Employer have said I have resigned - I haven't. Urgent help please!

[Titslikepicassos]

I have a loooong thread in AIBU and received excellent support but things have escalated.

Long story short, I went on maternity leave this time last year. I had issues at work throughout my pregnancy, being shouted at and sidelined and told to move locations. Sorted it all out informally.

In March I asked to return to work early from Mat leave due to financial issues caused by lockdown. At this point my boss attempted to move me again, that didn't work and she then went back on the hours she had given me and it messed up my childcare.

I raised a formal grievance and put a flexible working request in at the same time. The company failed to do anything with my request and the grievance process was mismanaged and a data breach occurred in the middle of it, where my grievance letter was upload to a public file and seen by others.

The grievance was upheld in parts but they again tried to move me to a new location which doesnt work due to childcare issues.

I requested mediation with my boss in order to go back to work as I'm still not back 7 months later.

Today the regional director has said that they won't honour mediation and I have now resigned.

My union rep has disappeared and I received this at 16:00 today so couldn't get hold of ACAS.

Any advice would be very welcome!

@RandomMess

Can you actually say it's clear that many emails have not been handed over due to the lack of volume of emails from x y z covering the topics a b c?

I've replied to the 'bundle' email - giving a few examples of missing email exchanges and asking for the search terms they've used.

I'm having to do the second request to cover the unfair dismissal - my first SAR was for info regarding the grievance and flexible working request.

Wow, just read this whole thread. I remember your original one and I was shocked back then at the way you were being treated.
Cannot believe how much worse the shit storm got for you.
I hope you are coping mentally as this must be keeping you up at night.
Can you claim for the way it has affected your health and presumably the joy of your little ones first year of life has been overshadowed by this situation.
All the best OP.

You should go for the max compensation for the stress & your mental health, resulting in going on medication.
They are either mind blowingly incompetent or attempting to hide emails & to grind you down with increasingl delays & admin slow death.

Crossed post !

I think you can specify to recieve everything to do with your name in the last x months. Thats what a friend did when he was made redundant and it brought up clear evidence of unfair process in place. His manager even writing in an email he didn't follow the process for xxxxx and just wrote down this instead. Good luck OP have been watching from the beginning. So sad to see this has happened!

Thanks all.

Quick question - the company have emailed back, apologising that information is missing.

They've told me that they've gone to each department and asked them to send across emails which have my name in. My line manager has sent over everything that makes her look great and nothing else.

I was under the impression, that a SAR was done by the data controllers who accessed the information and then collated it?

The company will be the data controller. If their systems are not set up to archive emails the only way to get them is to ask individuals.

Yes for my friend the data/ict people were able to put in search terms to access everything on emails as well as HR records etc

Doesn't sound like your company have this or are choosing not to do it. Not sure where you stand on this though.

If I remember correctly you work for a large organisation. I would be very surprised if your IT dept can't access this information centrally.

I would ask the Data Contriller to verify they have searched hard drives as well as the network. Note also ask that they search deleted data which is normally held on the back up system for a period of time.

I would also remind rhem if not disclosed they can't be used in the ET without breaching GDPR for non-disclosure.

Are the company expecting you to accept that they've done their best and that's all you're getting? Or are they apologising and carrying out further data searches? 'We tried' isn't really good enough. I would politely remind them that your original request hasn't been fulfilled, and the existing deadline still stands. And be prepared to follow through on next steps eg complaint to ico if they don't come through.

It's a big organisation with a department set up for this - the email address I'm receiving emails from are [email protected] which goes to the team. I would have thought that they had the resources to pull up deleted emails and emails from employees who have left etc.

Pretty pointless exercise if you're just telling people to send over any emails they have sent!

They've basically just sent me my grievance back, including all the attachments.

As soon as the two month extension is past I would refer them to ICO.

This page sets out your Data Controllers responsibilities ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/right-of-access/

It includes
☐ We have suitable information management systems in place to allow us to locate and retrieve information efficiently.

OP, it kinda depends on what you specifically requested when putting your SAR request in, I would have requested ALL emails and HR records. That said, the fact that you requested all docs relating to your grievance should have covered this.

I would firmly let know that you have waiting 3 months for them not to have correctly processed your SAR, and that you'd be willing to allow them a further 2 weeks (considering xmas break has started) to return your full SAR docs or that you will now be referring the matter to the ICO.

Also, if HR gets in touch with you, remind them that conversations will not continue until you are in possession of the SAR docs.

Actually @Margaritatime is right. I'd flag this to ICO now. They have a bit of a backlog so I'd start the process now. Let your firm know that you've now flagged this to them.

@Titslikepicassos refer them to the ICO!

Do they not have an IT department who can access all of the emails on the system and filter out the ones with your email address? I'm sure you can get that info through mimecast.

Thanks all,

They're back in the office today so I expect to hear something. Failing that, I'll email them and then fill in the ICO's complaint form.

[quote LordOfTheOnionRings]@Titslikepicassos refer them to the ICO!

Do they not have an IT department who can access all of the emails on the system and filter out the ones with your email address? I'm sure you can get that info through mimecast.[/quote]
They have a large IT department, they can do this. They've either chosen not to, or don't understand the process

Sounds to me you have been treated unfairly GMB not the best union you should have legal assist with your car insurance 24 7 days a week trained solicitors you have working rights employment rights and maternity rights before you went on leave it should of been discussed and confirmed in writing of your intentions to return to work or not and at a practical time period good luck

Legal assistance with your car insurance often only covers car accidents, so best to check the small print if you're hoping to rely on it. Home insurance legal expenses cover is generally broader.

Anyway, things have moved on somewhat, so it's moot at this point.

Just when you think they can’t get any worse. Unbelievable. So sorry you’re still going through this

The data department came back to me yesterday, saying that the HR team are on annual leave until 4th January, so they can't do anything until then.

Deadline is tomorrow.

Time to report them to the ico, and let them know when it's done. The hr dept being off should make no difference. The it dept should be able to access the info regardless.

I would reply to them and CC HR stating that as the deadline is tomorrow you have been left with no choice but report to ICO and the organisation has had x weeks to correctly collate all this information.

TBH it smacks of cover up and trying to drag things out as well as shit show incompetence.

I would be doubling my pay off request tbh.

Who's the data controller? That's not good enough! Such incompetence all round.

I've replied and covered everything you've said @RandomMess and @katmarie - there is absolutely no real reason for this delay.

Bloody infuriating