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!

Their attempt to shift to a breakdown in the employer/employee relationship won't fly. Whilst they can dismiss you for this reason they must still follow a fair process, which they have clearly failed to do. They really ought to settle. On the information you have posted here, I don't see any way they can win at tribunal.

What exactly is your line manager's problem? Why the tantrum?

I can’t believe this is still going, I think I commented at the start. Just joining now to say my thoughts are with you! Sending you strength to hold the line on these tossers.

Only just caught up.

Sounds like they are still in the shit big time tbh.

Plus Ex line manager knows every time she throws a tantrum and threatens to resign she gets what she wants??

@prh47bridge

Their attempt to shift to a breakdown in the employer/employee relationship won't fly. Whilst they can dismiss you for this reason they must still follow a fair process, which they have clearly failed to do. They really ought to settle. On the information you have posted here, I don't see any way they can win at tribunal.

Thanks @prh47bridge - you've been incredibly helpful throughout!

@incenseandpeppermints

What exactly is your line manager's problem? Why the tantrum?

Long story short - I've stood up to her, by raising a formal grievance, I exposed her crap to senior management and HR and made her look bad.

@timeisnotaline

I can’t believe this is still going, I think I commented at the start. Just joining now to say my thoughts are with you! Sending you strength to hold the line on these tossers.

@RandomMess

Only just caught up.

Sounds like they are still in the shit big time tbh.

Plus Ex line manager knows every time she throws a tantrum and threatens to resign she gets what she wants??

Excellent reinforcing of awful toxic management!

@NoWordForFluffy

This is really useful in explaining it. I'm not convinced it'll fly. They've probably stuck it in to give you the sense of litigation risk so you negotiate a lower settlement.

Thank you for the link @NoWordForFluffy. Seems like a grey area. I've had a look at past cases and it seems that because I've been reasonable, polite and requested mediation (also I haven't been at work to upset my manager) that they should have allowed me back to work to see how things went and follow disciplinary procedure if I turned into an arsehole.

Well, they're truly screwed now. You have proof that they claimed you resigned.
Now they have changed it to terminated because line manager is a whiny turd.
So they lied, lied and doubled down on the lie then changed it to something they think sounds better.
I doubt this will end well for them.

Owner will probably be trying to throw manager under the bus

They just keep digging a deeper hole for themselves don't they? All they are doing is increasing your chances of winning a tribunal and increasing a potential settlement.
Wonder how much finger pointing, blaming, tantrums there is back in the office now. Closing ranks is backfiring so they'll all turn on each other. You will win this.

Seems like a grey area. I've had a look at past cases and it seems that because I've been reasonable, polite and requested mediation (also I haven't been at work to upset my manager) that they should have allowed me back to work to see how things went and follow disciplinary procedure if I turned into an arsehole.

Disclaimer: I am not an employment lawyer (civil litigation is my bag). My assessment is the same as yours. They apparently panicked(?) when you're former manager through a tantrum and decided to get rid. And once it was done (with or without HR's express knowledge / consent?), there was no taking it back. And now it's spiralled out of their control.

Their solicitor can't mislead / allow them to mislead the Tribunal, hence having to be honest in the ET3 about what happened, but then desperately trying to find something in the legal framework to throw at it to try to increase your litigation risk. That's my reading of the situation.

Your. Sodding iPhone auto-twat.

Long story short - I've stood up to her, by raising a formal grievance, I exposed her crap to senior management and HR and made her look bad

Short story long - over what? Not something that was discriminatory against a person with a Protected Characteristic or could be termed Whistleblowing, by any chance?

The first could be an accidental admission of Victimisation to add to their self inflicted woes.

@VettiyaIruken

Well, they're truly screwed now. You have proof that they claimed you resigned. Now they have changed it to terminated because line manager is a whiny turd. So they lied, lied and doubled down on the lie then changed it to something they think sounds better. I doubt this will end well for them.

Owner will probably be trying to throw manager under the bus

This is what I'm banking on, that the tribunal can see they lied to avoid a potential unfair dismissal case - I have a letter claiming I'd resigned, they've back tracked and stated I was dismissed for 'another substantial reason'.

@NeverDropYourMoonCup

Long story short - I've stood up to her, by raising a formal grievance, I exposed her crap to senior management and HR and made her look bad

Short story long - over what? Not something that was discriminatory against a person with a Protected Characteristic or could be termed Whistleblowing, by any chance?

The first could be an accidental admission of Victimisation to add to their self inflicted woes.

If I remember the first thread, it was about trying to push the OP elsewhere following maternity leave.

Manager wanted her best mate in the role instead of op coming back from Mat leave.

What a bunch of arseholes. I hope you get what you need out of it because they've treated you horrifically!

In regard to my 'resignation' the company have stated that my employment was terminated (so I didn't resign then?! confused) because my line manager refused mediation and said she would resign if I returned, which would have caused operational difficulties. I knew this was likely the case, as around the time mediation should have been arranged, the office manager informed me that they had overheard a phone call between my line manager and the regional manager discussing me, which ended in my line manager crying and screaming

WTAF? That sounds like an admission that they threw you under the bus because your line manager was having a hissy fit.

Surely to god, that must be an unfair dismissal!

I've been following your thread OP & I can't believe what you've been put through. I really hope you're near the end now & get a nice big payout as compensation. Of course I also hope the company learns a lesson and never treats anyone like that again - but somehow I doubt it!

I, too, have been following your threads. I hope you get a massive (forget 'substantial' - I mean whatever the superlative superlative in legalese is!) payout at the end of this. I hope it will end soon too. It must be horrible for you to have it dragging on like this, even though it does look a lot brighter for you than it does for them. You sound pretty strong and together, so I hope you are able to really enjoy this time with your babe.

Thanks all,

Negotiations have re-started but it's a slow process - someone on here said something about only receiving solicitor correspondence on a Friday, I've found this to be totally accurate!

We apparently have a preliminary hearing on July 1st, but it's from the first case that was cancelled - both solicitors are convinced it will still go ahead but I can't see why it would when that case is closed. As far as I'm aware, we haven't heard anything from the tribunal about it.

Remind us what the first case was.....

Blimey what a long drawn out process

First case was maternity discrimination and sex discrimination, for trying to push me out of my role due to the relationship with my DP (who worked at the same site as me). Failing to even look at my flexible working request and my boss changing my hours without consultation.

Second case is all of the above but adds in unfair dismissal and victimisation as they fired me a few days after receiving my ET1.