We have a situation where an employee has been threatened with violence by a client as a direct result of a work related issue. Without going into detail the threat is being taken very seriously and we do have concerns for our employee's safety and have had full discussions with police, Senior Managers, Care Agencies etc on the issues surrounding this. Amongst other measures the local manager wishes to have an injunction served on the client however we have been told that for legal reasons the action must be raised by the employee as an individual. The employee in question is in no position to meet the costs of instructing a solicitor to take this action out and, to my mind, as it is clearly work related, the costs of this action should be met by the employer. Has anyone had to deal with anything similar or know of any examples of costs for legal actions being taken by individuals being met by employers for these type of situations? Regards FH

Such an action may be restricted to interaction with that individual employee and may not solve the issue for future employee interactions. It may also serve merely to "fan the flames" as opposed to solving the problem. I appreciate you are limited on what you can post here, however if you are a Social Landlord or a Statutory Service Provider then an action by the individual may not be the best course of action.

You have several options as I see it. Is the 'client' a person who pays your company/organisation for a service, if so you can refuse to supply whatever service you provided and say goodbye to him. If he is a 'client' through such as a housing association you can tell the assoiciation the facts about the treat and tell them unless they deal with the matter you can no longer provide whatever service you currently provide until the matter is resolved. The use of legal procedings is a very last resourt, the person may be angry about a situation and someone else may be able to calm things down and get some sence back into the position. The last resort is to tell the individual that you are no lomger going to undertake any work for him and just walk away.

I believe the injunction must be personal if we are talking adults - A instructs B not to come near him through an injunction. 'A' cannot instruct 'B' not to go near 'C' (otherwise I would have no friends) The cost, assistance etc to do this is immaterial and could be met by either party. A reasonable employer might recognise this as a potential RIDDOR and subsequently it would be under the EL insurance and suitable assistance from legal representatives of the company. But of course there are many reasons why a company might take a different view.... Steve

I can validate Phils comments. I also have been involved in supporting a manager who was threatened and harassed by an ex employee, The injunction had to be brought by the individual. The employer paid any costs and eventually employed a solicitor to complain to the police everytime the injunction was breached by continuing the harassment. This went on for nearly 2 years. I attended Crown Court on 2 occasions with the defendant. First time the judge was lenient and gave a suspended sentence, the second time he gave a 12 month prison sentence. Steve