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!

@NoWordForFluffy

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

I'm dealing with two people within the data team - they've told me that HR were the ones actually pulling the data together.

It's simply not good enough as the data controller should have a handle on it, not outsource elsewhere. But, not surprising really!

It takes 3 or 4 months for the ICO to investigate so report now. Annual leave, public holidays, do not affect the time limit on a SAR - one calendar month.
Unfortunately the ICO do not do any forensic investigation though - they will contact your employer and tell them to comply with the SAR. Also be aware that there is no penalty for not complying with SAR. Been there.

@incenseandpeppermints

It takes 3 or 4 months for the ICO to investigate so report now. Annual leave, public holidays, do not affect the time limit on a SAR - one calendar month. Unfortunately the ICO do not do any forensic investigation though - they will contact your employer and tell them to comply with the SAR. Also be aware that there is no penalty for not complying with SAR. Been there.

Thanks @incenseandpeppermints

I'm not expecting the ICO to do much, but as @RandomMess said, I think they're covering things up and perhaps this will focus their minds and make them realise that I'm not going away.

@Titslikepicassos I made 3 SARs before my departure. Every request was the same but every answer was different.

They sent me my HR file in SAR 2, then sent me it again in SAR 3. However, they made a big mistake.

Basically they had removed some entries from my file when responding to SAR 2 but forgot to do so again in SAR 3. It was clear they were trying to cover things up. The missing lines had some really horrible things about me written in them.

They tried to say it was just a mistake that they hadn't been included with SAR 2. An admin error. I am not an idiot. It was deliberate. I cannot say what other evidence I have of it being deliberate but it most certainly won't have been an accident.

My union official really tore into them about this. So don't trust HR to be honest with you. They will try to edit things before sending it to you and withhold some things too. You need to be really specific about what you want to receive.

My HR Dept were also similarly useless. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you obvs applies...

Just wanted to wish you luck OP. I've been following your post. Some years ago I ended up leaving my employment and I'll tell you this DO NOT TRUST HR! They're essentially looking out for the company and not the employee, no matter what they say. I'm not bitter 🤨

I think I was quite naive in thinking that the company would rather sort out grievances and HR would be apart of that. It would have been quicker and easier for everyone (and much cheaper for them) if they'd had a word with my line manager, agreed to mediation and got me back to work. That's all I wanted.

Lesson learnt.

And thanks for all the advice and luck. I'm clearly going to need it

And it's payday and they haven't paid me, because when you're in a hole, keep digging right?!

As in the balance of what should've been paid last month?

Wow, I remember your original thread and have just come across this one. A

I can add is do not undersell yourself, take them to the cleaners.

@NoWordForFluffy

As in the balance of what should've been paid last month?

I've been paid 3 days out of 6 remaining annual leave, but not the 4 weeks of PILON that was missing. My rep thought it might have been paid in two lots, so today, but no.

@Titslikepicassos

I think I was quite naive in thinking that the company would rather sort out grievances and HR would be apart of that. It would have been quicker and easier for everyone (and much cheaper for them) if they'd had a word with my line manager, agreed to mediation and got me back to work. That's all I wanted.

Lesson learnt.

Not sure that would have worked either as your HR, like most, although there are some exceptions, seem to be taking their orders from managers, and your line manager had an answer for everything, and one cannot be forced to accept mediation.

Plus the Regional Director apparently was operating on, 'orders,' making it appear that the decision to terminate was made quite high up the food chain, as it was a surprise to HR, as they were arranging mediation.

I don't know what else you could have done that you didn't do, and none of it is your fault.

The only thing that possibly could have been done that wasn't, was if your union rep spoke to the Regional Director to try and find out who was giving the order and then speak with this unnamed person.

Having said that, the line manager seems to be wielding power so not sure why no one has taken her to task.

You realise that if your suit is successful, you have the ability to potentially take the CEO down now with the number of fuck ups they have persisted throwing your way. It’s appalling the way they have treated you for daring to have a baby and thinking you could waltz back in and exercise your legal right to work as per anyone else!

A number of years ago a member of staff made a false claim/complaint about my manager, bother she and I had to supply any emails to hr that included his name, we had to search and find them not IT. It would have been easy not to supply any incriminating ones, there was never any talk of IT getting involved and we are a large company (there weren’t any incriminating emails as it happened as he had made it up and was just an idiot in too deep of his own doing so started lying)

I was on your other thread but lost you. I'm so sorry you are going through this shit.
Ten years ago dh was in our opinion unfairly dismissed from his workplace. His evidence wasn't as strong as yours, our union legal cover said they needed something like 76% chance of winning and they felt he was 75%. So, we went to tribunal with me acting as his representative.

I was terrified and felt that I messed up a lot but the company had a legal team and dh said they didn't seem any better. The manager they had as a witness lied bent the truth a lot and said that the reason he had dismissed dh was because dh had been accused which meant it was true. The evidence we had refuted this and he looked an idiot.

In the end dh lost his case, mainly down to my performance (I had no idea of what I was doing, and some of the online advice is rubbish), but the judge ripped the companies processes apart and was full of praise for dh, wishing him well at the end.

I know you are worrying about the process but I'd like to try to reassure you that the tribunal is OK. The judge was clued up and certainly had the measure of the company. I like to think that with proper legal advice the outcome would have been better.

With regard to emails, I'm pretty sure that your legal team can ask the judge (when you get to that point) for a court order to have the server looked at by an independent company at the cost to the losing parties, so that any relevant information can be recovered. That includes any emails between other parties about you/your situation. Might be worth investigating and mentioning verbally in a roundabout way in a conversation along the lines of my best friends cousins rat did this when they thought evidence was missing and it cost their company loads, I could have sworn there were more emails...
Chin up, you are doing great.

I hope that you're okay OP and that you've had some encouraging news? 💐

Any updates OP?

No updates at the moment other than redoing my SAR.

My union rep is on leave until Monday, if ACAS have managed to do anything, the details will be in his inbox.

@littledrummergirl

I was on your other thread but lost you. I'm so sorry you are going through this shit. Ten years ago dh was in our opinion unfairly dismissed from his workplace. His evidence wasn't as strong as yours, our union legal cover said they needed something like 76% chance of winning and they felt he was 75%. So, we went to tribunal with me acting as his representative.

I was terrified and felt that I messed up a lot but the company had a legal team and dh said they didn't seem any better. The manager they had as a witness lied bent the truth a lot and said that the reason he had dismissed dh was because dh had been accused which meant it was true. The evidence we had refuted this and he looked an idiot.

In the end dh lost his case, mainly down to my performance (I had no idea of what I was doing, and some of the online advice is rubbish), but the judge ripped the companies processes apart and was full of praise for dh, wishing him well at the end.

I know you are worrying about the process but I'd like to try to reassure you that the tribunal is OK. The judge was clued up and certainly had the measure of the company. I like to think that with proper legal advice the outcome would have been better.

With regard to emails, I'm pretty sure that your legal team can ask the judge (when you get to that point) for a court order to have the server looked at by an independent company at the cost to the losing parties, so that any relevant information can be recovered. That includes any emails between other parties about you/your situation. Might be worth investigating and mentioning verbally in a roundabout way in a conversation along the lines of my best friends cousins rat did this when they thought evidence was missing and it cost their company loads, I could have sworn there were more emails...
Chin up, you are doing great.

Thanks for sharing your experience @littledrummergirl - I am concerned about representing myself (if it comes to that). I imagine it's a very stressful experience.

I do know of someone whose SAR request was met incompletely.

Someone within the organisation had mentioned a certain document to her , and made a statement to that effect (willing or unwilling I don’t know); the document was missing from the bundle supplied under the SAR. It was a bit of a shock to the school where she worked when people came to impound their computers. I guess her lawyers were able to have some court order made on the back of the co-employee’s statement. The headmistress disappeared next term ...

It sounds as though the union are behind you. The wheels move slowly at first but they pick up quickly.
Following dh experience I actually became a union rep in my company although since I left I have allowed it to go rusty and haven't kept up with all changes.
Just let your legal team know things are missing, they will be used to this. I remember being told that managers don't like to admit they screwed up, they try to fix it (incorrectly) and don't take legal advice until long after the point of no return. Their legal team then has to fix it, usually by suggesting they settle (happened with dh). The company either listen or they dig their heels in and offer a stupidly low amount which makes it harder for the legal team.

Just keep it factual, and I know it's really hard but try not to worry. Something to expect as it moves forwards will be emails/letters arriving last thing on a Friday. Put them to one side and don't open them until Monday. They will only add to the stress and there is nothing you can do until Monday anyway so just try to forget them and enjoy your weekend.
Feel free to pm me if you need to rant, I can't promise to have the answers but I can listen and understand.

I honestly can’t believe the hole they have dug for themselves. You can easily prove (by showing sent receipts) everything you have sent to them, and they are simply digging their heels in and ignoring what is legally required of them. Judges are not going to look favourably upon them in this environment especially.