OK here goes long story short, i work for a big big international company and i am off on work related stress due to my manager and other goings on which i 'whistle blew' about, basically bit of background it was due to people doing things they shouldnt and cheating (i work in sales) which was affecting me and my targets and thus my livelyhood, i blew the whistle and since then i have been ostrasied and picked on and single out by my manager, things came to ahead with 3 suspensions withing my team of 9 people, and i had issues with sleepless nights head aches and went to Dr's and got signed off with stress. So then have holiday officially booked during being off with stress, so Dr says to go on holiday and relax away from work, so i do and in mean time despite logging my stress with absence line (its automated so no need to tak to manager) i when prompted said NO to the question 2do you want your manager to contact you about this absence", despite that he tried to call me but i missed all calls as my phone was shoved away for holiday, anyway i return from holiday to be met with a letter from manager saying words to the effect "not answering phone calls from manager even whislt off sick can result in gross misconduct, if you dont call manager by 8th august we shall stop your salary payment for the month" Can this actually be allowed? help..... sorry for ramble and any bad grammer, please go easy on me, very worried about this...

I'm off sick with work related stress. I'm feelingg really depressed, I cant stop crying and have no one to turn to. During maternity leave, I was basically restructured out of my job and moved by HR to role in a new profession. I worked in a specific profession and was moved to an admin role. I don't want to give to many details with the specifics of this. Let's just say it's like a dentist or say an architect being moved into an administration role. I tried to get HR to explain how they thought I had the skills and training and they said I will be provided it. They said I have no say and I was moved. I was moved and worked in this new role for a while. HR did not provide the training and my manager followed this up and with no luck as was told it was the managers responsibility to train me. Long story short I haven't had the training I required for this job. For many months I was started having health problems and I was battling on trying to get workplace to help me with this issue - no luck. Ultimately it was HR who made the decision to place me in this role. My health problems and my stress snowballed that I am now off sick with work related stress. I've been called to an attendance meeting and issued a formal letter but told to ignore the formal wording around disciplinary as the process would be used only to deal with my situation. However, they haven't amended the letter and said that they have to keep the wording in as its a formal letter. I don't understand this- it's like having some one telling you to sign a contract and saying dont worry about the formal wording it doesnt apply but we just have to keep it there? On top of this my manager insists on me phoning manager every week even though my sick note is for a longer period then this. This is really depressing me and making me really stressed. How often am I required to keep in touch by law. Our work handbook says on a 'regular basis' On top of this I have been referred to occupational health. Do I have to by law have these meetings if I have a doctors note in place. I feel like I am in a bottomless pit. I think I have been very reasonable in giving my company ample opportunity to sort out a situation they created with no success

I don't know if this info has been posted before but it's particularly relevant to anyone who keeps getting sent on CV courses by their provider. Here http://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/employment-related-courses/

My husband suffered an injury at work in October. He has been unable to work since and has recieved SSP which will run out this week.His employers (a public school) have not accepted liability for the accident and to be honest have been quite nasty. He works 3 days a week as a general maintenance man. He read somewhere that he could have holiday pay rather than SSP so he asked for 2 days from last year and 4 days accrued for this year. He received the following reply. Holiday entitlement can be requested at anytime during the holiday year but it is the employers decision when it can be taken. It would be quite unusual to pay holiday entitlement unless the contract has come to an end when we would of course factor in any accrued holiday not taken' Is this true? I cant see any reason for refusing other than making life difficult for us.

Hi New around here & looking for some advice.......( im sorry in advance with how long this turned out to be....I was just putting everything down as I really would like some advice please) Not sure if I can name the company I work for so il leave that blank for the time being, but is a large supermarket chain. Iv worked for the company for 2 & half years working on the night shift, for the last 8 months iv had issues with my wages being wrong. Now im not 100% sure if im in the union as il explain why later on. Had every possible mistake with my wages happen that I can think could happen. Every time they try & fix one another mistake happens 1, authorized absence for hospital appointment not been paid even tho all the others before had been. 2, On 3 occasions iv not been paid enough overtime 3, On 3 time arrears from the impervious months mistake have not been paid in next months wages. 4, For two months running after a contract change my basic pay had changed to the new increased amount but my shift allowance was still at the old amount. 5. Sick pay was not paid even tho paperwork was completed when I get back to work. 6. Shift allowance not paid on my overtime 7, When I was off sick for 2 days, they marked my wage slip down for 3 days sick. 8, Holiday not paid Now as you can see iv had a wide range of mistake, an as the months gone I was getting stressed by it - iv even been in on my day off to try & sort it, stayed back after work and swopped my shift start time to catch some one from HR before they go home. After 4 months of mistakes I spoke to the union rep at work about it. An he said put a complaint in. But at the time I was a bit apprehensive of doing so, an after 6 months of mistakes an speaking to the union rep I went a head and put a complaint in to the store manager!! I was told by the rep the company policy was to invite me in to a meeting by letter with in two weeks to talk about it. This never happened only had informal talks with the store boss asking if the HR girls had sorted it out - who never even bothered to actually get back to me when they said they would. On the advice of the store manager I sat down with one of the HR girls two days before payroll cut off an look at all the hours on record for me that month & I said there was some errors. I got told I would need my manager to come in & sign an amend it. Which he did....which still didnt get paid!! In between month 7 & 8 I had a really bad migraine due to stress of my wages always being wrong, I was off for 2 days an normally I dont get shift allowance when sick but I spoke to the HR manager about it who agreed to the continued mistakes with my wages & the stress it caused me for a one off she would pay me my shift allowance & she put in a letter confirming due to there mistakes with my wages they would pay me my shift allowance. When talking to the union rep after month 8 of mistakes he said he would talk to some one about talking the matter out of store. I told him I wasnt actually in the and he said give him my address & DOB an he would get me signed up - iv had no confirmation that he actually got me signed up. Now iv been signed of work due to the stress of all these mistakes, this is now my 3rd week off & I still have next week off as well. An have been given some pills to help me sleep. Iv been in contact with my HR manager & the union rep while iv been off to try & sort out the latest mistakes with my wages. As the rep has put in another complaint on my behalf. At first I was told I wouldnt be needed to attend any meeting's while off sick & the rep was saying I would get full pay inc shift allowance especially after they admitted it in the letter ( but its not been confirmed yet if I will get it). Plus he would look at compensation. I know he had a meeting with a duty manager at the store an when he reported back to me it raised more questions for me so on his suggestion iv agreed to meet this duty manager & the rep on Monday at place away from the store. An the rep has also mention to me would I take an extra two weeks annual leave as compensation. TBH tho extra annual is no good to me.....Iv picked up a bank charge because I just didnt have enough money because of there mistakes & iv had to lend money a couple of times from people who are not really the kind of people I want to be owing money to......So financially im at a loss. Now im worried if on Monday I see this manager she says how sorry she is etc etc. An tries to give me reasons why mistakes have happened im not totally going to be her as iv heard them all before. Yes I know iv got to go back at some point but im worried all this will start up again as this feels like a personally attack against me as no one else on my shift is having these kind of problems every single month. So any kinda advice, would people recommend I still take this out of store? What's my rights? Can I claim compensation? Im not sure the rep is as commited to taking this out of store as he was at first.......So anything would be grateful so I can fully prepare my self before I go to this meeting. As I dont want to agree to something or get pressured into something that is not right. Many thanks

Hi there, Hopefully this wont be as issue and I will have a job in 3-4 weeks (it looks promising, but not set in stone). Here's my question though. My wife and I are on a joint ESA claim. She is the main claimant, so as far as the government are concerned I don't exist (I have to have her ask for interviews at the JC for me, and she has to be there in person to hear everything I say, and I'm allowed no help with education, travel, back to work payments or anything) Part of our claim has led to my wife being on the Work Component of ESA. She's not found work, due to her stress and anxiety attacks, along with a knee surgery that went wrong (apparently it shouldn't have been done at all) that has left her barely able to walk without intense pain. The work group are aware of her situation, and have been helpful in putting her in touch with cognitive therapists, but their reports have always been of the "a long way to go" variety with regards to work. It's a shame, because if my wife was in work and not me, we'd get the back to work £40 a week bonus for a year, which would open up more options as to what job we could take, because we'd not need the same standard wage to make sure we cover all living costs. As it is, I've already been told by the Job Centre to turn down one job because their better off report said I'd be £50 a month worse off. I'm rambling a bit now, sorry. Basically, her ESA work component ends in 2 months time whether she is in work or not. But what happens then? Does she go to another one? does she go to the Support group of ESA? does ESA end all together? or does it go back to basic ESA and we lose £60 a fortnight (which will leave us really strapped for cash, until creditors adjust and accept lower payments once more)? We just want to know, so we can start preparing should I not get this job I'm kind of relying on. Thanks for the help

I'd been on the Work related ESA for just over a year when I received a letter telling me that I was being moved to the Support group and my money would be going up. A couple of weeks ago I received a general letter asking me to attend a meeting with a personal adviser at my local job centre. This wasn't out of the ordinary to me, I'd received this kind of letter before. When I sat down with the woman she proceeded to tell me that she needed to verify my details to pass on to Avanta as I was on the Work related activity group. This completely stunned me and I could barely say anything beyond yes and no. I felt like I'd been railroaded into this without even being asked how I was doing or if I felt well enough to handle the pressures this development would cause. When I got home I checked my bank account and discovered that my money had gone back to the reduced rate for Work related activity. I wasn't given any letter informing me of this change back. I've emailed the job centre on their contact-us general email and explained what happened. I know that probably isn't the best way of contacting them but I get very nervous on the phone and find it difficult to explain things. I've yet to receive a reply, but I wondered if anyone here had any advice on what else I should do. I've had two phone calls from Avanta today and I was too scared to pick up the phone. That has probably made things worse. I'm just so upset and angry that nobody bothered to see how I was doing. Thanks for any information or advice MB

i have been working for a company for 18 months and over the last 12 months the general manager has been bullying and i always feel intimidated, there has been several grievances raised with hr about this manager from several different staff members all whjo have now left because hr said he had done nothing wrong. i got transferred out to another site for 4 weeks and am due to go back next week but i really dont want to go back there even tho i know he will no longer work in that site but will still cover shifts and return for visits. i cannot stand him or the other manager that he trained as they both have same attitute and bullyboy tactics i have come close to walking out of my job but wont let him win by doing so, but now soon as i get to the entrance door i break down and start crying im sure the other staff must think i need locking up i am looking for a new job but its hard to find anything please help me what can i do is there a way they can be done for constructive dismissal or something i want them to see that its not ok to continue this way of managing