Employment > Disability. Employer won't make Reasonable Adjustments. I might be fired

[sandfordboy]

Thinking on "redeployment" - your thoughts on what may be acceptable "temporarily" & do you know if such a post may be available ?

[Avery]

It seems your employer is "on notice" of your personal health issues. Has your GP said when they would sign you "fit for work" or subject to any conditions ? In addition to the Occ health info, this is the info you need to be able to present to your employer. Any work they set you to do should take full account of these "professional comments" & requirements & be particular to a person specific & task specific risk assessment.How else would they know you were in a safe work situation ? ie;Lifting ?

It seems your employer is "on notice" of your personal health issues.

They have their OccHealth Report saying it will take 3 to 6 months for me to recover. It also says I am not in a condition to lift boxes etc.


Has your GP said when they would sign you "fit for work" or subject to any conditions ?

No, but I have contacted my GP today asking for a letter confirming that I am not yet fit enough to lift heavy boxes... just to give me more firepower, in case they start ignoring the very OccHealth report that they arranged in the first place.


In addition to the Occ health info, this is the info you need to be able to present to your employer. Any work they set you to do should take full account of these "professional comments" & requirements & be particular to a person specific & task specific risk assessment.

How else would they know you were in a safe work situation ? ie; Lifting ?

Makes sense. Thank you.

[Avery]

Thinking on "redeployment" - your thoughts on what may be acceptable "temporarily" & do you know if such a post may be available ?

A different office-based role would be an improvement. A role without lifting heavy boxes.

As for this being offered, I am doubtful.

[Avery]

Update: They have fired me now. Though I have appealed, and my appeal will be heard and judged by employer fairly soon.

My employer's framework doesn't seem to include anything about disability. In their world, there are only three things I can appeal against.

Under ‘Capability’ "... the employee can appeal if, whether in relation to performance or ill health

• the organisation failed to follow its procedures, or
• the sanction issued was too severe or disproportionate, and/or
• there is new evidence

..."

There is no fouth bullet point saying "• the organisation failed to comply with Statutes and Law".

So therefore, I am going to complain about their non-compliance with statutes within their second bullet point "... too severe or disproportionate"

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

If they still fire me after the Appeal, I will try to work out if it is better to go through the 6 week process of mediation with ACAS... or go straight to the Tribunal.

I will choose whichever option strengthens my case the most, but I will also be glad to just get this over with.

Any advice on this would be most welcome.

Thank you

[ULA]

On a point of procedure if they do not uphold your appeal and you are dismissed and decide to make a claim, then you must start the process of Early Conciliation whether or not you and/or your employer engage in the process. Without a certificate number from ACAS re Early Conciliation you will not be able to proceed with an Employment Tribunal claim.

[Avery]

On a point of procedure if they do not uphold your appeal and you are dismissed and decide to make a claim, then you must start the process of Early Conciliation whether or not you and/or your employer engage in the process. Without a certificate number from ACAS re Early Conciliation you will not be able to proceed with an Employment Tribunal claim.

Thank you. I have since noticed here https://tell.acas.org.uk/check-user-wants-conciliation that ACAS seem to provide an option to bypass the early concilliation service, in which they offer a ACAS number (or recognition).



However, I will still be happy to choose ' early conciliation ' if I get more brownie points.

I have checked my employers history on the bailii.org and all the cased against them involving Disability Discrimination or Unfair Dismissal result in a virtually empty PDF saying:

JUDGMENT
The proceedings are dismissed following a withdrawal of the claim by the claimant.

[ULA]

There is indeed an option to bypass but you still have to effectively "start" the process to then bypass it in order to get your certificate. Without the certificate you will not be able to make an ET claim.

However I would advise that you do engage with the process, not of the sake of "brownie points" but to be able to show to any Tribunal, if it ends up at a Hearing that you have been a reasonable claimant who has tried to resolve your claim before resorting to taking up Tribunal time.

[Avery]

I think you have to strongly represent your conditions and health issue in front of your seniors, so they can understand your situation and get some solution accordingly. Instead of dismissal, they can put you in the new work profile as your disability, so you can continue your job.

Also, you have to be ready to work in a new work profile so no one got disturbed and work goes properly.

Re "seniors"? I assume you mean my employer. Let's not give them too much respect. You may not be aware of the background, so here we go: – they're a bunch of a***oles trying to slither out of their statutory responsibilities on a disability discrimination case. And... they're not even a small or medium sized company, they're massive!

Re "strongly represent your conditions". I now have multiple health reports that I have already sent to my employer, and two are written by GMC registered medical doctors. I have no legal training, but as far as I can tell, my case is extremely strong.

They did put me on their 'redeployment register' prior to dismissing me, which made available all their regular advertisied jobs, but none of them were suitable and all conflicted with my disabilities.

Thanks for sharing your view on this

[Avery]

There is indeed an option to bypass but you still have to effectively "start" the process to then bypass it in order to get your certificate. Without the certificate you will not be able to make an ET claim.

However I would advise that you do engage with the process, not of the sake of "brownie points" but to be able to show to any Tribunal, if it ends up at a Hearing that you have been a reasonable claimant who has tried to resolve your claim before resorting to taking up Tribunal time.

Re "to show to any Tribunal, if it ends up at a Hearing that you have been a reasonable claimant who has tried to resolve your claim before resorting to taking up Tribunal time" ... this was my interpretation of 'brownie points'.

I think I will follow your advice and go through the 6 weeks of mediation. It will feel like hell dragging this out even longer, but I think it's worth it just to keep my case stong. Thanks

[Avery]

Hi folks.
I have experienced problems trying to get through to my lawyer, and subsequently have had to do a lot of work puting my case together, and trying to understand exactly which laws my employer has violated, and how.

I am able to explain exactly which statutory guidance they have violated (as provided by the HSE and Equality & Human Rights Commission), but not which statutues they have violated or how, mainly because I find the written legislation comparatively harder to understand ( https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents ).

Q : Do I have to explain exactly how my employer has violated each statute, or shall I just leave this for the judge?

As I haven't been to a Tribunal (or any type of court) before, I am unaware of how much legal knowledge of my case, I need to bring to the trial.

Thank you for reading

[Avery]

I tried to post this in the Employment Law section, but when I clicked "Post" it appeared here in the Welcome Forum. Admins, please can you move this to the right place for me? Thank you.

[dslippy]

You need to set out just which act you complain of and then state tat it is contrary to the necessary section.

You cannot leave this to the judge to formulate your case for you

[ULA]

Avery you are now in the employment thread.

Please can I ask whether this is a continuation of your previously 2 started threads and in particular the one linked to below:

Employment > Disability. Employer won't make Reasonable Adjustments. I might be fired - LegalBeagles Forum

If so, it might be a good idea for me to merge these two threads as it is much better for those of us advising to have the complete knowledge of any background to an employment tribunal claim so that we can ensure consistency of advice being given as the case progresses.

[Avery]

Avery you are now in the employment thread.

Please can I ask whether this is a continuation of your previously 2 started threads and in particular the one linked to below:

Employment > Disability. Employer won't make Reasonable Adjustments. I might be fired - LegalBeagles Forum

If so, it might be a good idea for me to merge these two threads as it is much better for those of us advising to have the complete knowledge of any background to an employment tribunal claim so that we can ensure consistency of advice being given as the case progresses.

Yes, please feel free to move thread, and merge into previous thread.

The difference between this thread and the last, is that I am now asking a different specific question (case prep), and instead of saying "i might be fired", I have now lost my job and lost my appeal, and have started talking to ACAS.

[Avery]

You need to set out just which act you complain of and then state tat it is contrary to the necessary section.

You cannot leave this to the judge to formulate your case for you

Thanks. Looks like I will have read through the sections again. The last time I did this, every important element seemed to be covered by barely a few words, which didn't seem to tally with the statutory guidance from the HSE and E&HRC. It was as if these two gov bodies were providing more detail than was possible to provide.

... Perhaps I just find it easier to understand the guidance, and harder to undertand the statutes as they are actually written.

The most important subject is 'reasonable adjustments' for disability. Equality Act 2021.