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Hello - I am at the beginning of a possible disability discrimination issue with my employer. I have worked for this employer for 5 years next month and for the last 2 and a half years in my recent post which requires visits to be done. I work full-time and I have a car that I use for my visits to our customers. Up until recently I had a 'patch', as do all my collegues who do the same job as me. The whole area of work is split in half with one half being referred to as South and the other one North. I worked in the South until just after Easter when I was transferred to the North as the then General Manager said it would be closer to where I lived to would be better for me to commute to. I checked the distance (driving) from my home to the furthest away street and it was 5 minutes less travel time than I was doing in the South. I began working in that area after the Easter holidays but soo realised that I had been split across two part-time patches (no other full-time colleague is - they all have their own decicated patch). These patches are a 15 minute drive away from each other and the 'fastest' route is by a strech of motorway that is always heavily conjested so you can add on 30 mins or more to the overall driving time.
My disability is that I have a benign tumour in my back that is a nerve tumour. This is quiet unless I do something that causes it to flare up and driving non-stop for too long does this. Also an accumluation of a lot of driving over a few days would also cause a flare up. On one day I got stuck in traffic on the motorway for about 40 mins and had been driving a lot earlier that day between the two patches, this of course caused a flare up and I have ended up with sciatica flaring up too. I quickly requested a change of patch to one that is vacant that is near my home and involves no motorway driving. I was sent for an Occupational Health Assessment and the result of that was the recommendation that I move to a patch closer to my home and that I did not do more than 60 minutes driving in one day. At first the new General Manager (the other one that put me in the problem patch has left for another role) said he had no problem with me changing patches and that I could do so shortly after my recent 2 weeks annual leave. I returned last Monday from my annual leave to find that this decision had been reversed and that I had to attend a formal meeting, the title of which was a 'Wellbeing Health Meeting'. I took a Union Rep with me and there was a young lady from HR, the new General Manager and my current line manager.
This new General Manager advised me that he had reversed his earlier decision because of the part in the Occ Health assessement that recommended I did no more than 60 mins a day driving. He said that from time to time everyone in my role maybe called upon to drive to an area that is as far away as you can get from one point to the other and he asked me how I would be able to do this if I had already done most of the 60 mins driving. I said that I didn't fully agree with this recommendation as, if I am driving on A roads I can stop and walk about to ease the pain until it stops and then I can carry on for a while longer but I also said that if I felt that I couldn't drive to a particular area I could get the bus.
The General Manager then said but what if it is an emergency we would want you there as soon as possible and it would take too long on the bus. I said I could get a taxi. He then asked me how I would meet the financial costs of buses and taxis or would I be expecting the firm to cover some or all of the cost. I pointed out that there is another colleague of mine that can no longer drive because of her disability and she gets taxis and buses which are paid for by the company and I told him that I know this because one of my earlier posts involved putting the invoices for the taxi fares through for payment every month. My line manager then said "But now it is an essential requirement in the job spec criteria for the role that you have to have a full UK driving licence and access to a car". No one told her that she was wrong about this and I wasn't sure so I kept quiet.
The General Manager then advised me that if I cannot drive across the whole district for them then they would be looking at re-deployment and if I didn't secure another post with them at the end of 8 weeks they would dismiss me on 'ill health grounds'. The end of the meeting it was decided that I go back to Occ Health for a 'more fine tuned assessment in terms of how long I can drive around for', which I had no choice but to agree to. I have since found the most recent job spec on the internet which they have used only last month to recruit a lot of new members of staff for the role that I do and the new General Manager was named on the advert as the person to contact for an informal chat about the role. This job spec has the 'UK driving licence and access to a car' as a desirable requirement and also it says that exceptions can be made for disabled applicants. There is also a cycle to work scheme. I do know of one colleague who is not disabled but doesn't drive at all and another one that cycles to work.
I feel that this is very unfair and that the new General Manager is trying to get rid of me because he sees me as not being able to do my job in terms of going to various locations as and when required and I think that he is going to try to disguise finishing me because of my disability by covering it over with 'ill health'. I have had this tumour now for 7 years and I am able to manager it very well and the recent flare up was caused by moving me without any consideration of my disability and I didn't think about it either as it was closer in theory to my home than the patch I had been working on for over 2 years with no issues around driving and my tumour.
I have emailed my Union Rep but she is on annual leave and I have rung the head office today for another Union Rep so that I can speak to them about the 'essential requirements of the post that are not actually essential' but I have not heard anything back yet.
Should I go to this Occ Health assessment or should I refuse and challenge both the General Manager and the line manager re the requirements of the post etc.
Is there anything that I am not seeing in the above? I only have A level law and didn't really cover Employment law and it is so long ago that I have forgotten most of it anyway.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
Thanks
My disability is that I have a benign tumour in my back that is a nerve tumour. This is quiet unless I do something that causes it to flare up and driving non-stop for too long does this. Also an accumluation of a lot of driving over a few days would also cause a flare up. On one day I got stuck in traffic on the motorway for about 40 mins and had been driving a lot earlier that day between the two patches, this of course caused a flare up and I have ended up with sciatica flaring up too. I quickly requested a change of patch to one that is vacant that is near my home and involves no motorway driving. I was sent for an Occupational Health Assessment and the result of that was the recommendation that I move to a patch closer to my home and that I did not do more than 60 minutes driving in one day. At first the new General Manager (the other one that put me in the problem patch has left for another role) said he had no problem with me changing patches and that I could do so shortly after my recent 2 weeks annual leave. I returned last Monday from my annual leave to find that this decision had been reversed and that I had to attend a formal meeting, the title of which was a 'Wellbeing Health Meeting'. I took a Union Rep with me and there was a young lady from HR, the new General Manager and my current line manager.
This new General Manager advised me that he had reversed his earlier decision because of the part in the Occ Health assessement that recommended I did no more than 60 mins a day driving. He said that from time to time everyone in my role maybe called upon to drive to an area that is as far away as you can get from one point to the other and he asked me how I would be able to do this if I had already done most of the 60 mins driving. I said that I didn't fully agree with this recommendation as, if I am driving on A roads I can stop and walk about to ease the pain until it stops and then I can carry on for a while longer but I also said that if I felt that I couldn't drive to a particular area I could get the bus.
The General Manager then said but what if it is an emergency we would want you there as soon as possible and it would take too long on the bus. I said I could get a taxi. He then asked me how I would meet the financial costs of buses and taxis or would I be expecting the firm to cover some or all of the cost. I pointed out that there is another colleague of mine that can no longer drive because of her disability and she gets taxis and buses which are paid for by the company and I told him that I know this because one of my earlier posts involved putting the invoices for the taxi fares through for payment every month. My line manager then said "But now it is an essential requirement in the job spec criteria for the role that you have to have a full UK driving licence and access to a car". No one told her that she was wrong about this and I wasn't sure so I kept quiet.
The General Manager then advised me that if I cannot drive across the whole district for them then they would be looking at re-deployment and if I didn't secure another post with them at the end of 8 weeks they would dismiss me on 'ill health grounds'. The end of the meeting it was decided that I go back to Occ Health for a 'more fine tuned assessment in terms of how long I can drive around for', which I had no choice but to agree to. I have since found the most recent job spec on the internet which they have used only last month to recruit a lot of new members of staff for the role that I do and the new General Manager was named on the advert as the person to contact for an informal chat about the role. This job spec has the 'UK driving licence and access to a car' as a desirable requirement and also it says that exceptions can be made for disabled applicants. There is also a cycle to work scheme. I do know of one colleague who is not disabled but doesn't drive at all and another one that cycles to work.
I feel that this is very unfair and that the new General Manager is trying to get rid of me because he sees me as not being able to do my job in terms of going to various locations as and when required and I think that he is going to try to disguise finishing me because of my disability by covering it over with 'ill health'. I have had this tumour now for 7 years and I am able to manager it very well and the recent flare up was caused by moving me without any consideration of my disability and I didn't think about it either as it was closer in theory to my home than the patch I had been working on for over 2 years with no issues around driving and my tumour.
I have emailed my Union Rep but she is on annual leave and I have rung the head office today for another Union Rep so that I can speak to them about the 'essential requirements of the post that are not actually essential' but I have not heard anything back yet.
Should I go to this Occ Health assessment or should I refuse and challenge both the General Manager and the line manager re the requirements of the post etc.
Is there anything that I am not seeing in the above? I only have A level law and didn't really cover Employment law and it is so long ago that I have forgotten most of it anyway.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
Thanks
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