A union lawyer who had no intention of reading any evidence asked me not to attend the pre hearing review. I don’t think he had been to one for a long time and was only going because of sympathy for my extreme case and previous complaints by other union members.

Come the day, the chair wasn’t having it. He told the lawyer that I must turn-up before any judgement could be made.

The sad bit is, the judge never told me what was going on or what was in my big bag of evidence. I had lever-arch files of the stuff, including minutes of the meeting where a director seemed to suggest to my boss that she had better do the dirty if she wanted her own job. None of this was read. I think the judge thought he was doing a favour by ruling that part of the claim was not out of time: he must have thought I looked honest. But I wasn’t there for the money but to nail the other side, and that rare opportunity was missed.