Ask the Expert: Should I sue for race discrimination?
Our panel of experts answers career questions from readers. Other readers can contribute their views. This week:
' I am pursuing a grievance against my employer for racial discrimination. The wrongdoers are senior officials in my bank who have railroaded my grievance internally. Now the bank has constructed an unfounded case on which it intends to dismiss me. Should I resign before I am dismissed? What do I need to disclose to a new employer and what are the implications for my FSA regulatory status in the UK?
You are in a very unpleasant, though sadly not unusual, situation and you should see an employment lawyer as soon as possible.
If you have convincing evidence that your employer is indeed pursuing a malicious and unfounded case against you - evidence that will impress a tribunal - then you will legally be in quite a strong position. The law offers protection against victimisation to employees making a genuine discrimination complaint and employers are required to treat such complaints seriously and promptly. If they don't this may well amount to further discrimination!
Resigning before you are dismissed will not affect your legal rights. You can still pursue your discrimination case and a case for constructive dismissal - this is when an employee's position is made so awful that they are entitled to resign.
Furthermore, ex-employees are protected from any form of retaliation by their previous employer because they alleged discrimination while employed. This should prevent your bank from failing to provide references to a new employer, agency or the FSA, or providing a detrimental reference. In any case, if they gave a deliberately bad reference, which was known to be untrue, you could sue for a breach of the duty of care.
So much for the law - how about the real world? In reality, even if you are morally in the right, it may be hard to prove this legally - and in any event, starting any form of legal proceedings is a stressful business and should never be undertaken lightly.
Your employer will be seeking to trash your reputation and empty your pockets and you will be spending many hours writing statements, gathering documents and poring over the past. There is no shame is deciding that life's too short for that kind of grief.
The good news is that your employer is probably as keen as you to avoid a protracted legal battle. It too wants to get on with running its business, instead of spending its time enriching lawyers. If the matter goes to court, there is no upper limit on the awards that can be made in a racial discrimination case - and your employer (or ex-employer, if you chose to resign) won't want its good name questioned publicly in a tribunal.
So take a pragmatic approach. What do you really want out of this? It seems fairly obvious that your position with your current employer is untenable - so what you want is a dignified exit. First and foremost, you want your reputation and FSA status intact. You may also feel entitled to some financial redress.
Depending on the nature of the grievance your employer has raised against you, you could decide simply to resign and not disclose anything to anyone. If the grievance in question has no FSA relevance say nothing more in the first instance to an agency or prospective employer than that you resigned because you were unhappy with the culture of the organisation.
You need only disclose further details if specifically asked. Having resigned, you will still have three months in which to decide whether you want to pursue your discrimination claim, or indeed a claim for constructive dismissal.
Your other option is to approach you employer and suggest you will go quietly and drop your discrimination claim, in return for a clean reference - and perhaps some compensation. Your chances of getting the latter will depend on several factors - your employer's perception of the strength of its own case and yours, as well as the personalities of the people involved.
What you really want is to put this awful situation behind you and get on with your life. So our advice is to contact the FSA, see a lawyer and put a swift, dignified exit ahead of lofty notions of justice or big bucks compensation.
Next week's dilemma: I was made redundant in 2002 and decided to scale down my lifestyle and look after my baby daughter, while my wife returned to full-time work. This also allowed me to fulfil a long-standing ambition of trading futures on-line on my own. Unfortunately, my trading has not been as successful as I hoped and I need to go back to paid employment in the City. How do I portray my stint as house husband and day trader?
What would you advise? Send your answer to: expertadmin@efinancialcareers.com.
Look out for the Experts' answer to this dilemma and readers' comments on Ask the Expert next week!
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Our experts include: Roger Steare, a career coach at Roger Steare Consulting and Makbool Javaid, an employment partner at the law firm DLA.
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