emails

[ladclwd]

is it illegal or against the data protection act for my boss to print off a personel email about myself and not only send to our personel dept but to also print 28 copies and pass them to my colleagues, the email was very personal and very untrue, are employers allowed to do such a thing ...

[Ethel]

Who sent the email to whom?

[buildersmate]

The Data Protection Act is mainly about information held electronically or on other media about your records - not about day-to-day email correspondence. Nevertheless, your boss probably shouldn't be doing what you are describing.
What connection (if any) does this have with your other question concerning your dismissal from employment? Are the two linked?

[ladclwd]

ethel and buildersmate , after i found the email, that is when my trouble started, i found the email mid august and complained , what i got dismissed for happened befor the email but they only sent me a letter re discipline for that in mid oct 8/9 wks after the fact, so yes i feel both are definetly related and every time ive tryed to talk about the email, ive been asked not to,

[ladclwd]

ethel my boss sent the email to the personel manager but printed out and gave 28 copies to 1 of my colleagues to pass to all my other colleagues

[Ethel]

So your boss wrote an email to his personnel manager about you. Nothing illegal about that unless the contents of the email were absolute lies about you and not simply opinion.

What were the contents of the email? You say it was personal and untrue but in what way?

Were you still employed and in the workplace when the emails were passed around? How do you know your boss did print off all those copies to be handed around?

What was your boss trying to achieve by doing it?

You say you were sacked after the event for an unrelated event. What are you hoping to achieve now?

[ladclwd]

there was about 20 pints in the letter about half totally false , yes i was still working there and i found out because about because 6/7 of my colleagues actually told me they were handed a copy and 1 of them gave a signed statement of how he got it , i have actually even spoke to the colleague who handed it out for my boss , he said my manager gave him the copies and said pass these on , also the email was from him to personel but he printed it off and passed it on

[Ethel]

But what did the email actually say?

[buildersmate]

You were dismissed mid-October? Any internal appeal should have been dealt with by now. Any potential claim for unfair dismissal (and I am not implying that you qualify under the legislation - we haven't established that yet) must be lodged with the Employment Tribunal within 3 months of the date of the original dismissal. This is starting to sound like a classic attempt to 'time-out' the employee without the person realising it.

[ladclwd]

email said things like , sickness dates and lengths, places i worked at and my performance total lies i hadent even worked at 1 of these places let alone had that amount of time off, and the incident re my dismissal happened aug 21st got email 5th sept got letter for discipline 15th oct got fired 24 oct

[Ethel]

Did you get fired for the reasons stated in the email, or something else entirely?

[ladclwd]

the day before the email i had to go home early my wife was ill, went home half hour early told relevent 3 people even though we have no procedure for this also left a trained colleague in charge , but was sacked for gross misconduct ie not letting or getting permiision to go home early and leaving an incompetent member of staff in charge

[Ethel]

Are you claiming unfair dismissal?

[ladclwd]

yes im claiming unfair dismissal hd my appeal 18 dec but they couldent decide

[buildersmate]

Right. This is the simplest website that I can find that explains in a straightforward but non-jargon way about what must happen in a gross misconduct case.
http://www.iambeingfired.co.uk/misconduct.html
I suggest that you work your way through it and see that the company has followed the various steps.
In my opinion the business about the emails is a red-herring in the overall assessment of whether your dismissal was fair or not. I can understand why you think it is not, and on the basis of what you have said your boss should not have done those things. However that was not the reason given by the company for your dismissal.
So if you are trying to get your job back, you need to focus on the REASONS GIVEN BY THE COMPANY for your dismissal.
You still haven't told us much them. What is it that you do? If safety is a paramount part of what you supervise and you walked off the job then it could be fair dismissal - I only have small snippets of your story to go on. Much would depend on the extent to which you tried to contact your manager or others, the nature of the emergency at home, what other alternatives you had in those circumstances. I'm afraid that I cannot second guess what the company said to you about the circumstances or its reasons behind its decision.
Then someone independent of the first decision should be reviewing the evidence and the process - that is what the appeal should have been about. I am very surprised that they cannot make a quick decision after 18 December. However you cannot use this delay to enhance your argument that it was unfair (originally).

[buildersmate]

I am very suspicious about what is going on - and I do suspect that they are stringing you along until 3 months have passed since the original decision because it is weak. If they manage to do that, you automatically will be unable to register a claim at an Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal.
Please go and see CAB or ring ACAS Helpline on one of these numbers.
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=15 65
They can give you confidential advice in a way that this public website cannot. However this smells bad and I think that you have a good case.