Hello, Since May 2017 my husband has been signed unfit for work by his doctor with all kinds of problems relating to anxiety and depression, he is in the middle of a 8 week course of counselling which seems to have a positive effect and we felt he was on the road to recovery. He has always been keen to return to work as quickly as possible and his doctor and counsellor agreed that if he wanted to return to work then they would agree to a phased return which his employer agreed to once an independent medical assessment had taken place and back to work meetings had been held with occupational health that all changed on the evening of the 21st July when he received an email to his personal address from the UK HR Manager, the opening line in the email was "Sorry to have to reach out to you regarding this but I need to you take urgent remedial action regarding your expenses". the expenses were all business related and I highlighted the fact that at they were outstanding to his HR in May which they ignored. As much as I tried to tell him the reports can wait and he was still signed as unfit for work he was immediately anxious and wanted to get them done as the email stated that the whole region`s rebate would be withheld and that would effect peoples bonuses due in August, that’s around 15 thousand people and I felt it was unfair to even mention that let alone ask him to push through 6 months’ worth of reports whilst no one is really sure on his condition until medical assessments have been done. Now my husband often told me the IT systems were unreliable and caused frustrations but until I tried to help him do his expenses and mileage reports I had no idea how exhausting it was, he had 6 months to catch up on and it took over a day from him to access all the systems etc as the passwords had all expired, he got caught up in it all and was trying to call Pittsburgh on a Sunday evening to reset his passwords etc, by this stage he was so caught up in it all it was pointless me telling him to stop so I decided the best thing for me to do would be to assist him where I could, I was worried sick as I could see his whole attitude changed but was unable to talk sense to him and have him stop , we eventually got onto the programmes needed (he works from home) and it then took a day and a half to complete the reports and submit them. over the course of 4 days he completed the reports but he slipped back so far he wouldn’t eat couldn’t sleep when he visited his counsellor that week I don’t think she could believe it and was disappointed as was I, he has been with the company for 3 years and enjoys the role but I wonder now if they should have considered this more and personally I have lost confidence in them supporting him back into the work place correctly. Is there any advice out there as there is no doubt that this has been a set back and I do not trust this company to make any adjustments or control his work load when/if he returns , if I could talk him into handing his notice in and moving on I would but he worries about money and finding another role and is also worried that they won’t want him back after the past few months. Has anyone been in a similar situation or heard of this. Thanks.Ann.

i have worked for this company for 16 years,this is the 1st written contract ive had,i do want to leave,i am pressured to sign a contract with these following clauses : Hours of work you normally work 40 hours each week.The company reserves the right to alter working hours as necessary.as at date of issue the company is operating on a "short time" basis.you have been made aware of this and acknowledge notification and agreement. sickness Absence the company may require you to undergo a medical examination by a medical practitioner nominated by us at any stage of your employment,and to authorise such a medical practitioner to prepare a medical report detailing the results of the examination,which you agree may be disclosed to the company.the company will bear the cost of such a medical examination.such and examination will only be requested by the company where it is reasonable to do so. changes to terms and conditions of employment the company may amend,vary or terminate the terms and conditions in this document and such change will be notified to you personally in writing or ,when generally applied ,by notice. severability The various provisions of this agreement are severable,and if any provision or identifiable part thereof is held to be invalid or unenforceable by any court of competent jurisdiction then such a invalidity or unenforceability shall not affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions or identifiable parts. governing law and jurisdiction. in my eyes this is a zero hours contract which i have never agreed to,the medical clause seems draconian ,the changes to terms and conditions is this a unfair term ? and the severability clause is there because they know the contract is poor, thanks for you replies

Hi I'll break it down as I have a few queries. SITUATION On 3/12/2013 I signed a Subject to Contract form at the letting agents, and paid the deposit, first months rent etc before moving in on 6th January 2014 on a 6 month AST. at the end it then rolled onto a periodic rental, which I then signed up for 12 months fixed contract in December 2014. I received a leaflet called "What is the Tenancy Deposit Scheme" and in my tenancy contract it says "It is protected by the following scheme - The Dispute Service www.tds.gb.com" I do not hold any further information on the deposit. 3-4 weeks ago, the letting agents telephoned me saying I needed to come in to sign up again, and that my landlady is increasing my rent (about 9% per month extra) I explained that as I was looking to buy my first home, I cannot commit to a new 6/12 month tenancy. He said that I had to sign up, and I explained that last year I had been on a periodic contract for 6 months, before renewing for a further 12 months, and my landlady had previously had no problem with this. He then called me back after speaking to my landlady and informed me that she was not happy with this as her financial situation had changed, and she cannot rely on me giving 1 months notice on a periodic tenancy. I explained very politely that I had already given my reason why I am not committing, and he became very pushy saying that house sales take on average 12 weeks to complete, so if I was to start looking in February, then I would be able to move out after the 6 months AST expires in early June. (Ok, no one tells me what to do!) I briefly explained that I'm a first time buyer, and there are plenty of houses in the area with no forward chain, so the sale could be a lot quicker. He then said that if I don't sign up then I would not have much choice, and finding another property for a short-term let whilst waiting for my house purchase to go through would be very difficult, as most agents sign for a minimum of 6 months. I panicked (all bravado went out the window) and offered to give my landlady 2 months notice to quit if she let me stay on a periodic tenancy, and I also agreed to the rent increase. He has phoned me twice, asking me to confirm this. I returned his call after his first voicemail, confirming this with his colleague, and when he called me again and left another message asking me to confirm, I didn't bother returning his call as I was pretty fed up with him by now. Question 1. I emailed the letting agents to ask about the deposit, and they said that they hold a copy of the certificate - would I like to see it? Is this a breach of any law by not automatically providing it to me? TDS website says it cannot find any record of my deposit using the information I provide - name, postcode, deposit amount. Question 2. Even though I have verbally accepted the rent increase, should I receive proper and legal notification of rent increase, before I pay the higher amount in December? Question 3. As I agreed verbally to provide 2 months notice to quit when I go onto a periodic rental tenancy, to avoid my landlady serving me a Section 21, do I have to do this by law? Question 4. My copy of the initial 6 month AST has not been signed by the Landlord/Agent - should it have been? From memory, I think they signed the copy they kept (they had printed off 2 copies, as opposed to giving me a photocopy of the original one). Question 2 and 3 relate to that I really did panic, as I don't want to have to move out for maybe 2 months before moving into the place I hope to buy, as I'm worried how the mortgage lender will view this in terms of credit scoring, making sure I'm on the electoral roll etc. If I do have to commit to the rent increase, and 2 months NTQ then fair enough, I've learnt my lesson for agreeing anything under pressure. It's since I've tried to locate my deposit, that alarm bells are ringing. It took my landlady 6 months last year to replace broken fence panels, which really peeved my neighbours off. They understood it wasn't my fault and that I had chased it up 3 times. When the fence was finally replaced, it was a 3 foot wire one provided by the council (the landlady had bought an ex local authority house conversion flat). Why it took so long, I have no idea. We were all laughing when it was fitted, as had we of known, we would've spent £20 purchasing it ourselves, rather than waiting for the council maintenance department to fit it. The tenant downstairs is a local authority tenant and asked me to contact my landlady as the guttering at the back of the property is leaking badly every time it rains. This was 3.5 weeks ago, and we've heard nothing. Any information is greatly appreciated. Thank you

Good evening to all. My 17 year old daughter has been foolishly duped into giving her bank card details to one of these makeover / photo session studios today and was hoping to get some advice on how to deal with the matter. It started with her being approached recently in the high street by a young lady who took her contact info and said that she would be entered into a competition for a free makeover, photo session and complimentary picture. She subsequently received a call today from a guy to announce that she was one of the lucky winners and he proceeded to take her card details for the purpose of securing a deposit against the possibility of her not turning up on the day, although the deposit would be fully refunded 7-14 days after the session. She then started to become concerned over his pushy attitude and said that she wasn't sure if she wanted to go ahead with it and he became even more stroppy and said that she would lose her money if she cancelled it, he then hung up on her. She finally decided to fill us in on the whole situation, so I called the bank and they confirmed that a card payment had already been processed to the company in the sum of £70.00 and they were unable to reverse it as it was still going through authorisation (which seemed a bit odd), so we would have to wait for it to show up on the statement and then they could try and recover the payment. My Mrs telephoned the studio and briefly spoke to what sounded like one of the "phonejacker" brigade and he also got stroppy and hung up. Meanwhile the studio emailed my daughter the booking confirmation which also outlines their terms and conditions. I would have thought that some sort of consumer protection regulations might apply here. Isn't there a requirement to have a cooling off period? Can they retain a deposit from a 17 year old? I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could advise on where she stands with this situation. Thanks