Grievance and employment options

[threeisacharm18]

I filed a grievance with my company - don't want to get into the details.
They didn't uphold the grievance
In the interim I've applied for and secured a new job.

My solicitor advised me to go on sick leave - company will likely settle for an amount around 20-40k.

If I leave and go to a new job it minimises my losses since I can't claim constructive dismissal.

My issue is

• go on sick leave, get paid for however long it takes to resolve this issue, plus I'd get the additional compensation. But my mental health can't take sitting at home doing nothing. It would actually send me into deep depression.

However I feel so hard done by, so if I leave an go to the new job I'd be getting less compensation.

Any advice?

There's a lot of random/bad advice on this thread.

Grievances are rarely upheld, and yes, constructive dismissal is hard to win at tribunal but it depends to some extent on whether there is another basis to your claim eg. whistleblowing, discrimination...

More saliently, you are almost certainly not going to tribunal. That just costs everyone crazy money. The sensible approach is to have your solicitor write them a letter to say that you have to consider that you may have been constructively dismissed and open settlement talks for a negotiated exit. A decent next employer will wait for a few weeks to give you time.

Leaving and succeeding is your best revenge, but if an employer has really failed you it's important they are held accountable too.

I would ring the acas hotline if I were you. They are good.

There's a lot of bad advice in this post too!

There are no statistics kept on grievances, so any comment is anecdotal / opinion. But in my experience they are upheld if you present a good enough case. You can't claim they are really upheld because you can't provide any evidence to support that claim.

Less than 1% of constructive unfair dismissal claims win. That's a fact provided directly from Employment tribunal cases. It's a fact for all such claims, whether or not there are other claims alongside. If you lose the unfair dismissal claim the chances of winning another claim alongside it are even lower - the one evidences the other.

A letter from a solicitor will not remotely interest any employer who rejects the claim. Some may offer a pittance to go away, but many will not - they will let you run up your legal bills because the chances of getting an offer such as the OP suggested are very low.

In my experience, and that of many people I know, the ACAS call centre are useless. And what would you suggest they could do that the OPs solicitor should be doing? You either take the advice of the lawyer you have retained and trust, or you don't trust them and so you terminate that arrangement. ACAS may give you accurate advice - although that isn't guaranteed. But they are not allowed to provide you with legal advice on your car or representation.

I read the findings of a recent industrial tribunal for my large public sector employer. Employee had gone for constructive dismissal due to lengthy period of bullying. I know the alleged bully and believed wholeheartedly in the evidence presented to the tribunal. Despite all this she was unsuccessful, I'd proceed with caution if this is the route you intend to go down.

Honestly I wouldn't even leave my company were it not because I'm pissed at the way I've been treated.
Unless they've behaved unlawfully it's hard to credit a solicitor has advised that they'll "probably settle at a payout of £20-40k".

Getting signed off sick won’t help a constructive dismissal claim either. To win one of those you have to establish that you resigned in response to your employer fundamentally breaching your contract and also that you did so not too long after the breach.

I reckon you’d be best to take the new job and move on. You aren’t automatically entitled to compensation out of them just because you feel aggrieved.

They shouldn’t be advising someone to go off sick either. That’s not legal advice. If OP isn’t well enough to go to work that’s a medical matter between her and her doctor.

Any sick leave over 7 days will need a doctors note. Will your doctor be supportive of you Bering off sick and if so for how long? If it’s more than a few weeks your employer may want you to engage with occupational health to work out how to support your return. You may find your sick leave is a lot shorter than you are hoping.

Agreed @Jalisco

So just updating this thread invade someone is in the same boat.

My grievance was rejected. I appealed and I'm awaiting the outcome of that appeal. In the meantime I've delayed my start date with the other employer.

*incase not invade

My solicitor advised me to go on sick leave - company will likely settle for an amount around 20-40k

I think you may have misheard or mis-remembered this. "Company will likely settle..." a solicitor would have no way of predicting any settlement.

Settlements do not come easy and tend to mitigate against tribunal action where there's a high risk of successful discrimination or a set-piece breach of employment law. It doesn't seem likely that's relevant for you otherwise you would have mentioned it.

To stand any chance of a settlement agreement you'd have to firstly exhaust your employer's internal grievance procedure (which you're currently going through), then lodge your ET1 form, intention to lodge tribunal action, await your employer's ET3 response, then ACAS Early Conciliation, then sweat it out as your employer kicks the can down the road, run down the clock and plays for time. The incident you are claiming is a breach UK employment law must be within 3months + 1 day of lodging your Tribunal Action.

if you're very lucky and your case has any merit in law, your's and your employer's solicitors could haggle for a "Commercial Settlement" based on (a fraction of) loss - to avoid going all the way to Tribunal. That £value will then have to be reduced by your solicitor's fee). Hence why it seems unlikely your solicitor could possibly be able to make that estimation so early on.

Your employer is highly likely not to uphold your grievance - they won't care (sorry, unvarnished truth!) and aren't incentivised to. If they do uphold it, you are then left with the problem of returning to the workplace with a very bad taste in your mouth, as will they. I'd take a new job over that - it doesn't have to be forever, you'll be free to look for something better when you're out of that shitshow!

high risk of successful discrimination or other set-piece breach of employment law.

What are your reasons for staying at the current company waiting for your grievance appeal to play out?

If it’s purely financial cut your losses and leave.

This could take a long time to get sorted OP, and you can’t be certain of the outcome. Your most certain bet is putting this all behind you and starting the new role before burning bridges and losing the offer.

This is such a good point. We had similar at work, staff causing absolute chaos and blaming other staff members - before going off sick.