whose responsibility?

poet123

I work in a building with seven floors and which has a lot of disabled people in it at any one time. We have refuge points, and in the event of fire the fire crews carry their own evac chairs, so I doubt that your employer would have to buy one specially. You do need a plan for this eventuality though, and I hope you get it resolved to your satisfaction.

Takeaway_Addict

dori2o wrote: »

Ok, so I filled in the form, and sent it back to AtW and they got it on 6th September.

Just had this email back from them (**have edited it to remove identifying data)
I have forwarded a copy of this email to my employer to review.

Why don't they just move you down to the bottom floor then?

SueC_2

pickpocketlocket wrote: »

I would echo this - surely the pain caused in the short term would be far outweighed by still being alive?

Many years ago, as a hotel Duty Manager, I was responsible for carrying out an evacuation in the middle of the night.

As we stood outside waiting for the fire brigade to deal with the fire you'd have been amazed to hear how many guests came up to me and demanded "Do you realise how inconvenient it is to have my night's sleep disturbed like this". It was oh so tempting to reply "Probably slightly less inconvenient than it would have been to burn to death in your bed".

dori2o

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Why don't they just move you down to the bottom floor then?

They have for now, but I work in a contact centre and the telephone system isn't installed on the ground floor.

NB- They do have phones on the ground, it's not that primitive, but they're not connected to the incoming call centre system.

The only work on the ground floor is that of 1 grade below mine, although for the past 3 weeks I have been doing follow up work (typing out letters) for the contact centre.

I have researched evac chairs myself and have found a few that look as though they may be suitable. I suppose it will have to be a case of either getting in demo chairs, or going out to the manufacturer/retailer and trying them out.

I tried to argue for a refuge point, but the senior management aren't having any.

I have always been told by the h&s reps, and the fire warden that the stairwells have at least a 2 hour safety rating, meaning I could stay at the top of the stairwell until the fire brigade evacuated me. But the deputy manager reckons that is rubbish and won't accept that as a suitable answer to the problem.

I have asked for a move to a different government office. Where I will be able to stay at the grade I'm at, but work on the ground floor. An example would be the Job-centre. Or the HMRC enquiry centre, both of which are on the ground floors of their respective buildings, but they didn't seem too keen on that idea.

I'm off on holiday for a week anyway, so will have to see what happens when I get back. It's their problem until then.

Tiddlywinks

OP - when I started reading this thread I immediately recognised you from previous posts by your style of writing and bloody minded attitude.

You appear to think that you deserve and can demand extra special treatment because you have a disability - actually, your employer just has to make reasonable adjustments in order to level the field.

You have a union - use them.

You will have an Occ Health dept - use them.

You have a grievance process - use that.

Basically, use the systems available to you - you seem to always want to create barriers instead of working WITH your manager towards a solution.

You must be an absolute nightmare for a manager - can't you see that? Not because of your disability but because of your attitude.

antonic

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

OP - when I started reading this thread I immediately recognised you from previous posts by your style of writing and bloody minded attitude.

You appear to think that you deserve and can demand extra special treatment because you have a disability - actually, your employer just has to make reasonable adjustments in order to level the field.

You have a union - use them.

You will have an Occ Health dept - use them.

You have a grievance process - use that.

Basically, use the systems available to you - you seem to always want to create barriers instead of working WITH your manager towards a solution.

You must be an absolute nightmare for a manager - can't you see that? Not because of your disability but because of your attitude.

As discussed here : Cordell v FCO http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2011/0016_11_0510.html

Where a deaf person sued the Foreign & Commonwealth Office because the FCO refused to provide a lipreader because of the cost (approx £230,000.00 per annum) in Kazakhstan.

The FCO won the case because they proved that they had taken all reasonable steps to provide support.

dandelionclock30

I hope nobody has been put off employing someone disabled after reading this.
In the event of a real life evacuation, ie a fire or a gas leak, you would jump on the existing chair like theres no tommorrow. You wouldnt be there saying that it hurt your legs or whatever!. Do you remember people throwing themselves out of the twin towers? People will do what they can to get out and wont be moaning about discomfort in life threatening situations.
I could understand you moaning if the employer said they were not going to look at getting you further help. But they havent, they have just asked you to ring the appropriate place for an assessment.they probably have to get that signed off before they can release any money anyway.Surley its for both you and the employer to work together to get the matter sorted.
Its rare that I'll stick up for an employer -but they sound like there doing what they should be. You should count your blessings.

skintandscared_2

dori2o wrote: »

But that is not the point. The question I was asking is, Is it my responsibility as the disabled person to be doing all the running around on behalf of my employer?

Why shouldn't you do it? Who knows your disability and needs better than you? Presumably you're not being expected to the investigation in your own time? This is wholly in your interest and for your benefit so why would you object to finding out about the equipment that suits your needs? Surely that's more efficient than HR (who can't possibly be expected to know the needs of every disabled person or condition) sourcing different items that are not suitable for you.

antonic

Both me & the OP work for the same employer, in different buildings.

I have two disabilities, which are covered by the Equality Act 2010 but which fortunately are not as bad as the OP`s.

I have fully engaged with management about them ( had an Occupational Nurse visit me etc) and as a result I dont have a problem with them, perhaps the OP needs to do as DandelionClock30 says, because its a damn sight easier than fighting them.

As a postscript a disabled wheelchair using friend of mine, when are building closed was offered a move to a disabled compliant building because where we were moving to was not disabled compliant - they werent happy about leaving their friends behind BUT realised they were still in a job AND they were moving to a better building.

Perhaps thats something the OP needs to remember - you still have a job !

dori2o

Don't think I'll biother asking for help on here anymore considering I've been attacked by the majority of posters.

I may come across abrupt in my posts but I'm not.

I'm not an expert in these things, I asked for advice on what mine and the employers responsibilities are in this case.

All I want is to be able to do my job. A job that I am very good at and enjoy doing. I don't want to take more time off work sick because of a fire drill. Something that can be controlled. A real fire cannot be controlled, but a practice can. I'm not the only one who has this problem. the drill had to be done again because 4 other people refused to evacuate because of their disabilities. I went down the stairs and this resulted in 12 weeks off work.

I have told my employer I will happily go back to my role tomorrow and stuff the assessments etc etc, but they won't have it.

It's not my fault I'm like this, neither is it theirs, and in a real fire I might make it out on my own, but that is a completely different scenario to when it's a test. I know when it's a test because I get told the time of it on the day it is due.

I've been to the Union. Thats why I'm on the ground floor, and why I'm at least doing contact centre work.

We don't have an internal Occ Health dept, we use ATOS, who don't apparently do face to face interviews on site, or anywhere else. They do telephone consultations. I have one booked for the 24th September and have had 3 other in the past 12 months.

As for the grievance procedure, I as yet don't have a grievance. I was asking a question on here, and instead of getting a civil reply I got abuse, even after I accepted that it was my responsibility and made the call to AtW.

Anyway, I won't bother updating this thread anymore. If I want abuse, then as a benefit claimant, I'll stick to DT.