So we continue….

There was a break. The judge seems to be a bit of a kind hearted man. He told both sides that it was time to take stock. My interpretation, have a look at your case and drop the shit. We gave her a chance to withdraw…she said not a chance, so back we go.

She seemed a little deflated in the second half. Maybe the judges words, maybe just the emotional strain. Hard to tell but I can say it was hard to watch so who knows what it was like to go through yourself. One thing was for sure though, she plunged her sympathy factor into the bin with us when we returned. Her 15 year old son, my cousin, was waiting outside court to stare at us upon our return. Yup, that’s right she had her love child turn up at court. Worse….she had his father bring him.

We get down to the nitty gritty, whether the redundancy was fair. Unfortunately for her she had spent so much time working on her conspiracy theory that she couldn’t get her facts right on the redundancy where if they were going to find unfairness, it would have been in a procedural error.

Error number one. She claimed she received her memo the day after we all received ours. Our testimony confirmed that we had all spoken about receiving the memos on the same day that they were handed out.

Error two. They had cross examined all of our witnesses stating that my aunt hadn’t received a memo concerning the imminent office move the day following the redundancy. She was forced to back track her statement on this point when we produced a copy of her solicitors disclosure list…they had given us the memo, not the other way round, so she had to have had it.

Error three. She said my boss never discussed the redundancy criteria with her, explaining the weighting of the scores and whether she wished to challenge them. She signed the notes of her redundancy meeting which detailed the conversation. Bit of a stupid error to make as this would have been her main claim.

Error four. She claimed that there was never any alternatives to redundancy discussed and that my boss specifically told her that none would be considered. In the notes of the meeting, signed by her as accurate, guess what appeared? Oh yeah, the exact discussion where he asked her for any ideas or options she might have.

Error five. She threw into the mix that the procedure was rushed and she didn’t have time to give it proper consideration. This point may raise criticism. All of the redundancies carried out over the year were done within one week. That’s 17 redundancies in total over the year. So 17 weeks maximum. Personally I preferred it this way, I didn’t want to be left in limbo. In addition the consultation meetings were subject to the flow of conversation. For the boss to explain everything would take 5-10 minutes. If you don’t have any comment on what he says that means the meeting will last 5-10 minutes. Because she said nothing except yes or no in her meeting, it was short, the time recorded on the signed notes showed this. It’s an acceptable point to raise….unfortunately for her she hadn’t raised it right up until now. Not in her appeal letter, her appeal hearing, her ET1 claim form or her statement. Brand new complaint put before the judges. They spotted it a mile off and promptly asked her why she hadn’t raised it before now. Her response….maybe I’m just stupid. I’m really not sure the judge disagreed.

Error six. The appeal. She said she felt intimidated throughout the appeal and didn’t know what she could appeal about. She had disclosed our letters to her and her letters to us and the fact that the appeal was 4 months following the dismissal and she had sought legal advice from a specialist firm of solicitors….oh and she hadn’t raised this before now either. Like the last exclamation, it sort of fell flat on it’s face. The judge questioned her again, she had four months and she still wasn’t ready? She cried some more in response and told them that my other aunt had died and everything was so stressful for her and she had seem my bosses mum at church. The third panel member drew down his brow and judged her a little bit more. (note to my aunt, stop mentioning the affair, much less the poor wife you screwed over, they find it distasteful!!!!!!).

Error seven. The judge pointed out to her that at the time of the redundancy she had pushed forward and complained that she wanted someone else to take the minutes of her redundancy meeting. They asked her whether someone had asked her if she objected or if she just spoke out herself. She confirmed she hadn’t known whether she could object to that point or not, but had done so anyway. The judge then asked why, if she felt she could object about that without anyone telling her so, she couldn’t object to anything else. She pulled out her old staple, I guess I’m just stupid. By now I felt the judge was doing a lot of our work for us. Counsel was happy to let him have the floor!

Error eight. The panel asked questions at the end of it all. My favourites being, the panel member who was an employee representative, who had seemed to be on her side right up until she got in the stand asked her if she was really saying that it was all a conspiracy. She said yes. His response? ‘Really!?’. She couldn’t let it go, she had to say yes again. He sat back incredulous. The extremely judgy guy on the end who was the employer representative clarified with her that she honestly believed that four years down the line and 17 redundancies later it was all a massive and elaborate sham to get rid of her. Again, she just could;t stop herself. She said yes! And finally we came to the judge. He asked her, if she took out all the background and just looked at the procedure to point out to him the area she thought had been unfair about the procedure. Her response? I think you can see where it’s going can’t you? She actually said….there was nothing wrong with it! She of course did a swift back track and accused the judge of putting words in her mouth and she thought that it was too fast and she was intimidated. The judge was not really happy with her accusation and pointed out he had said nothing of the sort, then pointed out also that the two points she had just raised with regard to the procedure that she thought were unfair had never been claimed prior to that day.

Her evidence finished and I think it’s fair to say that while we never trust which way a tribunal will swing, if we lost this one we should all quit our jobs and shovel shit as a living because we obviously know nothing about our profession.

It was supposed to be a three day trial. Unfortunately at the end of day three, due to the theatrics of it all, there are still two witnesses they insist on calling. The judges have cautioned against it and given that they appear to be utterly disgusted with my bosses father, they have decided against calling him and so want to go with just one. She adds nothing, and will take less than ten minutes to cross examine. A former employee who never made any claims of unfair redundancy when she left but now wants her five minutes because she knows she doesn’t have grounds. There is no time with all three panel members until 27th September. We go back then it seems unless my aunts counsel can convince her to either withdraw or not call her last witness as it’s goign to make her case even weaker than it is.

We shall see, but right now, we feel good about the position, if not the experience.

As for what happens, I’ll keep you posted. But one thing I am sure about, the judge was wrong on the first day, this would make an excellent episode in a legal drama. He just didn’t know it then.