Work related - grievance

[Holidaymodeon]

Hi, posting here for traffic!
Writing a grievance, ACAS has advised it but won’t read it prior to sending.
Can’t go to citizens advice as it is linked to my work…
is there a legitimate organisation who will read my grievance prior to sending?
it is long and covers so many issues in multiple areas, primarily disability discrimination, bullying and poor, possibly illegal practices but I am conscious I am coming from a place of high stress and emotion as well as sick with pain and don’t want to write a sprawling document that might be overkill and not taken seriously.
I’m neurodivergent and have been told I give too much info and find it really hard to pare down whilst maintaining the importance of the grievance.

thank you

Would it be safe to say ‘constructive dismissal’ ? This doesn’t give them a chance to then put anything right but they were given all the information a year ago including ATW recommendations, everything about all my disabilities, made assurances before I accepted the role, arrived and everything had stalled then later on told me that I would need to fund all the recommendations myself even though they agreed before I accepted the job that the changes would make it fully accessible for everyone and amongst that the boss has shown rage, flip flopped on processes, publicly shamed me in meetings, made it impossible to do my job properly or indeed safely, impacting my professional reputation and my personal safety.
its been a clusterfuck

Please rtft and don’t join the irrelevant and derailing pile on

Whoa! I guess I’d just get on with life and hope it rumbles away in the background? Am I being naive?!

Thanks. Annoyingly I very recently changed insurers so no doubt that would void any claim if I did have cover, thanks though, this is helpful to know, I didn’t know that was a thing

If you don't want any particular outcome then why raise the grievance? If you hate the job so much leave. If it is about genuine disability discrimination and you think you have some kind of claim then focus your grievance entirely on that. Grievances moaning about not getting on with particular characters or unpleasant bosses can only go so far and the only real outcome could be to move you somewhere else within the business. They can't sack your boss because you've raised a grievance saying they're not nice.

I'd advise bullet points, and categorising them. Along the lines of:

Disability:

1. They said they'd do this reasonable adjustment and didn't
2. They called me a ** in X meeting: Witnessed by A. Whistleblower, statement attached

Exclusion:

1. I wasn't invited to this meeting despite being the lead on part of it. Screenshot of email attached
2. I asked to be included on emails about the Manhatten project as the result effects my work and this hasn't happened.
3. I was invited to a zoom meeting and wasn't allowed entry. W H Smith (host) is willing to tell you that they were told by A Big Boss to block me.

So it's clear.

If it's a lot though, they will almost certainly focus on only some of the accusations, and ignore those where there is no evidence at least. So make sure the bigger ones, and those with evidence are at the top. Things like exclusion #2 I've written there will be he said/she said, they can probably find a reason why they didn't include you, so make sure that sort of one is towards the bottom end - it's there as a "all these things add up" rather than one they will act on.

Good luck.

Try Disability Law Service
dls.org.uk/our-services/employment/

How can it be constructive dismissal if you still work there? Do you have evidence for all this stuff?

You won’t get this dealt with in 30 minutes you need to be prepared to pay. The 30 minutes will cover an overview not giving specific legal advice on next steps. They certainly wouldn’t be reading your grievance's and feeding back in that time.

What result are you hoping for our seeking? Bearing in mind most employers don't do much, and you mark your card

Thanks to all for replies, I can’t reply to all as have lots to do but I’m so touched by the thoughtfulness of many of you.

wrt to the multiple posts accusing me of being a different poster, I have seen those threads and I don’t understand the hostility here, surely in amongst all the confusion, asking for guidance on how to handle it properly would be the right thing for that person to do?

as a disabled poc single mum to kids with disabilities I have fought my battles for decades and I know how hard it is to be ‘different’ in the workplace, it is hard, really hard if you’re not in the right place.

micro aggressions, even people just looking at you with ‘that look’ because you know they don’t understand why you can’t ‘just get on with it’ or quietly fit in .
people who challenge the status quo make people uncomfortable.

We try hard to adapt and be flexible and smile through it which is how people like us to be but it’s also the responsibility of those around us to give and take too, not just close ranks and sigh about how hard we are making it.

look how difficult some posters here have made it for me just to ask a simple question, and that’s just me on an anonymous forum asking quite a normal question about legal support systems.

nobody chooses disability in an able bodied world.

This is why you need expert support… the tribunal dates are speeding up but will be at least 12-18 months in the future AFTER you have resigned and gone through the ACAS process. And you need to be aware of what a tribunal may give you… in all but the biggest of cases the awards aren’t life changing money.

I’m thinking potentially constructive dismissal, especially as the lack of adaptation has further harmed me physically and mentally and is making it especially hard to find further work at the moment until i hopefully recover.
I honestly don’t know if that’s the route I want to go down.
it’s unfair that disabled people are frequently pushed out like this but have to worry about ‘marking their card’, surely those bosses should be worried about their reputation as people who willfully contravene the equality act knowing / hoping that vulnerable workers are too scared to speak up?

You can’t claim constructive dismissal if you haven’t resigned. As another poster has said you would need to resign now and then hope that in three or four years you get a positive outcome from a tribunal.

I don’t even think it’s about life changing money, maybe enough to see me through a potential unemployment period whilst I recover, I just don’t them to see me go and be grateful they never had to do anything to support me and carry on their heinous practices.
in my dreams the toxic boss would lose their job, many people hope it but I know it’s highly unlikely

I feel too vulnerable to resign while I’m not well enough to work, hence going through the acas advised process and occ health etc first. But obviously ultimately I will resign. I can’t now, I have been advised by jcp that I would not qualify for support if I willfully give up my job so I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place

Amazing! 🤩 thank you x

This is very much the situation, thank you ☺️

She literally says ACAS won’t (actually, they can’t) read it before she sends it.

OP, I’m a HR Director and implore you to be careful using AI to help with this. It might be able to help you focus your points but we are getting grievances that are 60+ pages which have clearly been generated by AI and giving all manner of incorrect legal claims and it’s an absolute nightmare to resolve them properly. I wouldn’t worry about being a bit wordy, but maybe write a list of your main points and then build 1 paragraph around each one. That should keep you on track.

Is the organisation big enough that you can move to another department, under a different boss who you would trust to manage you well?

I am not an expert, but am of the understanding that constructive dismissal is very hard to prove and that if it got to tribunal it would need to be proven that there was literally no other option, whatever the employer did.

Have you specifically asked ACAS their views or resigning?

It’s not a Constructive Dismissal as you still work there. Constructive Dismissals are quite hard to prove. In this case, as you have not immediately resigned, and are still working there after the events have occurred, it could be concluded that the events did not cause your resignation - even if you resign at a later date, this would still be the case.

What is the outcome you want ? A constructive dismissal pay off? Unlike it from what you have said.

5% if constructive dismissal cases succeed. And @ExtraOnions is right: if you stay employed past the “last straw” event, you’ve a snowflake’s chance of winning.

It sounds like a toxic and damaging workplace. I’m not surprised you feel aggrieved. It sounds so wrong.

But
whatever happens, it is vanishingly unlikely that anything will happen to your horrible boss. And it’s unlikely any battle you fight will cause your employer to change culture.

So you need to really think about what you want to- and can - get out of a lengthy grievance and subsequent legal battle. Be aware that whatever monies you might get in court, these will come to you way way in the future, they will not tide you over right now. In fact you might initially spend a lot on funding your case.

At this point I think your best bet is to try to agree a negotiated exit (ie money to go away).

in your situation I would suggest the following

1. raise a formal grievance solely focused on disability discrimination.
2. When (inevitably) the company decides it hasn’t discriminated against you put in an appeal.
3. at this point, consult an employment specialist solicitor to ask (obviously taking their advice) them to approach your employers regarding a without prejudice discussion about a settlement.
4. move on with your life and a bit of extra money

Alternatively you can fight them about everything they’ve done wrong all the way to a tribunal on principle. But even if you win, they are extremely unlikely to change any of their working practices.

I wish you luck with whatever you decide 💐

Biggest tip from reading this, summary page.

if you ask chat gpt to do a summary page, tack it on the front, and then link the bullets from the summary point to a section or page in your full evidence pack.

then if only one page is read they still understand the nature of the grievance.

It sounds like you want a without prejudice discussion about the possibility of being paid to leave. You might get 3 months pay for this, depends on a lot of things.