Unfair dismissal

[leejamie82]

Hi - I have been dismissed by a company for something I didnt do - the dismissal date was 26th september. The company dragged out the internal appeal, and finally made a decision on the 24th december - 1 day before the deadline for appealing via tribunal. They did not follow procedures correctly throughout the whole investigation, and did not investigate the points raised at the appeal meeting sufficiently.
Is there anything I can do now as the 3 months deadline has past?
Cheers
J

[buildersmate]

Hang on, this is all wrong and you were conned.
If the company has an internal appeals procedure, this should have been followed BEFORE the final decision to dismiss you. In other words, you should have been suspended and be paid whilst the appeals procedure went on. And another thing, it shouldn't take anything like 3 months to organise.
Sounds like this was stretched out deliberately to give you hope that you might get the job back to stop you thinking about taking the case to Employment Tribunal.
And yet another 5 weeks has past before you posted on AB. How come?
I fear you are out of time now.

[Jenga]

Contact ACAS - free employment advice 0845 747 4747

[leejamie82]

Thanks for the replys - i was employed for 8 years! Also, I had become so fed up of it all by then i just gave up ( I did have another job anyway so it wasn't too bad) - I just came across this website recently and thought I might make a post!

[leejamie82]

Oh, and another thing - the company seems to think that it can get away with anything (it is a rather large, large as in THE largest fast food company in the world size - i'm not sure as I can mention names on here!!)

[Oneeyedvic]

From the employment tribunal website: In certain circumstances, for example, when you write to your employer within the original time limit raising a grievance, these limits will be extended by three months - in other words, in most cases to six months. The circumstances in which time limits will be extended are set out in the DTI booklet, 'Resolving disputes: a guide for employees' (PDF 46KB).

http://www.employmenttribunals.gov.uk/claim/ma king_a_claim.htm

I therefore believe you still have a case

[buildersmate]

Good stuff, OIV, I didn't know this.

[troubled]

Leejamie - I have been in exactly the same situation as you! I did take it to tribunal (as you still can - you're not out of time) but if my experience was anything to go by, just forget it and move on.
I had complete faith in the system, but was wholly let down by the final decision.
I was sacked for something that I didn't do, the tribunal agreed that I didn't do it, but ruled that on the information that the company had at the time, they had made a reasonable decision to sack me. The fact that the company would have come to a different conclusion had they have carried out a full and proper investigation seemed to pass them by.
On the upside, the tribunal did see through the lies that my ex-employers were telling, so it was quite satisfying seeing them unravel under cross examination.
On the whole though, it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience that dragged on for over a year, and I truly wouldn't recommend anyone to go through it. You've already got a new job (let me know how you managed that - I've found it so hard!) so just draw a line under it, get on with your life and keep in the forefront of your mind that whilst you are working for someone else you are merely a statistic who will never be fully appreciated!

[Ice.Maiden]

Yes, get a union on your side, whether you're already in one or not.