Termination of employment

Hi Marka

Dani mentioned me in a reply regarding your employment issue 

To be honest I am extremely suprised with the problems, with employment issues Citizens Advice first ask a client if they are a member of a union and in your case you obviously are can I ask if you have contacted them?

In our Bureau we have an Employment Specialist Advisor so if you don’t wish to speak with your Union perhaps call CA or as has been mentioned MacMillan Support have Employment Advisers a few years ago I was asked to work at a Bureau with MacMillan funding, the biggest enquiry after Benefits was employment issues

If you presented the problem with me I would say they are in the wrong another avenue have you got legal assistance under a home insurance policy and have you spoken with ACAS helpline 0300 123 1100

My best advice is keep going and possibly raise a grievance letter to start 

Take care 

Tony

Thanks, I am seeking advice from the Union and other platforms.  Its weird that in trying to resolve the pay issue my wife made a phone call to the payroll office. She ended up waiting 4 days for a reply and was contacted by a h.r representative,  who I know lies and quotes policies changing them to suit the moment. In the phone call she was pleading ignorance ,being unprofessional,  breached gdpr , then stating she could not talk to my wife due to confidentiality, my wife is a senior managervin local government and has 30 years experience in this kind of thing, she had her tied up in knots . She ended up blatantly lying to my wife then told her I had to send in written permission for her to talk to her. My wife was fuming with her attitude , breach, by her own admission and the lies. She called the council to make a complaint.  The councils reply was you do not work for us so we will not deal with you. I had to make the complaint via grievance. The reviewing manager, the same one who cut my pay has done everything to undermine my recovery was the reviewing person. Obviously he refuted it, he did mention my stage two and three in his reply and funnily enough this threat drops through my letter box within a week. Just this week a member called for advice over a breach of gdpr within documents provided to him. The company bullied, threatened and intimidated him to return the documents in an attempt to cover this breach up too. This tells you the kind of company I work for. Looking at various legislation this threat of termination could be termed victimisation because I made a complaint. It sounds extreme but so is what the company is doing. 

Hi 

I see you have contacted the ask the expert group so I am sure they will continue to help if you require any further support I am very lucky with my employer and unlike yourself mine isn’t physical all the time also at all times I had my Consultant, speech therapist and with my last cancer both the Oncologist and GP to advise and suggest my return patterns, fit notes but basically the employer’s understanding is vital with people like you are dealing with you often feel like saying I hope you never have to go through this illness. Also verbal permission is sufficient for your Wife to speak on your behalf 

I wish you all the best and hope you get matters sorted even if it might be difficult when you do return 

All the best 

Tony

hi all. just an update on what is happening at my company.

I had a stage 1 sickness and absence management meeting, reasonable adjustments were mentioned, I suggested a post within my job area of a secondment that was available , the post had been vacant for 3 years, it was a section leader over carpenters , i am fully qualified carpenter with management experience, my section leader took it to  his manager and suggested it.  next thing I knew the position was filled internally  by someone who is 27 years old and his best friend interviewed him even moving the goal posts as he did not even qualify with the essential necessary  qualifications the 3rd time has  this happened to the same individual at his benefit. Then I was called in for a stage 2 , in that reasonable adjustments were mentioned. There was another 12 month secondment in the same area , I asked about it, was told inquiries would be made by the H.R representative. 4 weeks later I was told the job had gone out to advertisement for applications. I emailed my section leader querying this, his response was , ' it would be unfair to other applicants to give this as a reasonable adjustment'. all they have offered  in the way of reasonable adjustments is a return to work on a phased return into my physically demanding role, also early retirement. all this along with the threat of termination of employment due to medical reasons. Both the stage 1 and 2 meetings were  held with no medical basis to them no occupational health report or medical advice from my doctors. All this goes against their own redeployment and recruitment policies where it clearly states the correct procedure and that I should have been informed of the redeployment/first consideration process. also against their equality policy.

So sorry to hear this. Time for legal / union support and a 'without prejudice' letter / grievance maybe? Also drop in that we gave protection under disability discrimination? 

Marka. You are a union rep aren’t you? It’s obvious that’s why they are trying to constructively dismiss you? 

Oh dear Marka thjnk you need to involve people in your union who are higher up than you. 
sorry you’re having to go through this as well as cancer. 
Hazel 

I agree with Dani - sounds like constructive dismissal is being played out here.  Hopefully, you have a lot of the conversations at least noted down in writing.  If you were in an form of disciplinary process then there should be an accurate record that you will have signed. 

HR should advocate for you, but clearly they are not, instead overtly siding with the management.  If I were you I would be seeking formal support from your Union.  Clearly you are in no position to represent yourself and you need an external supporter.  If nobody is able to provide that then you should raise a grievance outlining your issues in accordance with the appropriate HR policy (I suspect that would be the course of action a Union rep would suggest anyway).  That, at least, forms the basis for evidence of a constructive dismissal tribunal hearing.

At the end of the day you need to be thinking what you actually want out of all this.  It may be that you win (and it sounds like you should), but you have to work in the environment this has caused.  That may be untenable and once settled alternative work opportunities should be sought as I suspect this is not just a single person who is causing you the trouble.

Marks - can’t employ you enough to go down the Equality Act 2010 and particularly looking at the 9 protected characteristics. In general, the legislation requires that reasonable adjustments need to be made to be able to accommodate people who fall into any of those protected characteristics.

The world is a different place now and everyone has the right to make a different work no matter their background or physical, mental health or other journey. Unfortunately, there are still individuals and/or organisations that think that they can bully or intimidate people into submission because it’s easy. Obviously, we don’t know individual circumstances here but I’d do a lot more digging with Citizens Advice, HR and/or other agencies as previously discussed in this forum stream.

Good luck!

have been to the union. have a new area rep now after I asked why I was not being supported by the previous one.