04-16-2008, 06:26 PM
A positive thread 
About the time I wandered away from this site (september 07) I was leaving a job that I liked, that suited me in many ways and that I was banking on to keep me gainfully employed for the forseeable future.
Unfortunately, my line manager was incompetent and a bully - I hadn't declared my AS, but she was one of those people that can smell weakness and home in on it. Meanwhile, my honesty meant that I couldnt let her incompetence pass - not least because it threatened the project and thus my job.
Equally unfortunately, her line manager just blindly supported her and attacked me - including phoning me at home during annual leave to tell me I "should learn some diplomatic skills" (I later described that as like bumping into a blind man and telling him to watch where he's going - an analogy I'm particularly proud of )
Additionally, the shift system was no system at all - what little warning we got of the monthly shift pattern was still open to change, it had no discernable 'pattern', at one point I was asked to work 9 days on the trot, including two effective 24hr shifts. I really couldnt cope with that, and asked for some adjustment on account of my AS.
That got ignored for 12 weeks, despite repeated requests to management. They did, however, move my workplace twice, with a further move on the cards. All rather disappointing really, considering the company provides support workers for adults with learning difficulties. The problem, I think, was that they saw their clients as an income stream, so acknowledged their disabilities, but saw their employees as a cost, so would rather just drive out disabled employees.
The upshot of all this is that I walked out - and then, having hestitated for almost the whole three month limit, started an employment tribunal action. (I waited so long because I wasn't sure I wanted the stress of the courtroom fight, or that I had that much chance of winning - I eventually started it because if I hadn't, I'd have over-run the time limit for starting an action and figured I had little to lose....that, and it was just before christmas and I thought I might as well put as much of a dampener on my manager's christmas as she'd put on mine...)
Anyway, here we are, some months later, and I've just been to a pre-hearing review at which the judge must have taken a liking to me, or something...he helped me identify 5 different charges, including:
* two of harrasment
* one of victimisation
* one of failing to make reasonable adjustments in light of a disability
* one of constructive dismissal
The employer's had put up a very strong defence - designed, I think, to intimidate me into abandoning the claim. I had to defend myself - there is no state aid available and the no-win-no-fee companies I spoke to said I hadnt worked there long enough to make any financial award worth their while.
Anyway, as I say, the judge was a hero - their defence collapsed and they have now offered to settle out of court.
Now I have to produce a 'Schedule of Loss', that is, a financial statement of lost earnings, costs of taking the action forward, an amount for 'hurt feelings' (my favourite!), a multiplier because they offered no grievance procedure until after I resigned - and a sizeable sum to buy my silence, since I'm sure they wouldnt want me to go to a newspaper with the story of the disability support company who don't support disabled employees.
I'm not hugely materialistic, but I have been unemployed now for 6 months - and if the only way to punish/educate the employers is financially, so be it I'm going to stick it to them 
About the time I wandered away from this site (september 07) I was leaving a job that I liked, that suited me in many ways and that I was banking on to keep me gainfully employed for the forseeable future.
Unfortunately, my line manager was incompetent and a bully - I hadn't declared my AS, but she was one of those people that can smell weakness and home in on it. Meanwhile, my honesty meant that I couldnt let her incompetence pass - not least because it threatened the project and thus my job.
Equally unfortunately, her line manager just blindly supported her and attacked me - including phoning me at home during annual leave to tell me I "should learn some diplomatic skills" (I later described that as like bumping into a blind man and telling him to watch where he's going - an analogy I'm particularly proud of
)Additionally, the shift system was no system at all - what little warning we got of the monthly shift pattern was still open to change, it had no discernable 'pattern', at one point I was asked to work 9 days on the trot, including two effective 24hr shifts. I really couldnt cope with that, and asked for some adjustment on account of my AS.
That got ignored for 12 weeks, despite repeated requests to management. They did, however, move my workplace twice, with a further move on the cards. All rather disappointing really, considering the company provides support workers for adults with learning difficulties. The problem, I think, was that they saw their clients as an income stream, so acknowledged their disabilities, but saw their employees as a cost, so would rather just drive out disabled employees.
The upshot of all this is that I walked out - and then, having hestitated for almost the whole three month limit, started an employment tribunal action. (I waited so long because I wasn't sure I wanted the stress of the courtroom fight, or that I had that much chance of winning - I eventually started it because if I hadn't, I'd have over-run the time limit for starting an action and figured I had little to lose....that, and it was just before christmas and I thought I might as well put as much of a dampener on my manager's christmas as she'd put on mine...)
Anyway, here we are, some months later, and I've just been to a pre-hearing review at which the judge must have taken a liking to me, or something...he helped me identify 5 different charges, including:
* two of harrasment
* one of victimisation
* one of failing to make reasonable adjustments in light of a disability
* one of constructive dismissal
The employer's had put up a very strong defence - designed, I think, to intimidate me into abandoning the claim. I had to defend myself - there is no state aid available and the no-win-no-fee companies I spoke to said I hadnt worked there long enough to make any financial award worth their while.
Anyway, as I say, the judge was a hero - their defence collapsed and they have now offered to settle out of court.
Now I have to produce a 'Schedule of Loss', that is, a financial statement of lost earnings, costs of taking the action forward, an amount for 'hurt feelings' (my favourite!), a multiplier because they offered no grievance procedure until after I resigned - and a sizeable sum to buy my silence, since I'm sure they wouldnt want me to go to a newspaper with the story of the disability support company who don't support disabled employees.
I'm not hugely materialistic, but I have been unemployed now for 6 months - and if the only way to punish/educate the employers is financially, so be it
I'm going to stick it to them