Could I possibly sue an old boss?

Could I possibly sue an old boss?

A few years back in 2003/4 I was working for this man as a Secretary. I was quite young at the time and it was my first proper job. I was working in his IT centre and in the job description he also included IT training. The first few months were fine but then he started to get nasty. He started threatening to sack me if I didn’t pass my IT exams. He seemed to despise me even though I was being helpful and working overtime for him. He then started to verbally abuse me with his assistant manager tagging along.

This all happened a few years back and I know I should’ve done something about it back then. But I was far too scared and young to stand up to this bully. I feel that I have suffered long term because of this experience. Since working for him I have not had the confidence to keep a steady job. Before I went to work for him I had dreams to have a career. But now I am scared of the same thing happening all over again.

Could it be possible to take this to a court at such a late stage?

Additional Details
I do have proof of the abuse.

I went to the police when he got his son to beat me up.

â™¦â™£ alex â™ â™¥

there is such a thing as contructive dismissal, look it up and see if you fall into this category. if you left because of his bad treatment then you might be able to pursue it. I would advise against it as it will take a lot of time and be difficult to prove unless you have concrete proof of the beating. if you went to the police at the time why was no action taken?
get some advice from a solicitor.

sophist

No. The law prescribes 1 year because of such things. You don't know you've been damaged until years further on. It is an unfair law, but unless you can find other grounds, you can't sue. Your only hope now is to get psychiatric help that you will have to pay for.

Cari

You can't sue an employer for this anyway. I'm unsure of time limits so don't know if it's too long ago, but even if it were yesterday you can't sue for this.

Bullying at work should be dealt with by raising a grievance internally, after which if it still isn't resolved, you could take it to a tribunal. In reality, bullying is so difficult to prove that employers tend to get away with it ... and that isn't a bad thing, because the term "bullying" is so overused these days and many people will claim that they've been bullied whereas in actual fact they haven't; they just seem to have a problem taking orders from others.

You don't really go into enough detail here about what he's supposed to have done. FYI he could have sacked you if he required that you pass an IT exam and you didn't pass. And as for his son, you don't say how old he is, but assuming he's like over 12 then why should the boss be responsible for him beating you up? Do parents normally get prosecuted when their offspring break the law?

Anyway, if you ever tried to sue an employer, do you think you would *ever* get another job? Hell no! Even if you're not dependent on this guy for a reference, things get out - they're reported in the press, or if you live in a small town things get around by word of mouth, and no employer would ever want to take a chance and hire you ever again.

The Bricklayer

Proof?

Lily B Talus

No, you need to look at this from another angle, get some counselling for yourself so that you can get over this...and then move on....it's too late and you dont have proof of the damage that you've sustained. Sorry, but thinking of yourself is the only way

andy w

I am going to be very blunt. Get a grip and move on.
There is nothing you can do about something that may or may not have happened 5 years ago.
How do you think you are going to prove that any bit of verbal abuse he gave you has caused your lack of confidence or whatever you think you are suffering from.

Move on for crying out loud.

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