My husband had to finish work as a HGV driver due to mental healthg problems after being moved from his normal shift 5am start time to working nights.He has worked over 30 years and was on capabilities due to injuring his knee at work. Medial meniscus tear and cruiiate tear too. He had gone through occupational health but hadnt claimed for this injury.
The manager at the time moved my husband without a health or welfare report about going onto nights and also never had a meeting to go on nights,these were proved by a top boss at XPOâŚmy husband asked for the miniutes but there were none. After a sever breakdown he had at work ,due to lack of sleep he went off with mental health issues. Hes never worked since in 2 years he had to be severanced at the age of 57. Wonder if he could have a claim against the company âŚthe said manager who caused all this had to move from the company.
First port of call is the union if a member of one.
Second is Citizenâs Advice.
Both the above are free. If they canât help then, yes a solicitor.
HGV law is not very relevant here I would have thought, it is much more about Employment Law.
I once got some very useful free employment law advice from
Also, there is ACAS
However I donât see what bearing a knee injury has on working nightshift, the two things are separate, so conflating one with the other doesnât help your argument.
And being on long-term sickness can be a legitimate reason for dismissal when the process is handled correctly. I suspect a big-name company like XPO have HR people who know how to conduct that process within the legal framework so that it doesnât rebound on them.
If you are going to speak to a solicitor, you might want to take a minute to get your terminology, and any evidence, straight:
What is being âon capabilitiesâ? Did you mean âDisability Benefitâ? Isnât it all called âUniversal Creditâ these days?
Also, nightshift does not automatically result in a lack of sleep, so you cannot make a concrete link between the two without weakening your argument: It could simply be a failure to make reasonable adjustments to the shift change. Many people work nightshift without having mental health issues, in fact some choose it to make their self more contented at work (lower road traffic)
If the employment contract allowed for shift changes to be made, you probably would be onto a non-starter if you tried to fight it.
Do you have any documented medical evidence from doctors categorically linking the shift change with altered mental health?
Generally we in the UK donât say âseverancedâ when referring to being dismissed, thatâs a bit of an Americanism.
Thatâs worthy of a multi-page thread in itself 
Just this week Iâve seen a rake of FB posts complaining âwe should all strikeâ. Yeah but if youâre not in a recognised Union, thatâs just ânot going to workâ and you can easily be dismissed.
Or the old âdrivers should stick togetherâŚâ And thatâs why we created Unions, to formalise âsticking togetherâ but you need to join a Union and pay subs, or Unions wonât be there for you when you want assistance.
Then thereâs the other oldie - Joining a Union to solve a specific problem 
Hereâs what Unison say about that
Pre-existing issues
If you join in the knowledge that something has happened to you, or will happen to you, even after the 4-week qualifying period has expired if you subsequently seek the unionâs support to deal with a pre-existing issue it will be limited to one half-hour advice session.
Union membership is not something you can dip in and out of when events at work happen which you want representation and legal advice for.
why did he not claim thru works insurance for his knee injury, nontheless he should claim for it now.Citizens advice centre will help you out as said above get in there this week
Could i ask what contract you was on at XPO . X XPO /GXO driver by the way , pm me by all meams
In my experience union legal help is so conditional on the odds of success in court as to be unfit for purpose.At best theyâll just settle for a derisory out of court settlement.
If not pull out the rug under your feet based on any lame excuse to save their cash.
In this case the OP is likely to get involved in a typical litigation nightmare of a long drawn out proof of causation argument in court on all counts.
Working nights generally isnât a matter of choice within employment or meeting JSA jobsearch requirements.
I worked nights with long term ongoing road and pavement and cable works going on outside my bedroom window generally starting before 8 am until 5.30pm.I knew the choice was either leave voluntarily, meaning no JSA claim or live with it.
While having been there with back issues related to the employment environment 90% will fall at the first hurdle of proving causation.Including the legal argument as to whether such proof is being demanded beyond the balance of probabilities supposedly required for civil cases.Also bearing in mind that any court would take into consideration an admission of contributory/partial causation.That was actually the advice of the TGWU legal department in my case.Litigation will more than likely just add to your problems not solve them with massive stress for little of any return and any potential return taking a long drawn out period of time.
Carryfast, your experience is ancient and full of rejection of self responsibility. As such it is bad advice.
Good luck getting money out of that outfit navajo50.
My advice is reasonably consistent with that posted by Zac.Good luck with making a case linking a knee injury and the being given the choice between working night shift, or walk away and supposed injury caused by lack of sleep in the case of choosing to accept the night work job.
There is no employment protection law against working nights or which makes that an unreasonable management request.
As regards the accident at work claim, one firm of solicitors up here north of the border is Digby Brown (google and you will find). They have adverts on the radio all the time about no win no fee claims. I think you have 3 years from the date of the accident. It may be worth a go, but XPO are probably very much aware of following health and safety procedures, doing risk assessments etc to help to cover themselves.
I do think that the night shift issue seems separate, unless possibly there has been sleep problems exacerbated by the injury. It doesnât seem entirely helpful to change a shift so drastically when a worker is returning to work.
I note OP has not been backâŚ
That, plus the poor grammatical composition of the post, together with non-standard terminologies and the non sequitur content, probably means it wasnât a truly serious inquiry.
Someone else could make use the information though. There are other personal injury firms that offer similar services, but the o/p did ask for a name drop.
No win no fee is even worse than Union legal help regarding aversion to risk of losing in court.Forget all about proving causation only on balance of probability.The burden of proof is laughable.The choice was walk away on the offer of nightwork or unfair dismissal based on contractual proof of day work only.Accepting the Nightshift job then claiming injury through lack of sleep is never going to fly in court.
I didnât see the o/p ask for a rundown on the legal virtues of the case, but I expect that if an injury was sustained at work and the employee was following all procedures correctly, it is highly likely that a payout of some sort at least would be possible.
I do expect that a relatively high percentage of the payout would be demanded on a no-win-no-fee arrangement, but this would be better than doing f.a. and getting nothing.
The granting of union legal representation, let alone no win no fee, which is effectively just a solicitor insurance backed scheme, is totally based on legal advice, regarding the chances of success in court solely based on the legal merits of the case which includes the strength of the evidence.Which in the case of anything regarding injury or disablement means firstly clearing the causation hurdle.
For the attention of the OP and Zac I actually took a case against a DWP Commissionersâ decision , regarding an industrial injuries claim which the TGWU dropped, up to Court of Appeal level as a litigant in person.The look on the faces of their legal team when I won the right to appeal from the judge at the first hearing was worth it.
However the judge also informed me that I could go no further without QC level representation because a litigant in person has no right of an audience at that level.
At which point the DWP said they would drop all claims of their legal fees to date if I would walk away.I didnât walk I ran like my life depended on it and didnât look back.
Trust me litigation is like going to war there are few of any winners.Dont even think about it if you can possibly avoid it.
I have represented myself before also, but I believe that the rule regarding representation only applies to firms, not people representing themselves. The reason that you donât see people representing themselves at that level is that of course when it comes to the right to appeal, judges can effectively do what they like. The most extreme case of âdo what you likeâ would be the Supreme Court, because there isnât any further chance to appeal after that. They can decide anything they want without recourse.
The Court of Appeal is the same thing as the Supreme Court.There is no further recourse.Setting an unassailable precedent was one of the excuses the union used.Which was bs because my case involved challenging an earlier precedent, regarding the definition of industrial injury, set in a lower court being relied on and by the DWP âagainstâ workers claiming for spinal injuries with no single identifiable accident causation.It was a no lose situation, except economically, for the union.
Nothing below the level of QC has right of an audience in that court except obviously when just seeking right to appeal.
Assuming youâre up against an opponent with deep pockets it will probably end up in that court and it takes an equally committed team to then fight it out.
In general it just ainât worth all the stress and time and money involved.
carryfast, yes I agree with your sentiments.
You could bring a perfectly good case, but it could come down to the luck of the draw with the judge and then an appeal may not be allowed on the basis that you are a litigant in person. In that respect judges / lawyers arenât going to like a layman pointing out their mistakes in applying the law.
A lot of time wasted, but if the case has reasonable merit, an individual shouldnât have to pay the costs of the other side normally.
Seeking a reasonable settlement by submitting the case may sometimes be a worthwhile pursuit. When it comes to the defendant deciding whether to fight it they may decide a lawyer would cost more than it costs to settle.