Ok - very brief outline:
DH works in PR, for a small(ish) company which mainly employs family and friends. He was headhunted for the job, which has since turned out to be somewhat different from the original offer.
He has to work 9-6 every day, often working much later at home, and at weekends as well, to complete things for deadlines. He says that this is the norm for his office, that it's just expected of him. He has a tiny, cramped desk (which is against H&S) and he doesn't usually get a break throughout his working day at all - not even for lunch.
The latest thing, is that he had a hernia operation last Thursday (which he had to book off as annual leave) and throughout the week - while he was supposedly on "holiday" - he was receiving emails with assignments for him to complete by absurd deadlines, a few hours to do a day's work, that sort of thing. I asked hm what the hell he was doing checking his work email while he was booked off on holiday and, again, he told me it was just expected, that if he doesn't do things like this then he can expect to lose his job.
I've been looking at the ACAS website and have just told him to put his grievances in writing and give them to his line manager, this was his response: "i know, but if i do that i'll have to leave anyway." So I said that it doesn't matter that the company feels they're beyond the law, you have to make them play by the rules, and he said that even if he took them to a tribunal they wouldn't pay, and until then he's a problem to be got rid of.
What should he do if he genuinely feels he can't go down the "correct" grievance procedure, and is he being paranoid in thinking that the company could just effectively ignore a tribunal?