I am currently trying to work out my maternity allowance (due to start in December) and I have a question regarding gross pay that I hope someone may be able to help me with? I do not receive any sick pay at the moment at all (until SSP kicks in after the statutory amount) and I had one day off sick last month. My question is, should my gross pay remain the same and have the sick day taken off as a deduction or should the overall gross figure be reduced? I hope this makes sense and many thanks

Hi, The solicitors have been appointed through the legal cover on my home insurance so I didn't have a say who was chosen, it was just the firm they use as standard. They've told me that they're going to chase the respondent today but that they catagorically won't be telling the ET that they've missed another deadline. Had I not called the solicitors this morning to point out the fact that we were now 6 days over the deadline with no response they would have done nothing. On the basis the respondent has had 2 deadlines so far and has failed to meet either of them I just can't understand why the solicitors wouldn't want the ET to be made aware of this as it has no negative effect from my point of view? So far they have been next to useless, no real guidance on my statement of loss (I had to find my own template and get everything together myself and had to put my foot down with them when they suggested I - not they - ask for an extension so they could get their act together). I am in the middle of putting together the first draft of my witness statement and am having to do this from a template I have found on the internet because they haven't provided anything. With regards to whether they'll be representing me at the hearing, I haven't asked the question directly as I just assumed this would be standard, is that not the case (and if not, thanks so much for flagging it up for me). Many thanks for your help on this, it's very much appreciated

Hi, I hope somebody can help me, I've posted on here previously and got some great feedback so hoping some of you can share your wisdom again Basically, the deadline for submitting documentation for both myself and the respondent for an Employment Tribunal was 30th March. I submitted mine on time (via my solicitors) but it dawned on me this morning that I still hadn't received anything from the respondent. I contacted my solicitors (which have been pretty useless so far I have to say) and they basically said "Oh, yeah - hadn't thought about that" and that they would contact the respondent directly to ask what the hold up was. My point to them was that surely we should be notifying the Tribunal that they have failed to meet the deadline (they missed the deadline for the submission of the ET3 form but were allowed a late submission) as I know that on the case management orders it states: "These orders are mde under the provision of rule 10 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2004. The timetable above is part of these Orders and it must be complied with. A claimant or a respondent who fails to comply with these Orders may be liable to having the whole or any part of its case stuck out and/or to costs and/or (in the case of failure to disclose a document) to a fine not exceeding £1,000." They have basically told me that we should not notify the Tribunal and should try and deal directly with the respondent which just seems crazy to me - surely we should be flagging this up, even if it's just copying in the Tribunal on the letter to the respondent??? Can anyone advise at all? Thanks

Hi thanks for getting back to me Don't get me started on the solicitor! I basically said that having me ask for an extension was not acceptable and that if there was no other choice I would have to prepare the schedule myself for submission but that I would be sending a copy through for their approval and that I would need feedback before 14:00 in order to get it out on time. I also contacted the helpline number that I had from my legal protection cover and lo and behold got a response within 20 minutes of contacting them... I filled the basic award information out using a template I'd seen but changed this to reflect the fact that I'd had 2 weeks statutory redundancy pay which then left the balance to be paid on that element at £0. I also deducted my 6 week notice period pay (paid in lieu) from the bottom section of the calculations. I sent my inital copy through to my solicitor who made some ammends and then I changed the final copy. My final figure was just below £6k once the ammends had been made. I am now struggling to get information from the solicitor what documentation I need to get over to them for submission to the respondent. All I can get is "Anything you need submitting as part of the tribunal". No idea what this needs to include at all??? The joke of this is that because it's through my legal cover, they are getting paid a minimum fee of something like £12.5k which is somewhat ridiculous given the actual cost of representation for a case like this! Really appreciate your reply

Hi, a bit of background first on my case... I was made redundant on 19th October last year with no consultation or outline of the selection process. I was literally taken into a room, handed my redundancy letter and asked to leave there and then. I was paid 2 weeks statutory redundancy pay and 3 months notice (which I was entitled to as standard). My claim has been accepted by the ET and I have a deadline of 17th March for my schedule of loss. I have been appointed a solicitor through the legal protection cover on my home insurance but they're being less than helpful. I chased them for 2 days for some assistance with the schedule of loss and eventually got a reply last night saying that I would need to ask for a 7 day extension of the deadline from the respondent which I'm not comfortable with doing. I have pulled together a draft of the schedule of loss and I wondered if anyone on here could sanity check it for me in terms of content and advise whether I need to add anything in to the calculations or to take anything out. I wasn't sure what the procedure was for the 3 month's notice pay and whether I would need to deduct this from the total amount? Any help would be gratefully received as I need to get this out in registered post this afternoon. Thanks in advance Financial Information Week's Pay, Gross £562.50 Week's Pay, Net £448.46 Month's Pay, Gross £2,250.00 Month's Pay, Net £1,793.84 Compensation For Unfair Dismissal Basic Award Years' continuous employment 2.5 Age at dismissal 32 2.5 multiplied by £562.5 £1,406.25 Compensatory award Unemployed 19th October to 15th November (4 weeks) 10th January 2011 to 27th February 2011 (7 weeks) 11 weeks multiplied by £448.46 £4,933.06 Job - Temporary Role 15th November 2010 - 7th January 2011 (8 weeks) New weekly pay, Net £331.86 Weekly loss £116.60 8 weeks multiplied by £116.6 £932.80 Tax based on BR as per copies of pay slips (available on request if required) Job - Permanent Role 28th January to present New weekly pay, Net £359.96 Weekly loss £88.50 Tax based on BR (no pay slip received as of yet to confirm tax code) Future Loss Review in current position due after 6 months employment 26 weeks multiplied by £88.5 £2,301.00 Total Compensatory award £8,166.86 Addition of Loss of Statutory Rights £300.00 Minus Statutory Redundancy Payment £760.00 Total claimed £9,113.11