They cannot assume that you refused it. Considering that they had your email address why did they not question why you had refused to accept the notice asking you to attend the disciplinary meeting?
Furthermore, do they have your correct address on their files? If they do then they are 100% totally liable and they are in deep trouble. Have they sent your final payslip to the wrong address as well? Has any other correspondence been sent to you from the employer to the wrong address?

They are in the wrong on this one.

[lfc3110]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

they gave me my final payslip at yesterday's appeal meeting. I have had my pay slips comer through ok whilst I've been off but to be honest I never noticed it they had Road instead of Rise on them. It just gives me yet another bullet at ET I think

[leclerc]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

they gave me my final payslip at yesterday's appeal meeting. I have had my pay slips comer through ok whilst I've been off but to be honest I never noticed it they had Road instead of Rise on them. It just gives me yet another bullet at ET I think

......and all of them were addressed correctly to you, is that right?(might be good if you have a copy of ANY correspondence PRIOR to the disciplinary which will clearly show that they have made a HUGE mistake)......that solicitor that wants to take on the case on a no win no pay basis will absolutely LOVE the amount of background work all the guys on the thread have done so far cos I think in basketball terms this might be a slam dunk case with additional compo for the damage done. If you still have a copy of the contract from the new employer that withdrew their offer of employment when the former HR contacted them then that would be SUPERB because it will show losses, defamation and the whole shabang.
LFC, from a case that might have gone belly up, the more that the former employer tells you the more concrete your case for unfair dismissal becomes......keep the chin up cos you have a case, evidence of incorrect procedures followed, evidence of damage caused and clearly they will need to pay up for future earnings lost as a result of their negligence.

[bluebottle]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

If I may add something, in view of the obvious data protection issues, it might be worth downloading a complaint form from the ICO website. As of 6 April 2010, the ICO can fine any individual or organisation (including companies) a maximum of £500K for breaching the DPA. The fine is in the form of a Financial Penalty Notice (FPN). The most recent offender was Midlothian Council who were fined £140K on 30 January 2012.

If LFC's employers were hit with an ICO FPN and a judgement from an ET, it will give them something to think about. Oh, and don't forget that this manager and LFC's employers will be individually liable at an ET if the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 is cited. There is case law that holds employers liable for harassment by an employee against another employee.
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[QUOTE=bluebottle;248971]If I may add something, in view of the obvious data protection issues, it might be worth downloading a complaint form from the ICO website. As of 6 April 2010, the ICO can fine any individual or organisation (including companies) a maximum of £500K for breaching the DPA. The fine is in the form of a Financial Penalty Notice (FPN). The most recent offender was Midlothian Council who were fined £160K on 30 January 2012.

If LFC's employers were hit with an ICO FPN and a judgement from an ET, it will give them something to think about. Oh, and don't forget that this manager and LFC's employers will be individually liable at an ET if the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 is cited. There is case law that holds employers liable for harassment by an employee against another employee. Speak to your solicitor, LFC.

[lfc3110]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

I still haven't heard anything regarding my appeal. Does anyone know if they have a time limit they are supposed to respond by?

[teaboy2]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

Lol Give them chance LFC it was only the 16th (4 days ago) when you had your meeting appeal meeting and it was at 4:30pm on thursday and there was 2 days for the weekend. Which means they have really only had 1 day to look into it.

Give them at least 14 days any longer that without hearing anything back, would be unreasonable.

[lfc3110]

Re: Handed my notice in but now they are taking me to a disciplinary- Help needed

14 days????? and in the meantime what do I do for money??? i need to be earning but can't get a job with this hanging over me. Does anyone know what benefits I may be entitled to?