Problem at work, not sure how to move forwards

[Myemployersarescumbags]

Hi all

I work for a fairly large company where I am quite senior. I can’t go into the details as it’s fairly specific but I’ve been screwed over by my company. It’s a grossly unfair situation and everyone (incl HR and ACAS) say it’s totally wrong and I’ve been treated abysmally and I should think about what I want and get legal advice.

I think it’s constructive dismissal (note I am still employed and haven’t done anything drastic yet). I’ve been researching employment solicitors and the costs are eye watering. One solicitors website even suggested that win or lose, I would have to swallow the legal costs myself- somewhere between £10k & £40k. This can’t be right surely? I don’t have this kind of money, no one would ever take legal action if this was the case surely??!

I’ve phoned 3 solicitors today, 2 I still haven’t heard back from and the 3rd I got a call back but they said they couldn’t talk to me due to a conflict of interest (at this point they only knew my name and number and the name of my employer, nothing else). I don’t even understand this, my role at work means I am heavily involved with all legal stuff and this is 100% not a firm we have ever used (this was a 1 man band kind of firm, my company have a big London firm on retainer)

I don’t even want a full on Tribunal, I just want an apology and a settlement/termination agreement of some kind so I can leave straight away and move on. I assume I still need a solicitor for this? I just don’t know if I’m doing stuff correctly, anyone got any salient advice?

I apologise for not being able to recount the whole saga right now, I would find that annoying if I was reading this post as well, it’s just that it’s a pretty unique situation.

Oh and I am in England and I’ve been here over 5 years. I’m on my second day of ‘sickness’ at the moment because I can’t bear the thought of going to work as normal and the culprits thinking they can get away with what they’ve done.

I took a fairly large company to tribunal with an unfair dismissal claim, represented myself and won. There is lots of advice online, I had friends that worked within HR and one that worked as a union rep who helped me get my case together. It’s not as difficult as you think

Make sure that you submit a data subject access request to work. All that has been written about you by managers etc. you can do it via your data compliance department.
Good luck.

But the Hr team at your workplace are there to advise your employer - seems a bit odd that they would be giving advice against the employers interest. I would be sceptical about this.

Do a timeline of events leading up to your present situation and present it to HR to get their advice with the hint that you are sending the timeline to a solicitor to get legal advice and that you would be agreeable to a conversation about a payoff to leave.

If they really are in breach of regulations, a timeline works wonders to kick things into action. If HR still don’t do anything, a we’ll constructed timeline with the accompanying evidence (emails, transcripts etc) will shave £100s in solicitor bills as usually a lot of the time is spent in putting the case together and figuring out what law is in breach.

If they have agreed fault you should be able to get them to go through ACAS. I was underpaid for 4 years…. Found out when discussing wages with a colleague. HR agreed and put it to ACAS where we negotiated compensation. Took about 4 weeks and cost me nothing. Obviously no apology though

Hi OP, others in the same situation,

You must raise a formal grievance asap, lodge a case with ACAS (within 3 months of the incident at least) option for early conciliation , wait to see the investigation through, you don't need a solicitor for this unless they play hardball.