To claim or not to claim...

Hi all,

I'm in two minds whether to claim against my employer (or even if it would be of any benefit to me).

I've been diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome which I know is because of my job. It wouldn't be hard for me to get my doctor to agree with me on that one.

Recently my employer has f*cked me over (excuse my French) by demoting me due to a silly little girl's grievance with no evidence. The whole thing was unprofessional, my line manager was even shouting at me over it. It was all done in my restaurant, on front of staff and customers and nothing was documented.

Obviously I am upset about this but this is not the reason why I'm thinking of claiming. I just feel now that I have no loyalty to this employer anymore after the way I have been treated.

Opinions and advice would be greatly welcomed...

If it was me, I seriously would claim.

I, myself, get disability allowance because I apparently have Asperger's Syndrome, which I don't believe and therefore feel I shouldn't get the money. So far, I have £9,300. For a start, my mum wouldn't allow me to not get the money so it's basically impossible for me to not get the money.

So, anyway, you deserve to get the money from this matter because your employer has maltreated you. Can I ask what exactly it was, the 'little girl's grievance'? This is entirely different to my situation as it's someone else that affected you in a horrible way. I was born this way and am happy with it, so therefore I shouldn't even get money for simply being the way I am. They have no right to rule over you. I believe employers and managers should simply stick to the same level to their own employees and stop using their power over others to their own benefit. A little quote which I absolutely love: 'The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.'

She claimed I was bullying her. It stemmed from the fact I couldn't give her the 27th of December off with only a weeks notice even though I had done the rotas 3 weeks beforehand and she hadn't mentioned any of this. She then decided just not to turn up, which of course meant serious consequences for her, therefore she threw it back at me.

Long story short, she's a trainee lawyer, her dad's a lawyer and she's a spoilt little madam who causes trouble for EVERY manager that hold that unit. You can see why things happened!

Considering putting in a grievance about how it was handled but not sure if I even care if that's really what my manager thinks I can be like!

Try www.direct.gov.uk.

It has all sorts of useful info on it.

It could be the first step for you to take to see if you have a chance of success.

In order to make a claim against your employer regarding carpal tunnel, you would not only need to demonstrate that it was a work related condition but also that you employer was in some way negligent and that negligence was a contributing factor to your condition. If you are only considering making a claim purely as some form of retaliation, then don't. It would become apparent pretty quickly as to what your motivation was.

If your terms and conditions of employment have been unfairly changed eg. demotion, change of income etc. then you would potentially have grounds for following your workplace grievance procedure or advancing to an industrial tribunal.

The citizens advice bureau will be better able to advise you on that matter than any forum members.

Also, you have to be careful of it for future jobs. Your life in the job, if you get to keep it, will be remarkably demoralising with pretty much no hope of moving on up.

If the claim goes to court, its public record and therefore, easy to bring up as a search result if you apply for a job that is so inclined to do facebook/google searches on applicants (Most non-independant companies probably do).
Regardless of whether you deserve it, external companies will only see that you have in the past sued a company for how you were treated, they may well decide that the risk that it was a valid claim isnt worth the risk to employ you.

You have to decide whether a few hundred or few thousand quid is worth a possibility of screwing up future job prospects.

Or you could just change your legal name :P

Yeah, of course I've thought about all of these things, like I said before though, it is not a retaliation as I was thinking about it before the recent issues.

I am also aware that it probably wont look like that though.

Deffo claim mate.

I'm kind of confused with this, due to that I'm not experienced at all with how things work with, well, work. What were the consequences of her not turning up on the 27th?

My line manager wanted her disciplined. She must have known this, somehow, so got in there first with a grievance against me.

It's all fine and well but they didn't even investigate. They took her word as gospel, demoted me immediately and I've also been moved to another unit, an hour away (leaving me to find the cost of my travel).

I think my first point of action would be raising a grievance against your own treatment, then see where that takes you before considering a PI claim.

By not raising your own grievance, it looks as though you will accept any treatment of you, or that in fact you were guilty (I'm not saying you were, just how it might look), so if it were me, I'd be wanting something done or at least looked in to first.

Good luck

but isnt your line manager the one that would have the power to demote you?

Yes, it's the same manager that wanted her disciplined, that demoted me.

I'm going to call HR tomorrow and see what their view of it all is.

Ha ha, love it. Just found out my line manager has told my replacement to tell all my staff that I CHOSE to be demoted. Nice one

I had a really bad time in my job while pregnant with my babies. I was constantly raked over the coals for appointments I needed, they accused me of lying about my IVF treatment as I needed to go to appointments for that. I was put through hell, therefore when I left for maternity leave I felt unwelcome about returning. Didn't bother me at the time as child are for two babies is very excessive and me being at home was cheaper while my hubby worked to bring money in. Now however I wish I had done something about it at the time. I raised a grievance against this particular manager because of his treatment of my appointments. Plus I found out he was discussing my condition with other staff members. But the grievance investigators (company based) said they found no grounds to follow the complaint therefore I was left holding the can. If I were you I would not let this go, but don't do it to get back at anyone, if you have a genuine problem that you can point at them as the cause then go through with it.

I think that's just absolutly abysmal. That's bullying in itself, rather akin to spreading rumours about. Since you didn't get demoted by your own free will and the manager doesn't want shit flying in their direction for the matter. That person seriously needs to take responsibility for their own choice and not place the blame on other people. It's not fair that they're blatantly putting stress on you. You didn't deserve to get demoted, it's just that people with power really can be warped people who are delusional and think they can do whatever they want without any repurcussions for themselves and anyone else because, let's face it, they don't even care how others feel.

I hope you're feeling better, though. I know it's a pretty stupid thing to say, since it's in your mind a lot, but you don't deserve to be put under that much stress. People could really do with less stress in their lives. Not more.