Aggressive Friday night email from ex-employer with Monday deadline – help!

[strangerthongs]

I am sitting here feeling quite panicked and would really appreciate some advice from anyone with legal or HR experience. I resigned with immediate effect from a small mission-led limited company earlier this month after a very difficult period involving disability discrimination and a failure to provide reasonable adjustments. They have agreed in writing to pay my notice period and accrued leave at the end of April, and I am currently on a doctor-certified fit note for work-related stress.
While my employer knows I am a member of a union, they do not yet know that I am preparing a potential legal claim with their help, though they are aware that I have an active Subject Access Request in progress with them. They have not yet seen my full internal log of evidence, which includes about 13 pages of notes and screenshots documenting the issues I faced.
About 10 minutes ago on a Friday evening, I received a formal email from the directors demanding that I acknowledge a confidentiality reminder and confirm that I have securely deleted all company information and files by first thing Monday morning. They are threatening legal action for any breach of these obligations. They quoted the confidentiality clause from my contract but notably left out the part that says these provisions do not affect my right to make a protected disclosure or my duty to disclose information for legal or regulatory reasons.
I want to be clear that I have not retained any information I am not entitled to, nor do I have any intention of misusing any information. One of the main reasons I left the company was because all work was conducted on personal devices using shared emails and folders, and despite me repeatedly raising concerns about these security practices, nothing was ever done.
I am very concerned that if I provide a blanket confirmation of deletion, I would be forced to destroy evidence that is essential for my legal claim and for checking their SAR response when it eventually arrives. It feels like this sudden Friday night deadline and legal threat might amount to victimisation since they know a dispute is ongoing and I have filed a SAR. I cannot reach my union representative before their deadline on Monday morning, so I really need a sanity check. Is such a short weekend deadline even enforceable, and does their demand for deletion override my legal right to keep evidence for a tribunal or for reporting regulatory breaches like their data security failures? It feels like a blatant attempt to intimidate me into destroying my own case and I am not sure how to handle it.

I would ignore the email, until you have spoken to your union. They are not going to do anything over the weekend, and if you don’t have any confidential information there is nothing they can complain about.

Keep the message, as it could be used against them, as it seems to be intimidating

When you say they have agreed to pay your notice etc, that is presumably not part of a settlement agreement?

Don't reply and speak to your union on Monday morning. They're trying to scare you. Worst case scenario, they send you an initial legal letter later on next week and then you consider your position at that point. Vague threats mean they haven't spoken to a solicitor yet, they won't magic one up by 9am Monday morning.

Ignore it. They have deliberately timed it so that you are unable to take any legal or professional advice before their deadline runs out.

Totally unreasonable, and any sensible lawyer will see through their ploy. They have basically handed you some more ammunition to use against them.

If you are being paid out for your notice period at the end of April and are currently signed off work for stress it sounds like you are still an employee until the end of April?If so, I’d ignore their email - the obligation won’t bite until you cease employment, presumably.

Ignore it for the weekend and talk to your union/lawyers next week. It's a well known tactic to send aggressive emails on Friday evenings to try to bounce people into feeling they have to respond over the weekend before getting advice etc. No court is going to criticise you for taking a reasonable time to respond and particularly not for not responding over a weekend - in fact, it makes the company look like they are being pretty aggressive to an individual.
As it is, you don't have any obligation to them to acknowledge anything, it's in your contract so they can point to that/argue the point if you breach it. I suspect that when your union looks at the contract (you could have a quick look too) there will be no obligation on you to actually confirm deletion of information/files, just a clause not to do something (breach confidentiality). So I am not sure what legal action they could bring for you 'failing' to make a confirmation by Monday so ignore, ignore, ignore. And enjoy your weekend.

Agree with the above. They are being very deliberate in their timing to scare you into deleting anything they deem to be detrimental to them. Do not delete anything and seek advice. It is very very unreasonable of them to make such a request.

Ignore them you are stil employed so you are an employee. ATalk to your union on Monday.

Seek legal advice as suggested.

Be armed in the knowledge thay this is a sneaky tactic and it will come back on them if this goes any further. Keep all emails with such demands as evidence.

You are simply not in a position to reply to it right now.

Ignore it, file it, keep yourself busy over the weekend and contact your union on Monday morning. Cheeky fuckers that they are.

Sounds like they have shit themselves in the foot with this one!
They are panicking and l suspect this has been done without any legal discussion .
It just makes them look like they are trying to intimidate you.
Dont be intimidated, dont let it upset you -they have scored an own goal here.
A tribunal judge would see this for exactly what it is -trying to force you to do something before you can talk to your union rep . It’s incredibly low of them and incredibly stupid but , speaking as someone who took a charity to an IT on behalf of disabled husband ( well, he took them, l just did all the legal leg work) it didn’t fail to amaze me how stupid the company were -even though they had top lawyers from Manchester acting for them.
I was speaking to their solicitor one day about an email the chairs had sent me where they too tried to intimidate me - I could hear the incredulity in their lawyers voice when he said ‘they sent WHAT’ and his utter exasperation with the stupid lies they told.

Is it not illegal for an employer to contact you while you are on certified sick leave? That can be viewed as harassment

The confidentiality clause that applies is the one in your contract. They cannot change it simply by sending you an email. And no, their demand cannot override your legal rights.

Agree with everyone else - definitely ignore over the weekend.

Is it possible your boss has had a few drinks before firing it off?

It's Friday night. I probably wouldn't even see a work mail until Monday.

Totally agree you should speak to your union first.

Thank you so much everyone
Just to confirm, yes I am not working there anymore, there's no settlement agreement (yet), they've only agreed to pay pilon and accrued leave on what would have been my normal pay day at the end of this month.
I've forwarded to my union rep, who is on leave right now, and I'm not going to respond to my ex employer but it did upset me.
They are a small organisation staffed mainly by volunteers with just 3 (now 2) employees. They don't have proper systems and processes in place, one of the reasons I chose to resign. They wont be speaking to a lawyer yet I'm sure.
they also don't seem to have any Employer's Liability insurance listed on the ELTO database which I think is unlawful as they've been operating as a LTD company since November but it could be possible its just not uploaded yet.

What if you didnt check your emails at weekends?

Totally unreasonable for them to expect an employee to check work emails while they are on sick leave, and on a weekend.

The employer had an 'always on' culture. I would get texts, emails etc at all hours and that is one of the many reasons I chose to leave. I had no private life, they wouldnt' leave me alone and it was meant to only be part time. So the timing does not suprise me. The directors are retired volunteers so no set hours for them and they seemed to expect the same from me.

The Monday deadline is arbitrary, illegal and therefore irrelevant. I would reply Tuesday pm at the very earliest saying
I confirm I have complied with my contract terms, except the ones where it was impossible to do so with the working arrangements you have in place such as for example the working hours set in the contract which have continuously been ignored and overridden by management.
but I’d probably run that by the union person first.

Ignore. Their deadline is absurd. Just because they stamp their feet for something doesn’t mean they have to have it.

Being a limited company is irrelevant. Any business that employs someone else to work in England, Scotland or Wales who is not a family member is required to have Employers' Liability insurance, regardless of whether it is a limited company or not. You should report them to HSE.

thanks @prh47bridge I did look at the HSE and it asked for evidence, I did take a screen shot from the ELTO site, would that be enough? Could they find out it was me? And would the HSE actually do anything or just say 'you don't have it, put it in place, you silly billy'.

I've never reported anyone myself, but I imagine that would be enough. No, they couldn't find out it was you who reported them, and even if they worked out it was you they couldn't do anything. You would be protected as a whistleblower.

As for whether HSE would do anything, I suspect they would start by simply telling the directors that they have to put EL insurance in place and remind them that the business can be fined £2,500 for each day they operate without insurance. On the figures available, I suspect they only fine businesses or take them to court in the more egregious cases.