Aibu to turn down settlement figure

[crushemum]

Hi I've had legal advice thank you everyone for the support on previous threads
There are 15 breaches of contract or misconduct
The independent hr adjudicator was pretty shocked to hear I'm still signed off sick and had 30 hours notice to his meeting and also no choice at all of the time or date
Anyway he said at the end if I would accept a settlement

Now considering the case involves and it's evidenced that it's disability discrimination , there's a huge compensation figure that could be due
I have a social Justice complex and always want to do what was right for those who couldn't articulate or express themselves in the ways I can...

If this bully writes a settlement letter to me, can he use his insurance to pay for it? Or would it only be if I went to tribunal?

I have already put in my ET1 as I can evidence he avoided all forms of reconciliation and my job was literally to persuade people and I couldn't persuade him

We are looking at multiple counts of disability discrimination , harassment , working time act, min wages, potentially sex discrimination etc etc

I know a tribunal would take ages but I would prefer to wait if it meant I was likely to be awarded a larger sum
This has completely destroyed me and I'm laying in bed with acute pancreatitis at the moment from the anti biotics and I had to take that teams call from bed! How bad is that!

If he could use insurance I guess the settlement would be simmilar to a tribunal, but if not likely much less

Can anyone give me a steer?
What would be a reasonable figure without including the wage adjustment for paying below minimum wage

Thank you all for endless help
I've had the worst few months of my life but I'm getting there

Without knowing the exact specifics of you case I think anyone here will find it difficult to accurately advise you on the info you've shared

As part of a protected conversation settlement conversation I would expect you employer to fund independent legal advice of your choosing to review the offer with you. Have you had feedback via that route yet?

If so what was their legal opinion? If this is the first figure they've put in front of you it will be worth trying to negotiate upwards as you have nothing to lose by asking and treat this as the start of a negotiation process.

It sounds like you've had a rough time of it. Time to put yourself first and secure a negotiated figure that allows you to move on with your life. In my personal experience a settlement figure comes out of the employers bottom line and isn't paid out of their insurance. Negotiate the biggest sum you can to hit them where it hurts if that helps you feel better about it.

Nobody is able to advise me as my org has no HR I was unable to find any figures but the solicitor I talked to who was in the legal clinic I used is listed as a top 500 in England it was a coincidence
She said 15 contractual or legal breaches inc injury to feelings injury to person unpaid wages
I would love to walk away from all this it's making me sick

Compensation is usually based upon financial losses, so what losses do you have? (I.e. earnings)

There is also an element called injury to feelings. Google 'vento bands'.

You won't necessarily get more at the Employment Tribunal, you have to win for a start.

You need proper independent legal advice from someone who can tell you what to expect - as I understand it tribunal awards aren’t huge because of the formulas they use to calculate loss. I know when I looked at it years ago it would have been a lot of stress for little return other than the knowledge I’d got them.

If your employer is offering a settlement they should pay your legal costs, so go and see a lawyer.

Even if they had HR they wouldn’t advise you. As pp said they should be paying for some legal advice for you to review the proposed settlement agreement. But it is unlikely they will pay for more.
I think that you should have a figure in mind that you need as a minimum in order to sign and negotiate for that.
However be aware that going to tribunal will be a very long drawn out and expensive process.
Good luck op.

You lost me at 'social justice complex'*

Accept what you think is reasonable for whatever has happened to you and then draw a line under it and get on with your life. If you allow whatever all this is to take over then you'll end up being a loser however much money you end up with.

*If you want to carry on fighting for the sake of others who don't have a voice, then it would be good to set up a charitable foundation so some of the extra compo can be distributed to these people.

That is literally what I want to do with the money

I fucking hate how hard it's been for me and I'm privileged

I loathe to pay for the bully
I'm told it's vento top band for injury to feelings
Disability discrimination. Amongst a bunch of others

It's all vague isn't it
As he hasn't paid me I don't want to get out of pocket paying to check
I had the grievance meeting in bed with his independent adjudicator who by the end of tv call was really struggling to mask a neutral face he was so upset and surprised

All in writing as well the man has bullied me in writing and harrassed me in writing when asked to stop too
Can't make it up

I wonder how long it will take for a figure to be in my inbox
Exhausted

It's impossible to advise you on what amount would be fair without knowing the specifics of the allegations, pleaded defences to those allegations, and evidence on both sides.

No settlement agmt will be binding on you without your employer paying a certain sum towards you receiving independent advice on the effect of the proposed settlement - usually the amount is about £500 for that (which is unlikely to meet the full cost of taking that advice).

As to your question about insurance - if the company has insurance which responds to this claim then yes, the insurance will pay the company's legal costs and damages it pays to you. That's what insurance is for.

It's not clear whether you're still employed at this place or not. Be aware that if you go to ET, you are expected to mitigate your losses, ie get another job. If you get another job that pays you the same or more than this job, then your losses will be either nil or will only be for income during the unemployed period. You cannot simply choose to remain unemployed until after the ET judgment and be awarded loss of income for all that time, unless you can prove that it was impossible for you to get another job.

ET hearings take an age to be heard. So if you are offered a reasonable amount of money, you'd do well to accept it and move on with your life.

It's disability discrimination and I've gotten much worse due to particular bad practise at work and I've been told to resign as I've been off related to my disability!
I can evidence getting sicker and sicker first it was physical and now my heads gone to mush too because I am so distressed
I don't have the health to work atm I am still employed and signed off
I don't want to resign I loved that job but my boss has treated me so badly I wouldn't go back now
I wonder how that would be seen
In bed bound atm

Make sure the settlement includes something about a reference.

If the boss is the owner or csuite staying in your job is probably not viable.

I have no idea about the insurance what i do know is:

• you should get agreed reference wording as part of your settlement
• a large portion is tax free if its an agreed redundancy (first £30k)
• peoples opinions and "struggling to stay neutral faces" won't actually help you in a tribunal
• if your employer makes a "reasonable" offer and you decline and go to tribunal, the tribunal may look unfavorably on this. I know this because we had an incident at my work and the settlement offered (which was decent) ended up being significantly higher than what they were got at tribunal

Honestly, having been in a similar situation, I would take the offer. Are you in a Union? I got excellent advice and support from mine.
We negotiated an offer/settlement, and I got legal advice before signing.
I can unequivocally say my health got better after I left. Yes, I might have been able to get a few grand more, but the value of not having things hang over me, was priceless.
I do hope things improve for you.

You're being so vague it's impossible to answer.

How have their bad practises made you worse? Can you prove that it's their fault? This is the kind of thing you need to address.

What does your union say about the offer?

I agree with everyone else, but I am going to add one thing that I don't think anyone else has.
Now considering the case involves and it's evidenced that it's disability discrimination , there's a huge compensation figure that could be due
Do not get ahead of yourself. Tribunals rarely award large amounts of money and frequently award a lot less than people think they do. The reason why you hear about large awards is because they are uncommon news - not because they are usual. Measure nothing based on what you think you might get - the only sensible approach is whether you are happy with it. Until you win a tribunal (probably in the distant future after many months of stressful waiting) you have nothing at all, and then you may have nothing like what you think you are due.

I have a social Justice complex and always want to do what was right for those who couldn't articulate or express themselves in the ways I can...
What you get impacts no way whatsoever about what happens to someone else. Sort your own circumstances. What happens to you will not benefir anyone else and nor should it. If you want to fight for social justice, join a campaign group or become a union rep.

Take the settlement. The stress of a tribunal will not help you to recover physically or mentally and will just drag the process out for longer. (I took an employer to tribunal a long time ago, consider myself to be pretty tough, and found it incredibly stressful and we didn't even get to the hearing as they decided to settle the day before it was due! 2 years of extra stress on top of the original period of stress.)

I think right now you need to balance how much this is affecting you emotionally and mentally, against your principles over who pays out and "punishing" him. Both are valid sides, but don't forget there is a value to things other than the monetary value. If you want to bail now and take the money and not go to tribunal (for money you might not get) then that's ok, and you can reassure yourself that the potential money you could have got was instead swapped for your mental health at having this whole process over. It doesn't matter where the money came from if taking it further would have sent you over the edge.

(If I've been no help whatever I'm guessing I didn't read the question properly! 🤣)

Edited to add.... Whilst typing the poster before me has very much summed to my thoughts so obviously I wasn't too far off understanding!

If a person or organisation has insurance that covers them for a specific type of claim, the insurance will cover the settlement regardless of the stage in the dispute at which it is made. Insurers are usually very keen to settle out of court/tribunal as they also pay the legal defence fees. Any settlement offer will have to have been approved by the insurers before being put forward.

I haven't gotten the offer yet
Wondering what to expect

Thank you everyone this is so helpful

Expect the equivalent to about 3 months pay. Possibly as much as 6. Unlikely to be more.

Average wait for a tribunal date is over a year, you need to factor that in.

You need proper legal advice. You say you have taken advice, and I would follow that if I were you. Nobody here can advise you without the full details, which you shouldn't be posting online. Even so, most people here are not qualified to advise you.

Ask your lawyer who has advised you as to how reasonable the offer is. How are we meant to know? Likewise how will we know the terms of his insurance and whether they will cover the setttlement?

If you want to try and get more at ET then go for it but presumably there’s no guarantee plus you have the stress of it hanging over you for however long it takes to get a hearing date.

also just because discrimination claims do not have a cap on compensation doesn’t automatically mean you’ll get £££

link to median and average most recent ET discrimination awards here.

www.mfmac.com/insights/employment/the-annual-employment-tribunal-award-statistics-have-been-published-for-20232024/