Discrimination Claims

[Rks2020]

Hi all,
I have a question please.
Can an employer act out /impose a detriment to an employee at 1st count and as they can claim they were not aware of said employee to have any disability at the time, the employee cannot bring about a claim in ET. The respondant can argue that at the time of the incidence the employee had no disabilities. ?
If this is true it's impossible to ever take employer to ET and win your case ?

Thanks

[ULA]

A claimant would have to prove that the respondent was aware of or could reasonably have been expected to know that the person had a disability, as set out in the Equality Acr 2010.

[Rks2020]

Hi ,
Ok so in essance then ,if the claimant at the time of the incident had no disability , but as a result of the detriment then going forward evloved into a disability the claimant could not have any claim against the employer for the 1st incident even though there is a causal link between the two ?
Which does mean if I'm correct in thinking, employer gets away with any detrimental action towards an employee where either the employee had no such disability at the time or the employer had no such knowledge if the employee was disabled.?

Thanks

[ULA]

You would have to prove, via medial reports the causation between the detriment and the onset of a disability. In any event this would all depend on what it is you are trying to claim, for which you have given no details.

If it relates back to your previous thread https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...grievance-case then it would have been more helpful for you to have continued using that thread for relevant information that those of us advising could refer to.

[Rks2020]

Hi all ,

I have a question regarding time limits for bringingvin a claim. i am aware of the 3 month rule less one day.
However , when does the clock start if the claimant is unaware that a detriment has been actioned without the claimants knowledge. The claimant has first knowledge exactly 3 months after the act . ?
Surely it cannot be just that time limit starts when the detriment was actioned ?

Also , if one has several detriments imposed on one self , and each is within 3 months of each other can this be a case of contuued acts ?
Do the continuous acts need to be related to each other ?

Thanks.

[ULA]

Yes, the time limit is still 3 months less a day for claiming a detriment arising from asserting a protected right.

The series of detriments, so long as they are not months/years apart, can be treated as a series for which the 3 months less a day is calculated from the last date of the detriment.

They need to be related to the protected act you were asserting.

[Rks2020]

Thanks ULA ,

I probably am not explaining myself well sorry.

Lets say on 1st of April i became aware of my employer was going to pursue a conduct case against me and thats when they informed me, Because unknown to me 3 months earlier something had happened ie i did not follow a procedure.

I find out later that the employer was aware 3 months earlier but they did not follow company policy, i believe in order to succeed in bringing about a case against me because i had initiated a grievance against them a few days earlier.

The failure to follow their own procedure and the reasons why was detrimental to me .
So my question being should the 1st April be the point at which the clock starts for me to bring about a claim for unfair treatment as that is when i was made aware ?

Reference the continuumn of acts , each act carried out by the employer were within 3 months of each other , and each act i am relying on are to base my claim are protected acts or come under employment rights act. Will these detriments then be viewed as a continuum of acts ?

Thanks.

[ULA]

You already have an ET claim running for discrimination. If you believe you have been treated unfairly, then this needs to be in relation to the act that you are claiming for which is discrimination. Your unfair treatment is because of an unlawful act of discrimination which is the claim, not the unfair treatment. The unfair treatment is a potential example of how you were discriminated against, if you can prove that employees who did not have your protected characteristic would not have received this treatment.

They will potentially be viewed as a series, however as I has stated they need to all be related to the specific protected act you are asserting.

[Rks2020]

Hi all,

in my CMO i have been advised to send the respondent lawyer any further evidence to support my claim of disability at the time of alleged events.
i knew i had a period of a few months of sickness due to high levels of stress and depression about 15 years ago but couldn't see anything on my GP records so i didn't mention this .
I have now seen from SAR request that during an on assessment it indicates that i was experiencing these issues.
I have requested for my GP to check and provide details if these are on their archives.
Can i use this data to support my claiming disability as the judge indicated that if this was the first time you said you experience MH then it has to be likely to reoccur and have substantial effect invest to day activities . So if going by likely to reoccur goes , is my previous episode of MH issues likely to be taken into account ?

One more question , i noticed through the SAR from OH assesments that my medical data had been shared with other managers without my consent.
Is this normal practice as i had only sent my Fit note indicating my MH issues to a main manager in confidence and i'm sure the OH servicevprovider does state that any medical information relaxing to the employee must have been given consent to share ?

Thanks for any info.

[ULA]

My view is that you can say you had a period of mental health issues 15 years ago, however if this was only for a short period of time would it have qualified under under the definition of the Equality Act 2010? That would be something a Judge would need to decide upon.

You will need to provide more information on the managers your medical data was shared with and in what context before I can respond to that question.

[Rks2020]

Hi Ula,

I was off sick for 5 months at the time, the OH reports mention depression related though at the time did not consider it to be under the EqA.

Ref the GDRP , i had only sent my fit note in confidence to the head site manager a couple of months before because i did not want to share my MH issues with my immediate manager who I knew would try to use it against me as i had raised grievances against her.

I had requested to see what questions were to be put to OH to ask me , nothing in there mentioned my MH ,so i was unaware of any wrong doing but i had my suspicions after the OH assessment .
I have only just had my SAR from OH and in that SAR its eveident that the site main manager has shared my medical fit note with his next in line manager and also with my immediate manager.

I would have have thought i should have been asked for consent to release my medical info ?

Thanks

[ULA]

It may not have been considered under EqA because either :

1. The five months you were off was prior to EqA coming into force on 1 October 2010.
OR
2. The 12 months period for it to be considered "long term" was not met.

Did your head site manager know that you did not want the information to be disclosed to your immediate manager and that is why you went to him. As in the management order of things an immediate manager would normally be party to such information.

[Rks2020]

Hi ,

I emailed it to him and have been doing this with selecting I'm confidence.

On the issue of me having MH issues in 2008 , i stated that i didn't have issues before , i had forgotten about this as its been a while and i didn't see it in my medical notes on line which are very brief. I do suffer from memory issues and it only became apparent to me when i received this SAR.
Does that mean i can not now state that i have issues with MH before ?
My previous episode may on the face of it lasted a feel months but incidents over last year and half have triggered MH again , so is do you think theb previous issue will now ignored or considered as an event that has likely reoccurred ?

Thanks

[ULA]

As I have already stated you can mention it but I cannot determine as to what consideration a Judge will make of the fact of a MH issue in 2008 with nothing in between until recently.

[Rks2020]

Ok thanks Ula