Equality Act?

[NaToth]

I have seen occupational health this afternoon. There are no reasonable adjustments that can be made to prevent me from having attacks of variant angina, so I was hoping that I would be in a position where, if I had time off because of this, I would be covered by the Equality Act.

The assessor told me that I would not be covered because I have only had my diagnosis since August, although I have had symptoms since 2011and was consistently fobbed off by GP during those seven years.

This doesn't sound right to me. My condition is incurable and won't even be manageable until my triggers are firmly identifiable. I have attacks of crushing chest pain that occur without warning, even if I am at work. and the medication I take makes me feel very unwell for at least twenty four hours after an attack..

Sorry, posted too soon.

Anyone?

Are you asking for opinions on whether or not your condition would count as a disability? Here’s the definition which you’ve probably seen.
But your best bet is to get your own doctor’s view, if you disagree with the OH assessment. If your GP or other doctor feels it is a disability, and has a long term and substantial impact on your ability to carry out normal day to day activities, you could ask him/her to write to your employer stating that.

I don’t know if you are a union member but if you are I’d suggest you talk with them too

Hope you get a positive resolution

It sounds like your condition is unpredictable and therefore at any point you could have an angina attack which involves time off.

At some point, even for people with a disability protected under the Equality Act from discrimination, a lot of time off will affect employment. Equality Act does not protect you from your employer deciding to take things down the capability route, if they maintain you've taken x days off in a calendar year and your absence has adversely affected your ability to do your job, and your duties being covered by relief staff who will have to pick up the slack That's unfortunately the nature and challenge of a long term condition like you have.

The priority is your health including the right meds. I hope your diagnosis now enables your GP to recommend alternative medication that may enable your quality of life to improve. Sounds like your current meds may not be the right ones.

That a tough one. Did you suggest any reasonable adjustments or are any possible?

I think they are wrong about the diagnosis being recent - if you are saying its a form of disability (sounds like it could be) then the diagnosis isn't strictly speaking necessary, it just makes it easier to prove it's more than your opinion. The following article might help if you haven't come across it yet:

www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/tucfiles/sickness_absence_and_disability_discrimination_feb2013.pdf

Thanks. It seems I had misunderstood.

What did you misunderstand??

Covered for what exactly?

If you mean will you be able to take unlimited time off without consequence, unfortunately this is not what the equality act is designed to do. The equality act is there to protect but it also does seek to ensure that the business can continue to operate economically.

From what I recall from my own enquiries into absence due to disability being discounted as a reasonable adjustment, I think there is case law that says that this is not "reasonable". Extending trigger points is though, would they consider that? Although if you've had 3 months off and the trigger point is 5 days, then extending it to 10 isn't really going to help as from the evidence to hand you might need 3 months off. (All timescales picked at random for example purposes)

I'm not an employment specialist, this is info I found out when I wanted to see if I could have the same adjustment.

I believed from what I'd been told previously, that if i declared a long term health condition I would be protected. They can't make any adjustments for me. It's office work and not unduly taxing.

To be covered I think the condition has to have been for at least 3 months and on going for 9 months post dx

If you have a long term health condition which constitutes a disability you would be protected by the Equality Act and your employer would have to make reasonable adjustments. However you said there aren’t any adjustments they can make anyway?

You are protected in that the employer has to be seen to make it so that you can do your job equally with other people. It doesn't exempt you from usual absence management procedures or that they have to ignore any absence that arises as a result of your disability.

What sort of adjustments have been considered? There's things like extra flexibility around your working hours, so that if you miss a few hours because you're ill you have the scope to make up the time. Or changing to part time hours for the same reason. There must be others who work with the same condition - could the British Heart Foundation maybe help with ideas for adjustments?

I spoke with the union rep who confirms that this condition is covered by the Equality Act and that I need to be assessed by our Health and Safety team. I'm very disappointed that Occupational Health have given me incorrect information.

My position may be untenable anyway. In the last month I have been lied to by one colleague, told to go and fuck myself by another in the hearing of service users and told how to do my job by yet another, in a meeting involving people from another team. Nothing is being done about any of this.

Being covered by the Equality Act does not make you untouchable. It means they need to look at reasonable adjustments, it doesn’t mean they have to accept a high level of absenteeism. The act is about fairness but it also respects the right of a business to operate economically.