To bring an employment claim?

[CheeseonTwats]

Apologies it's a long one.

I was fired on the spot from my job last week. It's all still very raw. It was a good job I planned to stay in for a long time. I had been there just over a year and really enjoyed it.

The only difficult part of the job was working with a colleague who openly despised me from day one. Although she never made it clear why, I put it down to the fact that I was more qualified than her and younger but had more responsibility. She made regular attempts to undermine me and sabotage my work.

It all got very heated on a Friday. She'd made an error which I had to fix and when she asked why I'd interfered and I explained, she became irate. She screamed in my face and told me she would get me fired because she was sick to death of seeing my face. Unfortunately no one was around to hear this as it was after everyone had gone home.

I planned to go in early on Monday and report her to the boss as I was very shaken by the encounter. When I arrived the boss was in meetings for two hours. I then found out that she'd been out with my colleague for coffee for an hour before the meetings, which is unheard of.

After her meetings, I was called into the office via phone. The boss's secretary was there to take notes. The boss said she was really disappointed in me because she had heard that I'd told my colleague no one liked her and not to bother coming back to work (untrue). Colleague now felt like she couldn't work with me and threatened to leave. Boss said as colleague had been there longer (3 months longer) I should be the one to go.

I was in utter disbelief and asked for clarification if I was being fired. Boss said 'yes there's no other option but we'll pay you your notice period if you leave the building immediately because Colleague has her things packed ready to leave if you don't'.

I wasn't given the opportunity to give my side of the story as I was escorted out. I then received a Facebook message from colleague that said 'told you I'd get you fired '.

I called acas who told me to check my contract. It says 'all employees are subject to disciplinary procedures outlined in the staff guide.' I got hold of the guide and it confirms that all employees, regardless of length of service and including staff in their probationary period will be subject to the procedures outlined. It then has a very clear structure for both misconduct and gross misconduct that wasn't followed at any stage.

Acas have told me I have a claim for wrongful dismissal based on them not following their own guide and not offering me a representative.

I now have to write to them but I'm so exhausted by it all I'm questioning if it's worth putting myself through it.

What would you do?

Aren't HR supposed to mediate between both parties to try and find a solution that's amenable to all; basically not to act like they're washing their hands even if the company is

And where do the interests of the company start and the interests of the employee stop? Aren't employees part of the company so should have their voice heard equally?

Nothing about mediation in my job description, no. If you're talking about grievances then HR role is to ensure the grievance is heard fairly. Mangers make the decision on outcome, HR advises.

Not sure about "having their voice heard equally", you do know that businesses are not democracies, yes? I had someone tell me the other day that he did not like that we brought in a time sheet system and he should have been consulted. I explained to him that sometimes decisions are just made by senior people in the interests of the company. As this one was. In fact, it was driven by client needs and we had no choice, so what if we had consulted him and he'd said no? We lose that client business? How is that in anyone's interests? (we did run a trial, which he was part of, to look at various software)

But all of this depends on the sort of company it is. Which is my basic point. If the company behaves in a way you don't like, don't stay. Some companies treat employees better than others do.

HR is part of that but not in charge of it. We are advisors to the business.

With respect Out, your shruggy-shouldered, defensive and dismissive approach on these past couple of posts really reinforces why HR gets the poor opinion it does.

Peace out.

Tbf Beans it does depends on the company and how they want HR to run. I've worked in corporate and more family feel companies now and the family run ones ime want their HR to be yes mainly for them, but also for the employees to ensure their workplace happiness because it's the employees that make them their money directly. Corporate are generally more transactional feeling imo but nice as I got to work on higher profile projects. For corporate I had to adapt my approach but family run smaller businesses are my preferred choice as I feel more comfortable. Didn't have half the issues in family run than in corporate, fortunately!

I'm sure plenty of you decent employment law and HR people have just as bad an opinion of incompetent and/or malicious people performing the HR function? This sort of idiotic response (from the OP's company) surely just underlines that it's important to be professional about HR functions, not outsource them to who-knows-who, or ignore the function/ legal responsibilities completely!

@RiotAndAlarum you are making a huge assumption that the OP's company has outsourced HR, and/or that HR were behind the decision to dismiss. The management made a decision on Cheese's dismissal not HR.

@OrangeBird69 your experience sounds horrific. I'm so sorry you went through that. It means nothing but not all HR people are cunts. Some of us are actually normal and deal with shit we don't like to deal with and deal with it the best we can and with integrity. Really sorry, hope the five figure settlement helped in the long term.

How long have you been working there? If it's less than 2 years, forget it. Thanks to the previous coalition government, the clock was wound forward to stop "frivolous" claims - (read ensuring they have you by the short and curlies for years rather than months).

I don't agree with very much that Corbyn says but I take my hat off to him wanting to reduce the qualifying period before employment rights kick in, from 2 to 1 year.

To have to wait for two years before you can fight against the shit that Cheese has been subjected to is a disgrace. And it's why so many managers are getting away with murder on a daily basis.

Thank you all.

I haven't found any jobs yet, I sent my cv out to all relevant companies within a 90 minute commute but not heard anything back yet. Jobs in my field are very rare so it'll likely be the case that I have to move if one comes up in the country, as I did for this one.

I really appreciate all of the help you've given me. I hope I'm not coming across as ungrateful, I'm just feeling very defeated by it all and have little faith in future employers. I do appreciate not all employers/HR are like this though, all of you on here sound really lovely

I don't think I have the energy to apply for a subject access request, although I do like the thought of giving them some work to do I'm sure they'd have a way to avoid it.

I've replied with a 'please see points x y and z in my previous email and for your convenience a summary is provided below'. I'll let you know if they reply but I'm very much doubting it.