This post concerns an Employment Tribunal case where we had been asked to assist at
very short notice.
The former officer is believed to be the first Polish officer recruited as a full time Constable.
Scotland's outgoing Chief Constable Sir Iain Livingstone said that Police Scotland is institutionally racist and discriminatory.
The Claimant and his former solicitor had parted ways, the preparation had been poor, not one witness staement had been taken on behalf of the claimant.
The claim was for disability discrimination/victimisation however[ there was evidence of race discrimination/harassment and an element of whistleblowing.
The Claimant had paid the solicitor privately to begin with and later utilised legal aid which is available in Scotland, this facility is not available in England and Wales for employment tribunal cases.
The Claimant was unwell with MH issues due to the stress he had been placed under regarding the failures in case preparation, being unrepresented and we felt that the claimant was being railroaded into an employment tribunal hearing.
The claimant had sought a postponement of the hearing which had been refused.
There have been various articles concerning cases of bullying and sexism concerning female officers but little published concerning male officers.
As this is an employment tribunal case we have looked for any issues concerning Employment Tribunal Judges as there has been some controversy recent;y with some Employment Judges in England.
We have found an article in te Scottish press concerning an Emplotyment Judge Whitcombe and reproduced soe extracts below, the same judge has been allocated to our case.
Relevant extracts from the article include:
“A judge is to be investigated after being accused of aggressively grilling an expert witness explaining how a former police officer had been traumatised by her bosses. Former officer Karen Harper had called for employment tribunal judge Mark Whitcombe to stand down from her case over the way he spoke to the witness. A clinical psychologist, and to her lawyer, claiming he was overly combative and dismissive”
“She has now made a new complaint about the judge’s continued involvement in the case and his treatment of her witnesses and lawyer. President of the Employment Tribunal service Judge Susan Walker has refused to consider Harper’s original 2020 complaint but said she will investigate new concerns after Harper’s case has concluded.”
In the aforementioned case of Karen Harper, the employment judge was asked to stand down.
In the present case we also requested a postponement on behalf of the claimant which was also refused however; we informed the judge that the claimant and ourselves had felt that there was a perception of bias and that we certainly would not be recommending that the Claimant attends the Tribunal alone in his present fragile state against medical advice and without any support.
We also informed the judge that we would be seeking a witness order for the forner Chief Constable Iian Livingstone and would be applying to amend the claim to include whistleblowing and race discrimination/harassment.
These applications are not easy easy to make at this stage and the respondent has indicated that it will oppose the application to amend the claim.
The case has now been adjourned and various actions are being carried out or facilitated by us to help the claimant and put them on a more equal footing with an opportunity to present their claims.
The Tribunal informed us that the previous solicitor had not made any reference to reasonable adjustments, conequently the timetable for the hearing did not take this into account which would put the Claimant under additional pressuure in a case where there was already no equality of arms and the claimant was at a significant disadvantage without representation and with disabilities.
Neurodiversity is not just a buzz word and needs to be taken seriously when a claimant is having to deal with an employment tribunal case.
Even if legally represented we would recommend you contact us for our peace of mind to reciew and keep an eye on your case.
When you are unwell it is natural to assume that your legal representatives are looking after your best interests rather their own.
Unfortunately sometimes this is not the case and people are wrongfully convicted at criminal courts or lose their cases at the emplolyment tribunal.
Don't take that risk, it is too late after the event to complain that certain actions were not undertaken by your legal team.
We will post new dates for a final hearing in due course.
In the interim as usual we will continue to investigate and help with case preparation.
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