Trade unions and associations exist to protect members’ employment interests and rights. Members often pay subscriptions for the organisation's professional support and may sometimes rely on their advice in important work-related matters such as employment disputes, pensions or health and safety issues.
In some cases, negligence on the part of a trade union or association can lead to members receiving incorrect advice and incurring financial losses. If you've been confronted with a scenario of this kind in the last six years, our dedicated professional negligence solicitors can help you claim compensation.
Case Study
Mr. H. was dismissed from his employment due to long periods of absence due to ill health, which arose from a work-related accident. As his ill health was caused by an accident at work, his trade union representative advised Mr. H. that he should contact the union's solicitors to establish whether he might bring a personal injury compensation claim against his employers. The solicitors (correctly) advised that as the accident had happened more than three years ago, he was time-barred from bringing a claim.
Although our client’s trade union had advised him to consider a personal injury claim, it had failed to advise him of his option to bring a claim against his employer in the employment tribunal for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination. The potential tribunal claim was a valuable one because unlimited damages can be awarded in the event that disability discrimination is found to have taken place.
At this point, the client sought our advice in relation to pursuing a professional negligence claim against his trade union for the loss of the opportunity to bring a tribunal claim. We used data protection legislation to secure copies of Mr. H.’s union files and employer’s files. This gave an understanding of what had transpired from the point of view of those organisations and allowed us to make an early evaluation of the claim.
This is a technical area which involved an analysis of the likelihood of the unfair dismissal / discrimination claim being successful if it had been brought in time. A specialist Barrister provided an opinion on the strengths of the case and determined that on the very specific facts, whilst the union had badly advised Mr. H., the processes which the employer had followed when dealing with his absence and making the decision to dismiss him may have been reasonable.
Mr. H. is to decide whether he wishes to instruct us to chase down further evidence from his employer’s appeal files to reach a definitive view on whether his dismissal may in fact have been unreasonable. This case is a good example of the need to take incremental steps when approaching a case. Facts can never be presumed and a detailed investigation of the documents created at the time is vital to understanding whether the case “has legs”. Careful forensic analysis at an early stage avoids costly situations later on.
