finally got the balls to face up to employer

[atacareercrossroads]

after years of shit (that only started since having DS1) Ive decided Im going to put in a grievance and am debating constructive dismissal

Im currently on mat leave, have had my very reasonable request for a reduction in working hours rejected because my manager "feels my role needs me in the office 5 days a week" (its a telephone based role within a team of people who could easily sort the odd query out for me ffs) even though I offered to do some of it for free from home on my days off. The final straw is I have found out that the new policy of making people on ML tag their holidays on to it has only apparantly applied to me. The other person successfully told them no, whereas when I queried the policy I was told its across the board.

They have wanted rid of me for ages, so Im going to look for another job. Im going to speak to HR tomorrow to ask about the greivance procedure and am going to try and find a good solicitor for advice, and am just wondering in the meantime if I look for, and get another job, could I still go for constructive dismissal?

I owe them nothing, they have treated me like shite and I want to make sure they bloody well dont do it to some other poor cow and if I can drag them through a tribunal to teach them a lesson I will but dont want the fact that I am looking for another job to go against me.

Not exhausting the grievance procedure will seriously damage any constructive dismissal claim you later make.

As for the holidays, sounds well out of order to me.

No advice but bloody well done for standing up to them.

Start documenting everything really clearly and good luck x

Thanks for the replies, Ive put up with them slowly chipping away but this with the holidays is just so blatent I cant let it slide. Ive got emails about the holidays and about it being a new policy etc and will definitely go through the grievance procedure fully.

Im so angry!

I know you are upset but talk of constructive dismissal before you have exhausted the grievance procedure is premature. Also, going to a tribunal is massively stressful and not something that I think anyone would undertake just to "drag them though a tribunal" so do try to resolve this before it gets that far.

On the question of a reduction in working hours, did you submit an official flexible working hours request and have it officially turned down because it doesn't sound as if you did from your opening post? There are only certain reasons why a request can be turned down and if it is declined and you think it is unfair you need to have that officially recorded.

You also talk about other people in the office managing to sort the odd query out for you as if that is all that a reduction in your days would entail. There must be more to your job than that or otherwise why would you have been in the office at all full-time? If you want to reduce your hours, you need to present a proper case as to how your work on those days will be managed, and you cannot assume that everything will be picked up by others in the team (unless it genuinely can happen that way).

I am not unsympathetic to your situation but if you are serious about pursuing this you must ensure that you have followed all the procedures correctly.

I did the request officially, wasn't given a reason from the 'list' and tbh there us a massive backstory going back 3 years of shit that I've had to let slide because I know life there is crap when you dare to question anything. This really isn't something im doing on a whim. And u am 1000% sure my flex request would not have had a negative impact.

You need to remove the emotion from this and stick to the facts. (Not easy I know when you're in the middle of it.)

Document very clearly what you feel are your grievances with records of emails, conversations, performance appraisals, meetings etc etc.

And be clear on what you want to get out of this. Are you looking for financial compensation - for what? A good reference for your next employer which you don't think they'll provide at present? For them to re-consider your request?

I have also turned down requests from individual staff members to work from home because it's not as simple as people in the office being able to sort out stuff for them. (However, I was able to offer a compromise with a mixture of additional paid and unpaid leave.) Unfortunately not all jobs are suited to working from home.

Finally, as has been pointed out, you must follow the procedure to the letter. Many a strong case has fallen down because of a failure to do this.

I will ref follow the right procedures, unlike my employers. Honestly thus is the final straw, there is loads of other things that I don't want to go into under this nn but suffice to say they have been pretty naughty

In answer to your question about getting another job, there would almost certainly be no point pursuing a constructive dismissal claim if you get a new job. Compensation would be purely based on actual financial loss. If you get a new job before you leave or relatively quickly afterwards, your financial loss will be pretty small making a claim pointless really.

And yes, you would be expected to mitigate your loss by genuinely seeking alternative employment.

I second everything that annh says. Please re-read her post carefully - it isn't about simply submitting the request 'officially' - it's about addressing all of their possible arguments against it, in such a way as to leave them no real grounds for saying no. It is far far easier to do this as an appeal against their decision than just pursue a grievance. It may be ignored by them, but it lays down evidence that you have found a way in which you can make this work, which makes it more difficult for them to say no.

Constructive dismissal is also quite difficult to prove. Unless you have some very extreme examples of unacceptable behaviour you will need lots of evidence, preferably documented or independently verifiable, and ideally showing them on the one side being totally unreasonable, and you on the other side bending over backwards to be reasonable.

You have told us that the two examples you have given are not the only ones and there are more: I think you need to document all of these very factually, along a time line, indicating those items where the way you have been treated was different to the way others in the firm were treated. Concentrate only on the facts and not on the effects (IYSWIM). Once you have that documented you should take it to an employment lawyer for their considered view. You can post more details on here if you want but that could compromise your privacy.

As flowery says, if you are able to find another job there is little financial incentive to pursue this.