Legal Signposting

Awilkinson

Hi, I'll keep this as brief as I can - I need signposting on where to go. 

My husband is my carer, and before he became it full time, he was in a job that wasn't very good for lots of reasons stemming from one individual manager. Basically he said he'd go to tribunal with ACAS if the matter wasn't cleared up, and since then other employees are coming forward asking to make statements towards this "case".

There was issues with pay, lack of payslips, lying to the DWP about pay in an official P45, racist comments to employees about other people, sexism, sexual harassment - verbally and nonverbally, employment laws might be broken about people working illegally without processed paperwork, mental health discrimination including forcing changes of contract under duress despite official doctors notes, and things we haven't yet been told about - but have been told exist (ie "x wants to write a statement, too").

This is for a franchise that is under another corporation. I went to the corporation as a whistleblower about some of these issues, and the franchise contacted me. We have a recording of a call after I whistleblew (only our side of the conversation and our voices for GDPR purposes - I record all my calls on an app because I get brain fog) where we were threatened with police action if we didn't drop the case because it wasn't our evidence to testify in court with, and would be sued for slander, and were given a fake name and told he was recording halfway through the call. After the fact, we retracted the statements with the corporation because we were scared, and told our parents, and they've since said he acted illegally in the conversation. 

Since then, we kind of want to reopen the case because of our treatment, and because we didn't realise the extent of what he's done until after the fact. We asked for the recording two days after the call, and he said he'd deleted it because we retracted the statement. So we don't have much evidence besides our half of the conversation, and potentially a lot of statements from other employees about their treatment.

Thing is, we have no idea what to do or where to begin. We are very poor, I'm disabled, and he's my carer. We have no idea about any of this stuff, and everyone is gathering around my husband with their own stories expecting him to champion it and carry it forward for them. But obviously we were threatened, and we're scared as hell that this is gonna cost us money we don't have to get the legal advice, and we'll lose the case and owe money we don't have to give. 

Where do we start? Where do we go? I'm aware of LP70s and getting the correct statement format for each individual against this person, but then what?

Currently, we're considering talking to Citizen's Advice and seeing if they think we should contact ACAS. But we have literally no idea what to do, or if we even CAN do anything, or if these people need to go to authorities themselves because we can't legally get involved. 

woodbine

My only suggestion would be to seek professional advice either from a union (if a member) or a solicitor who specialises in such work, I doubt you will get correct advice on any Internet forum as its a complex issue.

Awilkinson

woodbine said:

My only suggestion would be to seek professional advice either from a union (if a member) or a solicitor who specialises in such work, I doubt you will get correct advice on any Internet forum as its a complex issue.

Unfortunately can't afford a solicitor and there isn't a union for the employees. But fair enough. I think our best bet is asking somebody else but we'll likely have to drop this whole case, honestly.

woodbine

CAB might be able to point you in the direction of or offer free advice ?

Albus_Scope

Hi there @Awilkinson.  I just wanted to check in and see how you were getting on with your issue?  Have you had any luck?