The certificate was sent to our team administrator, what happened to it after that I do not know as I was away from the office. My illness was not embarrassing, it was just a private matter and did not need to be brought to the attention of so many people. Grievance it is then. Thanks

I work for a small subsidiary of a major parent company. The subsidiary was set up to undertake a specific project, it is a small but skilled professional team of approx 7 employees who are supported by an army of consultants etc. The company has no HR department, no manuals, no policies. We have proper and well written employment contracts though. I have been away from work for four months. After less than one week of illness I received a medical report consent form which I did not complete as I thought it was a bit excessive bearing in mind I had only been away for 5 days (I have had no time off sick in two years prior) The consent form had been sent by a colleague with whom I had a bad working relationship and I felt he was being 'funny' and that it was none of his business to be contacting my GP. Since then I have sent in Dr's certificates regularly and have not been contacted by the company at all in relation to my health/well being. The person (Mr Malicious) that published my 'personals' in the board report, is the colleague referred to previously. He is very competitive and has less service with the company than myself. I think it is a bit of professional jealousy. There is a lot of office politics in play particularly at the parent company and sometimes the working relationships become strained - lots of Alpha males. Strangely though I did quite like working there, I am the only woman and get on well with the majority and feel I have a calming influence. But this thing with the Board report has pretty much destroyed my confidence now and I am hiding at my desk. I am 100% certain it is a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence, and probably a whole lot of other things as well (sex discrim?). But as Elche says, times are hard; I can't really walk our of my job and claim constructive and sit at home for months with no pay waiting for a tribunal to decide. So can I take another route and pursue legal action for some sort of privacy breach? in addition to say, a grievance. That's why I asked about Data Protection.

Thanks I think grievance will be the first move, as you say constructive dismissal is only for the brave at the moment. I find this all unbelievable. I have been 'googling' to see if anything similar may have happened in the past but of course no employer has ever been that stupid. I also suspect there may have been a bit of malicious intent there on the part of someone. Any other advice welcome Many thanks Queen of the Bongo (bong)

I work for a fairly well known company. I have been off work sick for some time but have now returned to work. In order to bring myself up to speed with matters during my absence I have been reading the company board papers. I was horrified to read that one of the items was "Mrs X (me) has been off ill with XXXXX since XXX-2008" except it didn't say 'X' it gave my name and what was wrong with me. I was quite anxious about returning to work but now I am mortified, these board papers would have been circulated to around 50 people including outside agencies, colleagues and the board members. I want to raise a grievance and probably follow up with legal action but I am not sure what the case law would be. Is it employment or data protection issue. I have a fairly high profile position with the company, and a good salary. I am seriously embarrassed and distressed by this. Furious too. Many thanks

Thanks, that was helpful in that at least now I feel a bit more confident in how to approach this and will just take my time and write my notes. Hopefully I will be able to get someone to come along with me.

I am pursuing a grievance with my employer. They have invited me to a meeting to discuss this and I have the right to be accompanied. I work for a small company (4 staff plus directors), I am one member of staff and my grievance relates to another, that leaves only 2 in theory to accompany me, but that seems a bit unfair/restrictive. I am not a union member, what other alternative do I have. I want someone to maintain an impartial record of the meeting, rather than represent me. My employer has outsourced a HR expert to attend as we have no personnel department, but they are clearly in the pay of my employer to defend them against my claim. Many thanks