Should I take this to employment tribunal?

[Hubbard93]

I’ve spoken to ACAS multiple times and explained my situation, entirely and in full. Each advisor was sure that I have a case to take tribunal under the Fixed Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment), and has given me advice on grievance, early conciliation and that they would support me in my claim to tribunal.

I contacted a solicitor by recommendation and provided the same information, who read my case details for free. They told me there was no case as I have less than 2 years service so there was no case to bring. I phoned ACAS AGAIN, as this felt like a major blow, and ACAS were 1 million percent sure that a claim under the above regulations could be bought at any length of service. This has also been the result of my own research too.

I then contacted my Union solicitor, who from the conversation it seemed like really wasn’t versed at all in the legislation, kept asking me to repeat the legislation I was referring to, and kept asking me if I was referring to discrimination. I stated that I was referring to the above regulations, and they just replied that if I feel I’ve been treated unfairly I can only claim for discrimination under a protected characteristic (which is not my case).

At this point, I’ve lost it. What’s the point of having legislation you can never enforce?

So AGAIN, after nearly sacking the whole thing in, I’ve called ACAS who informed me again that my employers behaviour has breached the regulations and my claim would be for breaching the regulations and for “detriment” - nothing to do with protected characteristics. He was very confident and even started going through early conciliation etc with me - he couldn’t be more sure.

Now I have raised a grievance my employer is acting very shady already (started to create evidence), and I know from what has happened, the reading of the legislation and conversations with ACAS that I have been treated unfavourably to a comparable permanent employee.

My question - what the hell!? How would you read into this situation? I can book an hour with an Irwin Mitchell solicitor and have been quoted £350-500 PER BLOODY HOUR.

Would you pay to query AGAIN (and it would really be to have a Frank conversation again with someone - and one I really can’t afford right now) or would you trust ACAS advice (given on more than 1 occasion) and potentially (depending on any outcomes beforehand) represent yourself at tribunal? A lot of my HR friends also think I have a case, so I am miffed by the different responses from the first 2 solicitors

What do you hope to get out of the tribunal? Even if you win, all you'll get it something to cover losses not some exciting huge windfall. In fact the stress and expense and time won't feel worth it.

Yep this.

I'd walk away or I'd aim for some kind of settlement.

You are not going to get one of those FT positions.
Its just not going to happen so you need to think about what you want. Tribunal is stressful with no guarantees.

you are entitled to (c)the opportunity to secure any permanent position in the establishment. More importantly Reg 3.6 you had the right to be informed of any vacancies
I'll start I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding of the above is that they can't refuse to inform you of permanent roles being advertised (internally) and to apply for them.

However, the situation during a restructure is different. What you are not entitled to is to be pooled into roles that permanent staff have to apply to if they want to keep a job or be made redundant.

You knew your role was fixed so your situation is different to those who had permanent jobs and have to apply to keep their current job.

The company seems to have followed to correct legislation. They have said to you that you could apply to whatever is left, ie the jobs EVERYONE is entitled to apply to.

Sorry but I don't think you have any chance to win in court if your expectation was to be offered one of the jobs that are within the pool.

I found this op:
Fixed-Term Employees – Don’t opt not to extend the contracts of your fixed-term employees rather than pooling all relevant employees. It could be discriminatory to do so. Whilst the expiry and non-renewal of a fixed-term contract is not a detriment on the grounds of being fixed term – the non-renewal of a fixed-term contract is a “dismissal” in law. Therefore, employees engaged on fixed-term employment contracts will have ordinary unfair dismissal rights after two years’ continuous service
This would support that you are correct in principle but not under 2 years employment. The legislation you refer to seem to only apply after 2 years.