Dismissal?

[stinkystinky]

Basically 2 years ago a legal claim was brought against my employer for an action of mine. I was naive in what I did (a HR matter) but did it innocently. The legal letter was responded to and that was that. No action from my employer against me I just answered all their questions and provided evidence.

Now a new legal letter has appeared, citing exactly the same info and case for a claim.

The legal matter is being dealt with but I’m terrified I’m going to be sacked. Given that this is exactly the same case and no action was taken before is there any way that my employer could take action now?!

It’s really hard to say without more info but I find it strange the same case is coming up....there are timeframes for a lot of things when it comes to claims. what’s the case about without giving too much away? Is it a tribunal or some other kind of legal case? Are you HR? Was there a lack of training from your employer?

Is this directly from a solicitor on behalf of the (I assume) ex employee trying their luck?

Is a civil case trying their luck I guess.

I was wrong but it was a genuine error and I’ve been upfront about it. Could my employer fire me now knowing that they knew about this 2 years ago?

Your employer could not dismiss you based on one incident over 2 years ago.

If your employer didn’t think it was a sackable offence two years they can’t suddenly decide it is now.

They would find it very hard to justify that sacking you now is a reasonable thing to do when they have already investigated/ responded to the incident and then let you carry on in role (with no further incidents or issues I assume?) for all this time.

That’s what I thought. Nothing else have ever happened I have a clear record, excellent reputation etc. This case is exactly the same as 2 years ago.

Thanks everyone.

A claim cannot just appear 2 years after the event. There are timeframes for making a claim to the employment tribunal. I strongly suspect that a claim was made within the 3 months minus one day timeframe and a solicitor has been dealing with it behind closed doors since trying to get rid of it. What did you do wrong ? What is the actual scenario? What are they claiming?

Is an person ( employee or service user) making a personal injury claim or is it an employee (former) making a employment claim?
In either case they are against the employer not you personally and they need to defend the case.
If the cause of action is arising from something you did and you think that you could be found responsible then you need to take legal advice separately.

I’m also assuming the case is civil not criminal.

You haven’t really given enough info on the details.

OP, I've nc'd for this as it might be outing.

2 years ago, I discovered an HR document that had not been encrypted and which had personal details of over 1000 employees, including mine. I came across it by chance but anyone in the organisation could have. There was horrible untrue and discriminatory stuff written on it. I already had email evidence of discrimination and this data breach just added to my evidence.

I got help from my union, did a grievance, appeal, tribunal claim etc and now 2 years later, I have left with a blooming huge settlement package.

The point I'm making, is that these things can take time, especially in Covid. If my claim had gone to tribunal, it would have been 2022 before it was heard. There's apparently a backlog.

So yes, you can still be in trouble. My communication was with my union and the head of HR. Individual HR members, including those responsible for the discriminatory behaviour, were kept out of it unless they needed to be informed. Most still don't know I was going through the tribunal process. The head of HR was really desperate to keep it all quiet and save the company's reputation.