Aspergers discrimination?

01megan

Hi all,

Hope you're well. I am having nightmares with employer. This has been the second occasion I have tried to book an appointment for Aspergers. They are aware of the condition and yet tell me it's either unpaid or must be taken as annual leave. I remember the first occasion I even had to book it off as annual leave to get the time off. This time due to not responding about wanting this as unpaid/annual leave (awaiting confirmation from HR on the policies) I have been told it will automatically be taken as annual leave ! This was within a 10 minute time frame. As you can imagine, HR have been elusive and not responding. Also, the HR lady only got the job as her aunt works there and no qualifications.

I just feel like employer is trying to force me out all the time knowing how hard employment is in covid. I can honestly have heard the most disgusting treatment regarding mental health. Manager also leaked an email about how the advisors were complaining about the pressures of the job...we are dealing with very vulnerable individuals - suicidal, physically unwell, mentally unwell and so it's unbelievable really.

I love helping the people and goodness knows we need key workers...but crikey, the management makes the good ones want to leave!

elsien

If it's a medical appointment and related to a disability, you can have the time off but there is no requirement for it to be paid. Whether it's reasonable to be paid or not depends on factors such as the size of the employer but it's not an absolute. And more specifically, what is an appointment for Aspergers? Who with, for what purpose, etc. 
I'm a little unclear about the question that you are asking - are you saying you want it unpaid rather than annual leave, or are you asking to be paid for the time? 
As an aside, how do you know what qualifications the HR person has? You might be better just sticking to the relevant facts. 

Manxman_in_exile

Isn't the question whether they treat medical appointments for other employees in the same way?  If everybody has to take unpaid leave or annual leave, is there necessarily any discrimination against the OP?  (I appreciate the frequency of appointments might start to raise issues if the OP needs a lot of them).

Diamandis

Either unpaid time or allowing you to take annual leave is perfectly normal for medical appointments. Why is this an issue? 

KatrinaWaves

I’m not sure what the first part of the post (medical appointments) has to do with the second (pressures of the job, mental health, and dealing with vulnerable clients)

The work you describe does sound high pressure and people are allowed to ‘complain’ about that. Not your place to police, and honestly allowing people a place to talk about that is helpful to their mental health. I’m honestly not sure at all what much of the second paragraph has to do with your needing leave to go to an appointment. 

Undervalued

Manxman_in_exile said:

Isn't the question whether they treat medical appointments for other employees in the same way?  If everybody has to take unpaid leave or annual leave, is there necessarily any discrimination against the OP?  (I appreciate the frequency of appointments might start to raise issues if the OP needs a lot of them).

Not entirely.

There is no direct obligation to treat all employees the same. There are certain protected grounds on which is is unlawful to discriminate (race, gender etc etc) but otherwise an employer can choose to give certain employees additional "perks".

If the OP's condition is a disability (for employment law purposes) then the employer must make reasonable adjustments. That might include being more flexible about time off than would be allowed for other staff. However it all depends on the circumstances, the size of the firm etc. Ultimately it would be for a employment tribunal to decide what is "reasonable".

There is no automatic right to time off, paid or unpaid, for routine medical appointments. Most decent employers allow some and many are very accommodating. However, taken literally and without a disability the employer can say no or insist on annual leave being used (which they can grant or refuse at their discretion provide the employee can take their leave at some point during the year).

Brynsam

01megan said:

I just feel like employer is trying to force me out all the time knowing how hard employment is in covid. 

Then it's probably not a good time to be cancelling your PIP: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6194050/closing-down-pip-claim#latest

A change of address isn't a good reason to cancel your claim. 

TBagpuss

OP, undervalued is correct - IF your Asperger's is classed as a disability then your employer should make reasonable adjustments for that disability, however, those would not automatically mean that they were required to give you paid time off for appointments  relating to it (If you think that this would be reasonable adjustment, then of course you can make a  specific request to be allowed to take that time as paid time off in addition to your annual leave, as an adjustment for your disability, however, unless you have a lot of additional medical appointments as a result of your Asperger's then it may well be perfectly reasonable for your employers o expect them to be taken just like any other medical appointment - i.e. using your annual leave or unpaid time off (it's also possible that allowing you to take unpaid leave instead if sing annual leave is already an adjustment - that depends on what your employer's policy on medical appointments is)

Have you explicitly spoken to your employers about whether your Aspergers is aa disability or asked for any particular accommodations?