Asking for a settlement agreement after work burnout and bullying caused sick leave - anyone has done that?

[summerskyblue]

I have had some ongoing issues with the company where I have worked for in a senior role for the past three years.

I have a disability (declared to HR and confirmed by occupational health).

There has been a series of disability discrimination and bullying/undermining issues that I have documented.

This led me to a burnout and being signed off for depression.

I am about to come back from sick leave and I expect a big show down as I can see that the company is now trying to manage me out and has out of the blue set new, unreasonable targets just before I am due back that I know there is no realistic way that I can achieve.

I have had enough of having my health affected to that extent.

I am planning to lodge an official grievance & take it to an employment tribunal if needed when I return but I wonder if anyone has successfully asked for a settlement, rather than wait for an employer to offer one in this type of circumstances?

I have no interest in staying in the job at this stage as it is so toxic but I worked hard in a difficult environment so I am not prepared to just resign...

It is best in this climate to find another job. You never know when you need an old job back.

I know of someone who did get a settlement agreement but you need a representative/solicitor and you need evidence, beyond notes. However, he is currently unemployed and even contemplated asking for his job back.

Get a decent employment lawyer and ask them to look at it, you’d have to box quite clever but I think if you could show a slam dunk employment discrimination claim you would win at tribunal it might be worth making an open grievance and a without prejudice settlement offer. The lawyer can also help you understand what you might get, as unless you are very senior and very well remunerated it properly won’t be as much as you might think. If you want to give an indication of how much you are paid and where in the country you are I might be able to recommend someone.

@pearcrumblee ·''You never know when you need an old job back.''

This is the worst organisation I have ever worked for so once I leave there is no way I would ever go back...I have also relocated to a new town so it also does not offer a convenient commute anymore.

@Keepingthingsinteresting Thank you for your comment. I am in England and earn about 50K.

Honestly it depends on the strength of your evidence.
Id contact a solicitor and see what they think.

if they know you wish to leave and they want you gone, they might choose to make it awkward for you without veering into discrimination territory or they might be open to a without prejudice offer. After just 3 years though with some sick leave on top it may not be a huge offer. It does tip your hand though that you don't want to stay.

I should have added that my manager has had a similar complaint made against them last year by another team member with similar mental health issues and I know that the team member took the organisation to an employment tribunal. I obviously don't know how/if it was settled but this manager has a track record of poor behaviour.

As mentioned I won't give them the satisfaction to just resign and make it easy for them.

I faced similar issues after requesting flexible work due to my disability. I had to get my union involved when I had to appeal it and the behaviour started after that; they were probably trying to manage me out as I was seen as ‘difficult’ despite hitting targets etc. I think a lot less scrupulous organisations do this unfortunately. I put in a grievance and they offered me a settlement. I had found another job by this point so took it.

If you read into historical cases, the employee generally wins at tribunal when discrimination is involved. I suggest you call ACAS and look
at your options; you could get a free intro call with an employer lawyer at the same time to kick things off.

Don’t just resign as others have said; larger organisations even have insurance for this kind of thing! If they’re proper toxic then it’s unlikely they’ll change, but it might help if your manager has had other people make such claims.

I know someone who did this. Their union helped them. Its good for the employee but the employer gets away with not addressing the situation and bad behaviour continues.

Thank you both for the additional comments, that's really useful.

There is definitely a long term issue with poor behaviour from some senior staff in that organisation.

Since I joined I have seen people in my team resigning without a job to go to (always a sign that something is not right) and others 'disappearing' suddenly without explanation.

Our manager always spins things as them being 'let go' or made redundant but the fact that they are just gone without warning always made me suspicious. Now 3 years on I have realised that there is a real problem.

I am feeling a bit stronger health-wise so ready to take this on.

@summerskyblue Wow, they sound awful. Definitely get on the phone to ACAS asap! You shouldn’t feel this way about work. I’ve found an amazing job and have no regrets, if it helps at all!

I got a settlement with an employer who was trying to push me out using a wrongly applied redundancy process after maternity discrimination. I engaged a lawyer who advised me to submit a grievance. I did, listing a long timeline of events showing how poorly I'd been treated. The lawyer then wrote a letter offering for me to leave and drop the grievance in return for a settlement. It was attractive to my employer because of the amount of time it would have taken to investigate and respond to my grievance, plus they knew I was serious because I'd engaged a lawyer. Their own solicitor advised them to settle and my lawyer's fees were part of the settlement sum.

@SewingBees
Thank you for sharing!
That sounds like a great way to deal with it.

Was your plan to raise the grievance / tribunal as well as have the settlement (if they’re open to it) OP? Your post didn’t make your intention clear either way.
If you go for a settlement, you would waiver your right to take anything to a tribunal, that’s usually a clause within the settlement itself, along with an agreed line for your reason for leaving. You’d need to seek solicitor advice for the settlement agreement anyway, so I’d suggest seeing one before to see how strong a case you had for tribunal and making your mind up from there. Good luck for whichever path you decide to take OP.

You would probably need to start with a grievance that they have not made reasonable adjustments. At some point offering a “without prejudice” meeting maybe an option.

You already have in writing from OH that you are disabled, if this includes reasonable adjustments then you need to push back on the targets in writing e.g. not adjusted for disability.
The HSE Stress Toolkit may assist you in framing your request https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/index.htm and the return to work questionnaire is a table with helpful prompts
https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/assets/docs/returntowork.pdf

If they ignore this then go for a grievance and also talk to ACAS about lodging an ET1 and early conciliation.

OP, you should be able to look up any previous ET claims made against the company via this website - https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions

If they have any claims that were withdrawn it is possibly because a settlement was reached before the hearing.

You do need to speak to ACAS and your union if you are a member of one. I would say stay put and see how they try to manage you out if you feel you can do that? See what they come up with. Sounds like they are on shaky ground.

If you do get to settlement stage, make sure you get an agreed reference clause put in and they should pay for you to have the draft agreement reviewed by a solicitor before you sign - https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/employment-tribunal/employment-tribunals/before-you-go-to-the-tribunal/making-a-settlement-agreement-with-your-employer/

Speak to a lawyer - there are smart ways to swing this and play them at their own game.

I’ve done it twice, OP. I went through ACAS both times after lodging a informal grievance.

The first time I didn’t do it with a plan to get money but made sure I walked away with 5 months pay (could’ve got a lot more tbh as their HR even admitted blame when they looked at my appeal) based on how they handled my grievance/resignation. It really improved my mental health and how I felt, not because of the money though but because they stopped gaslighting me eventually.

Second time they had actually fired me
when I raised the claim so from the outset I was clear in the grievance I wanted compensation to tide me over. They said no,went through ACAS and settled on around 6 months pay. Was very glad I did as that time to breath while I looked for a new job was important.

@summerskyblue Feel free to dm me if you need to know any more.

Dsis did this following workplace bullying. The financial settlement wasn't massive - around 3 months pay - but gave her the breathing space needed to recover a bit and find something else. Plus an agreed reference. ACAS was helpful.

Thank you again everyone! this is so helpful and it is really interesting to hear about what other people went through.

Such a shame though that there are so many crappy employers around...

I will definitely speak to ACAS.

How have you progressed OP?

Apologies for the lack of update.

I returned to work last week and my return to work meeting on my first morning was appalling.

My manager told me she has removed some of my responsibilities to give them permanently to someone from a different department who has zero experience in my area of work. She also changed some of the processes that I had put in place and changed my targets to something completely unrealistic. For example projects that had an agreed turnaround target of 3 weeks are now supposed to be magically delivered in less than 1 week. To top it all I was told I was no longer part of the weekly departmental meetings and that she would instead meet with me separately every week which means undermining and limiting my influence although I am a senior manager.

I also had to listen to snarky comments during that meeting.

My manager looked extremely pissed off throughout especially when I requested a referral to Occupational Health, as none was being proactively offered, and told her I wanted to make an official request for reasonable adjustments.

I just kept my composure and made notes while she was talking.

I will start the grievance process on Monday having decided that I have had enough of the undermining and general hostility.

So sorry you you are going through this OP. If you like, I can PM you what I put in my grievance? Basically any reference to them not following E&D laws will increase its credibility. This is an awful situation to be in, but legally you are backed up by employment law.

Haven't read everyone's posts but yes I did exactly this. They still wanted to investigate the grievance, not sure if anything came of that. But I negotiated a settlement and left. The settlement included the fees for the lawyer I instructed to advise me.

@Cocteautwin6

Thank you for your comment and yes, please it would be really helpful if you could PM this :).

Exactly the same for me!