in this video I want to take a look at three common mistakes that employees
need to avoid I see these mistakes regularly in my practice hearing and
found in County Meath the first thing is in relation to an abundant claim or
employment case you need to ensure you don't get too personal about your
employer for example let's say you have a case at the WRC or indeed anywhere
else for example in court this case and the winning over is going to depend on
number one the facts of your case the actual circumstances of your case you
need to prove those secondly the legal issues that arise and thirdly then the
application of the law to your particular circumstances so essentially
to win your case you need to prove the facts and you need to prove the law and
then you're going to win your case if you're successful in doing so so to say
you prove the fire to prove the case based on an application of the law to
your facts getting personal about the employer is not going to advance your
cause or help you in your case so if for example you're bringing a claim for
unfair dismissal and the reason you've been unfairly dismissed was for
persistent late timekeeping and poor timekeeping and perhaps unexplained
absences from work it is no good then getting bogged down in personal issues
to do with your employer for example that he or she is a bully
or that he or she has poor personal hygiene or that he or she is tight like
Ebenezer Scrooge these are personal things they're not going to advance your
case because remember your case is about being unfairly dismissed
for persistent coming into work delays so the fact that your employer is
tightens the doctors is not going to make any difference to your case so
that's the first thing you need to not get too personal about your employer you
need to prove the facts prove the law and then you may win your case I've seen
many employees as they get completely bogged down in a sort of a personal
vendetta against an employer or against a manager and it's not helpful
the second thing is expecting perfection from employer and a failure of the
employer to behave perfectly expecting that to win your case view what I'm
saying to you is that in your case you need to prove that the employer has
acted unlawfully not just imperfectly in other words if the employer has a
grievance procedure or disciplinary procedure in the workplace and fails to
follow every step slavishly and may have departed slightly from the disciplinary
procedure it may not be fatal to the employers
case it may not win you your case so even though they may have departed
slightly from the procedure it may not have to say be completely fatal and you
need not to get completely hung up and say oh he didn't take this step or she
didn't take this step therefore I'm gonna win this case and you know how
much do I get doesn't work like that WRC and the courts will accept does an
employer a particularly small employer has limited resources and perfection is
not really required at all stages so if for example there's a misstep or a
slight departure from a discipline procedure provided that in the overall
context of a dismissal or a disciplinary sanction the employee has been heard and
hazard a chance to put inside of the story and has a chance to appeal then
endure circumstances even though the employer may have departed slightly it
may well be sufficient and you may not win your case simply because they have
not behaved perfectly so I'm making that point here in the slide I'm basically
saying that the infirmities or imperfection in the employer's case may
be bad and may be really annoying for you may be very very frustrating for you
but it may not be fatal to his case and may not be enough to renew your case the
third thing is the catch-all bullying stress allegation
I've had many employees come in here who are disappointed with her employer
disappointed him work they've been made certain promises at the outset different
promise pay raises different promised all sorts of things
and after a year or two or three it hasn't handled the way they expected to
disappoint us and then they complained us about bullying or stress or distress
it's not getting up here rise of the stress and marketing their own office
and the stress I'm not kidding about a company car is you know the one to bring
some sort of exam on that basis it's not enough so proving an injury arising from
bullying and stress in the workplace is what is required for a meaningful win in
any of these types of bullying stroke stress cases harsh management or
rough-and-ready disciplinary procedures do not
necessarily prove bullying and in the Supreme Court in 2017 May or June of
2017 in the roughly vs. Board of Management case board imagine of CNN
school case it sets out the test there's three or four steps that need to be
passed in order to prove a case for bullying or stress that type of case and
lack of up here is broken promises or general disappointment in the employment
relationship is not bullying so don't fall into that category or that easy
mistake to make and try to lump all sorts of disappointment or disaffection
as a bullying thing because it's not bullying cases are hard to win you may
well have a case for a different order a different heading however but be
certainly be careful that you can't just make a while sort of assertion
allegation that because your problems to pay raise at the beginning of the
employment maybe two years ago you haven't got an order - come taken fast
then you know this is a question of bullying and now you're suffering from
stress and you're going to the doctor or whatever it really isn't going to be
enough to any case for sort of bullying or stress or a bullying or
stress-related injury case in all of these cases you do need to get
professional advice if you want to ensure that you don't go off half-cocked
with a mistaken case the case that is bound to fail from the outset so if you
like this video you might give it the thumbs up down below and you might be
interested in subscribing to my youtube channel just to catch or to summarize
the three tips again one your case is going to stand or fall on its merits
don't get personal about the employer because even
wasting time and energy number two don't expect perfection from the employer yes
the employer has certain standards so do you as employee have certain standards
to maintain however perfection Mayson necessarily required all of the time so
even if there is a slight departure doesn't mean that you're just gonna win
your case you're gonna rock up to the WRC
or court and win a case and number three is be careful and discriminating about
what is bullying and stress and proper proofs for those allegations for that
claim because can be difficult claim to win and you can't just gather up every
grievance that you have and pour it into a ball and say okay look I've been
bullied for the last three months three years or whatever hope you find it
useful thanks for watching