Any Employment law specialists who can offer urgent advice?

[horseshoe]

I have a situation in work and I need sound advice from someone who can clarify my legal rights and what constitutes as bullying/discrimination.

Please if anyone can help...please PM me

Have a look here for information on what constitutes bullying.

I work in HR and have a strong interest in bullying. The Andrea Adams Trust site covers it all really. If you think you are being bullied, then you are!

You need to think about what you want the end result to be, e.g. the bully stops, the bully leaves, you leave with compensation, you move to another role. It is very difficult and painful to get the bully to stop. Usually they will deny it, they will do it in secret so nobody lese is aware, and often management will deny the problem exists. Unless you are unusually strong, I would advise that you get out of the situation by moving job or post in any way you can. It can be a long process to enforce your legal rights - and throughout that time, you are likely to be still subjected to bullying.

Thank you for your advice. The problem I have is with management. I have forced the situation into an email chain whereby I have been accused of mis-conduct that he can not possibly justify. When I have questioned it he has told me he does not like my tone and he will talk to me. He then has refused to call me in to the office all day to discuss the situation (letting me stew). he will not give me an answer as to why I was not considered for a pay review or bonus along with the rest of the company etc... i have worked for the company for 2 years and this is the climax of a long compaign. I dont know where to go next but I def want an action of any kind!!

I think you need a third party to act as a mediator. I suggest you talk to an HR person (if there is one) or another manager.

CK.

I thought the same but there is no HR in place and I cant trust anyone else. The company has recently made redundancies and taken a new company in and so there are few people left who I know. Most directors are new in the company and dont know me from adam

Horseshoe - sounds rough. New directors might actually be more helpful as they will be more objective if they 'don't know you from adam'. They will give you a fair hearing...
Why do you feel you can't trust anyone? Is your manager the top of the tree - if not, who is his boss?

your employmwnt contract should specify formal grievance procedings and sounds like you should start a formal proceding against the guy for wrongly accusing you of misconduct, though I think you may be on trickier ground if you then try to throw in bullying/discrimination (I would save that and lay it out if your formal grievance is ignored, or not treated properly). If it isn't specified then just ask HR to outline the formal grievance process for you. If he is bullying you this would give him a taste of his own medicine and then stays on file in case he does anything else later down the line

If you want to be sure of your ground first and are in London I can recommend David Green, partner at Charles Russell Lawyers. Most lawyers will give you a first half-hour chat for free.

And if no HR department at all, then send request for grievance procedure to MD.

Thank you,

I have a meeting with him in an hour to discuss. what has happened is I have a new line manager who I think is looking out for himself. I have caught him out on a few things but have not taken it further. He has now told my director that I am crap. My director has been away on business and instead of consulting facts he sent me an email of accusations. (they are friends). When I hit back he has then further tried to clarify his points by further claims. We have to utilize our time and he says I am under 95% utilized. However I have had 2 weeks holiday. When you consider my time in the office I am 105% utilized because I work over my contracted hours. I am taking these figures to him and will await his reaction. then I will decide what to do.

How did it go?

He spoke to me today and had my line manager there. Didn't go well in my eyes as he didn't listen to me at all. I told him I felt persecuted and he was like where have I said that...then I said he was rude and he said for me to not even dare going there judging by the tone of my email. I had put "if you care to look". At the end of the conversation he said that he would be recording our conversation and I would have to sign it with my line manager and then it would go on my record. Unfortunately I was not given the option to take someone in with me to act up my side of things. Now my line manager thinks I have a personal problem with him even though I have never spoken about him.
I asked him about my bonus and he said he didn't know and would have to talk to someone. Of course he knew as he gives them!

Very frustrating, but good for you in that they now know they can't just ride rough-shod all over you. Hope things improve going forward and you get a result regarding your bonus.