How to get a Compromise agreement

[barney rubble]

Hi everyone,
New to the Forum but it looks a good place to get some much needed employment advice.

I will try and keep this brief.
My wife is having major issues at her work place . She works for a well known high street store & this has escalated over the last 2 years.

She has worked at this store for over 12 years & it started when a new Store Manager arrived.
She always had positive yearly appraisals but this changed & soon was being "micro managed" & pulled up for any minor issue.
This went on until November last Year when for her own sake went sick with stress & depression caused by work. She returned to work after 6 months when finally her line manager was moved & she it was agreed to draw a line under the situation. (The store Manager is still there )

This did not last though, as soon as she returned she was given a written warning for her absence which she appealed & won.
Since then the Micro Management has returned (new line manager ) & they have started the disciplinary process again for her performance. This as expected has caused untold stress & unfortunately she has had to go sick once again. She has immediately received a letter saying that as , in their view, she has gone sick because she is being disciplined that they have now stopped her pay.
In the 8 weeks or so she has been back She has had no support or training on the aspects of her work she is supposedly lacking, She has reached the point where she will not return to work & needs to bring the whole sorry saga to a end & move on. However we think there is a good case for a settlement of some kind.

Any advice on next steps would be appreciated - ideally would like to get to a compromise agreement being offered but unsure if we have a good enough case or how to get to that point, If not she will resign but my understanding is resigning and then going for constructive dismissal is tough to do. Or at this stage Should we go straight to a employment lawyer ? How much is this likely to cost ?

[FlamingParrot]

Re: How to get a Compromise agreement

Hi and welcome!

Constructive dismissal cases have, on average, just 3% chance of success, having said that, I know someone who resigned and submitted such a claim, and was offered a small settlement and an agreed reference, but this was before you had to pay employment tribunal fees.

I had a compromise agreement whereby they paid me a small 'commercial settlement' and gave me an agreed reference (typed up by me) and agreed to supply such reference for five years, in exchange I undertook not to publish any 'disparaging remarks' against either the company or the outsourcing outfit, also for five years. But this was after I was sacked for alleged gross misconduct and submitted an ET claim for unfair dismissal, and some 9 months after termination of employment.

I'd say the first step would be to follow the internal grievance procedure, has she attempted this route?

As for stopping her sick pay, companies have their own sick pay policies, often dependent on lenght of service. Some will pay up to six months full pay after a number of years. Have you checked that she is, in fact, no longer entitled to sick pay from the company?

[barney rubble]

Re: How to get a Compromise agreement

Hi, .
Yes she has pretty much exhausted the internal greviance procedure , as for sickness I would imagine she has gone well over any allocated sick pay as she has already had 6 months pay this year.
They origanally did say they would not pay her but every month she was paid

As it stands now, she is is danger of being in limbo as she is not getting paid & can not get another job because she is off sick....... she really wants to get a resolution to it. I think she will have to resign but it feels like if she does that then she can wave goodbye to any kind of settlement ( take on board the 3% chance of success) . I think she has been very poorly treated and as I said , ideally we would like to get to talking about a compromise agreement but can not see any reason why her employers would be in any hurry to do this ( even though she has a good case).

[charitynjw]

Re: How to get a Compromise agreement

Hi barney rubble,

You could try the ACAS mediation route - http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1680