MORE PRACTICAL TIPS
If you are thinking of bringing an Employment Tribunal claim, there are various steps
you can take to strengthen your case:
- Under that Data Protection Act, you are entitled to obtain copies of any
documents kept by your employer of which you are the subject. All you have
to do to obtain copies of them is to write to your employer asking for copies
and enclosing a cheque for £10 – your employer must then provide you with
copies within 40 days (there are a few exemptions to this rule but our expert
advisers can discuss this with you in more detail. An example of a useful letter
you could write to your employer is:
“Dear…….
Please accept this letter as my request under section 10 of
the Data Protection Act that you provide me with copies of all documents in your
possession or control which relates to me. These include:
[insert examples – e.g. contract of employment, minutes of all
relevant meetings, details of any warnings, copies of relevant letters, etc]
I enclose my cheque for £10 payable to [name of employer] and
look forward to receiving copies of these documents within 40 days.
Yours sincerely Etc”
If your employer fails to provide these documents within 40 days, you may be able to
take enforcement action and again, our expert advisers will be able to help you with
this.
- If your employer is a public authority, you can request more information under
the Freedom of Information Act and again, our expert advisers will be able to
discuss this with you in detail.
- You should keep copies of all documents relevant to your case, including
copies of emails you send/receive, letters you send to your employer (and your
employer’s replies) and you may consider keeping a diary (for example, if you
are being bullied or harassed). If you decide to keep a diary of workplace
events (and if in doubt, we would recommend that you do so), your diary
entries should include full details of any incident that you feel is relevant to
your claim – this includes what was done or said, by whom, when and where
exactly this took place and details of any witnesses to the incident.
- If you have been dismissed, make sure that you also keep copies of any
documents showing your attempts to find other employment.
- If you feel that you have been discriminated against, you can send a
Discrimination Questionnaire to your Employer setting out details of why
you feel that you have been discriminated against. Your employer will then
usually have 8 weeks to reply. If your employer does not respond within this
time or gives evasive replies, the Employment Tribunal can infer that your
employer has discriminated against you. A Discrimination Questionnaire is a
very powerful way of obtaining information from your employer. You can
serve a Discrimination Questionnaire on your employer at any time, even if
you are still employed by your employer.
- If you feel unfairly treated, consider lodging a grievance with your Employer.
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