Disability Discrimination

[Stillo]

Good Evening

May i please ask foor some advice as i am seriously worried as to what may happen to me with my employers, i work in the transport industry and as you can imagine having a good field of vision is essnetial, my problem is i have partial sight and i am registered as partiallly sighted and up to now my employers have been fantadtic and accomodated my in to my current position retaing my salary.

I have over the last few months been suffering with a decline in my vision and i have been informend that within the next 10 years i can expect to have no useful vision i find i am struggling in my current post and i have applied for a vacant position that will put me in a safer environment, i have asked for reasonable adjustments to be made but the reply i got from the most senior manager was the position is open to everyone on an equal basis and they wish me well in my application ,as they have not accepted that i have asked for reasonable adjusrtments i have withdrawmn my application as i cannot compete on an equal basis and i have askefd them to arranger a medical review which is to be this Friday, i am pretty sure i will be stood down due to my visual disability and i fear i may be forced to accept ill health payoff, can i make a claim a for disability discrimination as with adjustments i could have carried out the post advertised without any problems at all

Regards
David

[matt3942]

Re: Disability Discrimination

Hi [MENTION=36391]Stillo[/MENTION]

I'm not sure you may ask for reasonable adjustments to be made for a job you don't actually have. If you had continued with your application and been successful your employer would then have had to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate you.

IMO - based on the information you've provided - you haven't been discriminated against.

Perhaps someone else may disagree but in the meantime I wish you all the best with your medical review.

- Matt

[stevemLS]

Re: Disability Discrimination

I agree with Matt.

Whilst you have the right to reasonable adjustments to an existing job, that doesn't extend to giving you a different job.

Some employers may consider redeployment but they are not obliged to. It was a mistake to withdraw your application for the other job, can you ask for it to be reinstated?

What adjustments to your existing job have you asked for and why is there doubt about whether you have asked for them?

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Disability Discrimination

Good Evening

May i please ask foor some advice as i am seriously worried as to what may happen to me with my employers, i work in the transport industry and as you can imagine having a good field of vision is essnetial, my problem is i have partial sight and i am registered as partiallly sighted and up to now my employers have been fantadtic and accomodated my in to my current position retaing my salary.

I have over the last few months been suffering with a decline in my vision and i have been informend that within the next 10 years i can expect to have no useful vision i find i am struggling in my current post and i have applied for a vacant position that will put me in a safer environment, i have asked for reasonable adjustments to be made but the reply i got from the most senior manager was the position is open to everyone on an equal basis and they wish me well in my application ,as they have not accepted that i have asked for reasonable adjusrtments i have withdrawmn my application as i cannot compete on an equal basis and i have askefd them to arranger a medical review which is to be this Friday, i am pretty sure i will be stood down due to my visual disability and i fear i may be forced to accept ill health payoff, can i make a claim a for disability discrimination as with adjustments i could have carried out the post advertised without any problems at all

There is a duty to make reasonable adjustments for a candidate applying for a job when they are required for the purpose of the recruitment process, for example if you had to attend an interview at another location, they'd have to make sure you were able to access the interview room. That's why you often find such questions on job applications, however, it looks like in this case there was no need for special adjustments to be made in order for you to apply for the job as such. If you had been offered the job, then there would have been a duty to make reasonable adjustments to allow you to carry out your job.

What made you think you cannot compete on an equal basis?

[Stillo]

Re: Disability Discrimination

Good Morning

Due to my limited eysight i can no longer work in the place i do now due to the lighting conditions, the lighting conditions cannot be altered due to it being a mainline station and i feel i will have to be re located, there are very very few posts i can do within my industry and to be perfectly honest i think i was clutching at straws the time has come for me to be let go on ill health,i was just trying to hold on as long as possible.

3 years ago i was in the department that the vacancy exists in doing a different role when a re organisation took place i was the only person who could carry out my particular role and i was dispalced with a severe eye condition that affects both eyes and my role given to someone else in the same department who i had to train to carry out my duties which nearly left me unemployable until i saw a so;licitor who thought i had grounds for disability discrimination, as soon as i mentioned this everything possible was done to find me a role which is my present role,had i been left in my last role i would now not be in this position.

I know from what happenend 3 years ago i would not be given any chance of getting the position i applied for so there was no point in going any further, i will see what happens at my medical and go from there, thank you for your replies it is very much apprecieated

Cheers
Stillo

[stevemLS]

Re: Disability Discrimination

I wish you the very best of luck.

[cupidstunt]

Re: Disability Discrimination

I would say the manager needs retraining, a disabled person ( eq act 2010) does not have to be on an equal footing.

You could tell your employer the circumstances and ask that you be given the vacant position without competitive interview.

People without full knowledge of the equality act will think it unfair to non disabled persons .

Has your employer conceded to you having a disability under the eq act 2010,

[matt3942]

Re: Disability Discrimination

I would say the manager needs retraining, a disabled person ( eq act 2010) does not have to be on an equal footing.

You could tell your employer the circumstances and ask that you be given the vacant position without competitive interview.

People without full knowledge of the equality act will think it unfair to non disabled persons .

Has your employer conceded to you having a disability under the eq act 2010,

An applicant with a disability does have to be on an equal footing with other applicants. The purpose of making reasonable adjustments is to ensure that disabled applicants have the same (equal) opportunity as non-disabled applicants. It is not to give disabled applicants an unfair advantage.

The employer is not obligated to offer the vacant position without a competitive selection process.

- Matt

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Disability Discrimination

I would say the manager needs retraining, a disabled person ( eq act 2010) does not have to be on an equal footing.

You could tell your employer the circumstances and ask that you be given the vacant position without competitive interview.

People without full knowledge of the equality act will think it unfair to non disabled persons .

Has your employer conceded to you having a disability under the eq act 2010,

Indeed that's not the case, s.13(3) of the Equality Act states that treating people with a disability more favourably than those who are not disabled does not constitute direct discrimination: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/13

(3)If the protected characteristic is disability, and B is not a disabled person, A does not discriminate against B only because A treats or would treat disabled persons more favourably than A treats B.

[cupidstunt]

Re: Disability Discrimination

Indeed that's not the case, s.13(3) of the Equality Act states that treating people with a disability more favourably than those who are not disabled does not constitute direct discrimination: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/13

Is that not what I said ? the manager is stating the above to be untrue.

Also a reasonable adjustment under the act is to allow a person with a protected characteristic to not have to undergo a competitive interview .

Also bear in mind the case where a non disabled police officer was removed from his post to allow a disabled person to have his job.

[cupidstunt]

Re: Disability Discrimination

Sorry Parrot, reading this again, I think you may have been pointing out to Matt, that he is mistaken.

[matt3942]

Re: Disability Discrimination

Thank you both.

Please note that what I actually said was the employer is not obliged to offer the vacant position without a competitive interview. The reasonableness of doing so is for the employer to determine after taking various factors into consideration, which clearly we are not privy to.

- Matt

[cupidstunt]

Re: Disability Discrimination

The employer would have to be careful as not providing a reasonable adjustment would lead them to disability discrimination.

A tribunal would decide whether it was a reasonable adjustment not the employer.

[matt3942]

Re: Disability Discrimination

Again, whether the employer has acted in a discriminatory way depends on the reasonableness of the adjustment. I disagree with your second statement - initially the employer determines what it considers reasonable in the circumstances. An ET may then confirm whether the adjustments were in fact reasonable.

- Matt

[cupidstunt]

Re: Disability Discrimination

I give up...................

The manager in the original post is not aware of the eq act and needs training.

The Op needs to study the eq act and not take notice of the one line answers given on here.

A good book on the subject is disability discrimination by karen jackson and linda banerjee.

Also a study into past cases will help.

Chief constable of south yorkshire v Jelic (2010) irlr 744 (eat) is a good start.

Firstly has the Employer conceded that the OP has a disability that is the main hurdle.

I'm not going to continue offering advice or adding to this post, I have said what position the OP is in, if he chooses to listen to false info then so be it.

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