Redundancy vs Medical Dismissal Payments

jdturk

nbedin wrote: »

Thanks. I'm not in a union - I never have been, never would out of choice; and it's a non-unionised environment.
What is an OP?
Thanks

OP=Original Poster

Uncertain

jdturk wrote: »

I'm not sure to be honest. If the injury had been caused by work then I could understand you being medically dismissed and recieving a payout (a compromised agreement)...however if you are just unable to do the job from an external reason then I would have thought they would dismiss you without a payout on capability grounds

I think the point that you are missing is that the DDA requires the employer to make "reasonable adjustments". The word reasonable has kept lawyers in business for centuries! No employer can be sure that they have done all that a court will find reasonable until it gets there. The potential award if they have not could be very substantial. Additionally, being found to have discriminated against the disabled leads to unwelcome publicity. In my experience most larger employers would rather reach a compromise agreement under these circumstances than take the risk.

This does not mean the amount agreed will be huge. If the employer is fairly certain of their case it may well be really quite small. The advantage for them is that it finally concludes the matter and keeps it confidential for a small(ish) known cost.

jdturk

Uncertain wrote: »

I think the point that you are missing is that the DDA requires the employer to make "reasonable adjustments". The word reasonable has kept lawyers in business for centuries! No employer can be sure that they have done all that a court will find reasonable until it gets there. The potential award if they have not could be very substantial. Additionally, being found to have discriminated against the disabled leads to unwelcome publicity. In my experience most larger employers would rather reach a compromise agreement under these circumstances than take the risk.

This does not mean the amount agreed will be huge. If the employer is fairly certain of their case it may well be really quite small. The advantage for them is that it finally concludes the matter and keeps it confidential for a small(ish) known cost.

You know I know about reasonableness in terms of DDA, but if the employer has done what it thinks is reasonable (and if they have the right advice from HR companies and follow everything they say) then they could dismiss someone with none or very little cost (ie admin time) cost.

We are on the opposite side of the line, I would defend the right to dismiss someone on capability reasons and wouldn't be scared of being taken to a tribunal as I would be a customer of a HR company and follow their advice whereas yourself you would prob go down the route of CA alot more.

Each to their own

Uncertain

jdturk wrote: »

We are on the opposite side of the line, I would defend the right to dismiss someone on capability reasons and wouldn't be scared of being taken to a tribunal as I would be a customer of a HR company and follow their advice whereas yourself you would prob go down the route of CA alot more.

Each to their own

I think you are debating what you feel to be "right" rather than the position under the law as it stands.

My advice to the OP is that they may quite possibly be able to get some kind of settlement for the reasons I indicted. That doesn't mean I necessarily agree with the concept as a matter of principle.

If the OP feels that the employer has been good to him / her then s/he may well not want to go down that route. That is the OP's choice.

I also meant to say, in response to your earlier post, it does not matter for the purposes of the DDA how the OP came about their injury / illness. Obviously if that was the fault of their employer then they may have a personal injury claim as well.

This works both ways of course, even if the firm were responsible for the illness / injury this doesn't increase their DDA obligations. However dismissing them would of course increase the value of their PI claim!

Strange world!