Constructive dismissal due to disability, where can I get some free advice?

Lum

mynameistallulah wrote: »

Was she given the opportunity to take someone with her to the meeting?

Assuming she is still within the appeal period, I would appeal on the grounds that it would (arguably) be reasonable to allow a transition period.

Still within the appeal period. I'm trying to come up with a letter for her to send now.

However she's now being disciplined on capability grounds.

Only option of someone to take with her is either a co-worker or a union representative, and she's not in a union. I can't go with her, for example.

BobQ

Lum wrote: »

Still within the appeal period. I'm trying to come up with a letter for her to send now.

However she's now being disciplined on capability grounds.

Only option of someone to take with her is either a co-worker or a union representative, and she's not in a union. I can't go with her, for example.

Lum, I can see this is stressful but you do need to try and be objective about this.

You say getting up earlier is like asking someone with a disability to keep climbing stairs. This is also not logical. Your partner can (or could) get up and get moving with help and could manage to get to work at a given time. They are not asking her to do anything she was not doing before, whatever difficulties it posed. They are asking her to get there earlier not change what she is doing. Your analogy is therefore illogical.

OK she is not in a union and of course a non-employee cannot attend but she could have asked a colleague who would have had the benefit of being more objective than you. Did she ask for this? Was it refused (which would be illegal)?

Some comments here may seem harsh but are for your own good. The employer may or may nor be being unfair, difficult to judge, but your partner needs to approach this objectively. A lot of the points you are making about the impact on finances and the difficulties she is overcoming are not relevant to a disciplinary matter.

The Bradford Index suggests that this is not a recent situation. If she has a high score it would appear she has had lots of time off or been late lots of times. Its possible this employer is being unfair and acting outside of the law or assuming that your partner will not do anything about it, but otherwise there has to be more to this case.

Has your partner formally objected to any action that the company is not taking or is taking that relates to a reasonable adjustment? That is have they done all she has asked?

I have twice before suggested that you may get more advice on the Employment thread, not sure what you think of this but you appear not to see it as helpful. Your partner is in a disciplinary situation unless you can show disability discrimination. Hence you need advice in this area.

Lum

BobQ wrote: »

Lum, I can see this is stressful but you do need to try and be objective about this.

You say getting up earlier is like asking someone with a disability to keep climbing stairs. This is also not logical. Your partner can (or could) get up and get moving with help and could manage to get to work at a given time. They are not asking her to do anything she was not doing before, whatever difficulties it posed. They are asking her to get there earlier not change what she is doing. Your analogy is therefore illogical.

Wikipedia wrote:

Fibromyalgia (FM or FMS) is a medical disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain and allodynia, a heightened and painful response to pressure. Fibromyalgia symptoms are not restricted to pain, leading to the use of the alternative term fibromyalgia syndrome for the condition. Other symptoms include debilitating fatigue, sleep disturbance, and joint stiffness. Some patients may also report difficulty with swallowing, bowel and bladder abnormalities, numbness and tingling, and cognitive dysfunction.

The key points here being debilitating fatigue, joint stiffness and cognitive dysfunction. The change to the hours is making all of these significantly worse, in particular it is bringing the cognitive issues inside of working hours where previously these did not happen until the evening. They are now using those same cognitive issues as grounds for a disciplinary on capability grounds since she has actually managed to start complying with the new hours.

OK she is not in a union and of course a non-employee cannot attend but she could have asked a colleague who would have had the benefit of being more objective than you. Did she ask for this? Was it refused (which would be illegal)?

I don't think she asked for a co-worker to be there.

The Bradford Index suggests that this is not a recent situation. If she has a high score it would appear she has had lots of time off or been late lots of times. Its possible this employer is being unfair and acting outside of the law or assuming that your partner will not do anything about it, but otherwise there has to be more to this case.

The Bradford score is mostly related to migraines

Has your partner formally objected to any action that the company is not taking or is taking that relates to a reasonable adjustment? That is have they done all she has asked?

She has objected to the change in hours.

mynameistallulah

Lum wrote: »

Still within the appeal period. I'm trying to come up with a letter for her to send now.

However she's now being disciplined on capability grounds.

Only option of someone to take with her is either a co-worker or a union representative, and she's not in a union. I can't go with her, for example.

No help now but for future reference, you could have argued that it would be a reasonable adjustment for a carer, or someone from a relevant professional organisation, to accompany her to a disciplinary hearing. Again it depends on the individual situation, but there is precedent to that effect.

I do agree with BobQ, as much as you are trying to help it seems that you are too close to the situation to be constructive. Does she have a support worker or someone else that can give a more detached view?

mynameistallulah

Are the migraines related to her FMS?

Lum

She does not have a support worker. I don't even know how you would go about getting one.

I actually ran this story by my own boss, in greater detail than I have gone into here, and my boss agrees that someone is obviously out to get her. The advisor at the CAB also agrees, but he was not an employment specialist.

GlasweJen

It doesn't matter if they're out to get her, you have to play the game if you want to keep her job.

I've had a spell of ME (fixed when I had a pacemaker fitted) and I'm now paralysed from the middle of my back down. When I had ME it would have been hard to climb 6 flights of stairs but if someone held a gun to me I could have done it, in my current state my dad had to rescue me when the lift in my apartment block broke down. Your analogy is actually quite insulting.

Getting a support worker won't help now, you need to find a way to get your wife to work until whatever's going on blows over. No more days off for migraines, no more 5 minutes late here and there and if this isn't do-able you need to seriously ask yourselves if this job is viable?

There has been some really good advice on here. I would still contact access to work, they're the government, the work can't refuse to acknowledge them! They might not agree to their adjustments but they can't just disregard the DWP. Like I say it's not about adjustments and their advisors can give advice to both employers and employees with the aim of keeping disabled people in work.

Lum

The lateness is now a resolved issue. She is getting into work on time. This is (I believe) why they are now going after her on capability grounds as a result of the state she was in on Friday after suffering through a week of early starts with no adjustment or break in period.

Apologies for the analogy. What I was trying to get at was that doing such a thing might be possible, but would cause unreasonable levels of pain and discomfort to the person forced to do this.

I have had to perform similar(ish) rescues, for example one time when the fatigue was so bad that her head fell back in such a way that it cut off her breathing and she was unable to communicate that anything was wrong.

I will ask her to contact Access to work though. Thank you.

OneYorkshireLass

Hi Lum

When I was in a similar situation regarding reasonable adjustments I found the Equality and Human Rights Commission very helpful. They have advice lines for England/Scotland/Wales on their homepage.

I found ACAS not very helpful at all.

Lum

^^^ I agree on ACAS not being very helpful. I will call the equality and human rights commission in the morning.

Can I PM any of you the proposed grievance letter than I am working on. It may make things clearer, but I am unwilling to post it in a public forum. I fear I may have already posted too much.