Go through with employment tribunal claim or leave it and move on...experiences pls

[wotuc]

Hi

Need to decide what way to go and haven't had any experiences. Can anyone explain the range of antics/politics companies play when being taken to court. Those who have been through this....in hindsight would you not bothered going through court and moved on?

Also how long do they cases typically take to resolve shortest times and longest times?

I can't answer your questions however my employers have recently done something which meant I could have taken them to a tribunal, however I have decided not to. My two reasons are 1) I want to put my time and effort into my DD and not my tribunal and 2) I was concerned how it would look to future employers. Personally I'm just going to look for a new job.

Only you can work out the cost/benefit. It depends entirely on your own situation and the nature of the treatment you've received.

Companies IME use every trick in the book. That's to be expected.
You should also prepare for lies to be written about you, and for situations to have been twisted.
There is a delay of months before things get to an ET. sometimes 6-8 months, sometimes longer. You can phone a local lawyer to find out the length of time in your own region.
Once you receive their initial response to a claim, you can get a fair indication of how it's going to play out, so it can be worthwhile taking it that far.
Lots of employers prefer to negotiate a compromise than carry stuff through to tribunal, but it depends on the org. Larger orgs in particular will often roll over for the sake of a few grand than have their senior staffs' schedules compromised by court visits etc. Smaller companies can have lots of personal prejudices that lead to people blinding themselves to reason.
If you don't think you can approach it in a detached 'game of chess' frame of mind then act with caution, because it's very stressful
NOT pursuing action can fester and cause more long term stress than fighting
You do have to think about your career prospects/damage to your reputation.
I have been involved on both sides. When i lodged a claim myself and left a company it was stressful, but very lucrative. And the feeling of beating the nasty little lowlife boss was fantastic (as was the revenge I felt when he had a lucrative job offer rescinded 3 years later when someone dobbed to the Board about what a c* he had been to me). I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

We can probably give better advice if you told us more about the circs. A clear cut case will be much less stressful than a complicated one.

As an employer who someone tried to take to tribunal we didn't play antics or politics. We fought our corner as we knew there was no case to answer. In one case we won, in another the pre-tribunal decided there was no case to answer. The first case was appeared racial discrimination (the candidate didn't get the job because he was not the best candidate) and the second case was disability discrimination during redundancy (the person had never disclosed a disability and was made redundant on fair grounds). As I say we did nit play politics or antics bit we refused to be taken for thousands of pounds unjustly.

a relative took her company to tribunal - they settled- it was stressful but well worth it financially and emotionally -
it does depend how good your case is as well

I know someone who did it-she said it helped her keep control and the money helped her have more time to think about her future rather than be forced into something she might have to take in ahurry. So much depends on the circs

Think stillsquiffy was spot on with this you need to view it in a totally detached way and logically, don't think about feelings or how unjust things seem, review the facts and only the facts because thats all the ET will be bothered about. Be prepared for every imaginable insult to be lobbed (IME this comes from both sides in equal measure) if you care in the slightest what people think of you then don't bother with an ET, draw a line through that episode and spend your energy moving on and proving your worth somewhere else. Awards for general things are not life changingly huge and for the length of time it takes prop not worth it.

An ET claim filed in April last year was heard at the start of June over 4 days. The more evidence the tribunal will be expected to consider, the more time will need to be assigned, thus affecting when time can be found in the court calendar.

Time limits are very strict: you must apply within 3 months of the date of the alleged complaint. What is the nature of your grievance and have you taken steps to sort out the matter internally?