Next step - employment tribunal??

[SarahBumBarer]

In August/September 2011 my DH became aware that his employer was potentially not awarding commissions in line with terms and conditions of his contract of employment. Having asked his line manager and Senior Manager for clarification and not receiving a response he emailed his Senior Manager in Mid September 2011 (copied to HR) asking for clarification of the T&C of his contract.

He received a half baked response from his Senior Manager asking DH to correspond directly with him and not HR. DH replied setting out the areas which he did not think had been responded to adequately. DH then quit his job (all this nonsense being the final straw for him). After recieving no response from his Senior Manger during his notice period, DH emailed him again to ask for a response. Senior Manager advised DH that since he was leaving he should take up the matter with HR.

After his notice period ended (in October) DH followed up the matter with HR. His salary for October 2011 provided the final proof that commissions were indeed not being paid in accordance with what DH understands to be his contractual entitlement. HR appeared to struggle to understand the issue resulting in DH becomeing increasingly frustrated. Finally just over 2 weeks ago HR decided to treat the issue as a formal grievance and invited DH to a greivance meeting. This was conducted by telephone 2 weeks ago. The written grievance policy stipulates that a written report should be provided to the aggrieved employee within 5 days of the meeting or failing that an update of when they can expect this. DH has received nothing. He reminded HR of their policy 2 days ago and has received no reply.

What next? Do we just file an employment tribunal claim. Not massively impressed with ACAS so far who we have spoken to on a couple of occassions.

Any thoughts really appreciated.

Yes you can just go in and file a claim now. Do you know what you're claiming for?

Has you dh got another job yet?

Thanks KateM - either breach of contract or unlawful deduction from wages I Am thinking. What I'm not sure of is whether you can hedge your bets (ie plead in the alternative type thingy) or whether we need to specifically plump for one or the other and if so which is best (any advice appreciated). Also there unfortunately doesn't seem to be any kind of general f@ckwittery/being generally obstructive type category which I can see which is a shame!

DH has reverted to being self employed - much happier but does this make a difference to making an ET claim in some way?

You can claim for both but it might be worth consulting an employment lawyer regarding your dh's specific situation and just checking he is likely to win his claim..

If he wins, when calculating the award the tribunal will look at actual losses, so he wouldn't get more for making a dual claim. There's no award for hurt feelings or similar, just for the financial loss suffered. For example, if the bonus was £5,000 he would get £5,000 possibly plus interest depending how long from when the payment should have been made to the claim being heard.

What your husband is doing now won't make any difference because he's claiming for a bonus payment he believes he is entitled to, not claiming constructive dismissal where damages are calculated a bit differently.

Thanks KateM - Win or not I think he has enough of a case that it would not be regarded as nuisance and yet at the same time he will quite enjoy being a nuisance to them Part of the problem is that the commission structure seems to be a very well kept secret. The commission structure was rolled out with much fanfare in Jan but has clearly changed since that roll-out in that his pay for the september quarter was not in line with the Jan roll-out. The (revised) current structure is not available online (as it is supposed to be per his employment contract T&C) and all of the emails to Management and HR have so far failed to yield a copy of the new commission structure. One might almost suspect that it does not actually exist.

However - email from HR on Weds (perhaps they were reading MN) has indicated that DH will have a reply by tomorrow so he is going to wait and see what they have to say. ET form however is at the ready.

Good luck

Just a rant

Email from HR on Wednesday - "You were told in your meeting that it would take two weeks for the written report".

DH - "I don't remember that actually but OK if you say so. BTW I was promised a copy of the minutes..."

HR - "Here is a copy of the minutes."

Minutes: "DH was advised that he would have a a written report within 1 week."

Aaaaaargh. THESE PEOPLE ARE SOOOO USELESS they can't even lie well!

No written report as yet.

& thanks again Kate

Not surprised. I'm still waiting for some minutes from 2 years ago..!

Have also seen grievance hearing outcomes answering questions that were not asked or discussed Nothing surprises me any more [old cynic]

At least your dh is working and this is a point of principle action rather than a 'we need this money to eat' action. Just follow the process through and try not to waste too much energy on them because they don't deserve it.