disability discrimination? Anyone in the know ? Please ?

[feindVicarInATutu]

I feel like I should know this !

I'm a police officer who has been assigned a desk job due to osteoarthritis. However a flair up 6 months ago means I've not been able to drive more than a few miles , as my knee ankle and foot have swollen causing mobility issues.

My role can be performed at home so for 6 months I've been wfh. Now despite an occy health report stating I should be accommodated to continue wfh work are insisting I drive in - it's a 40 min drive each way and last time I drove that far I could t walk for 2 days .
It's not that I don't want to get into the office - but I've been told that if the condition now affects my ability to get in I will have to go off sick which renders me liable to disciplinary action.

I've asked about medical retirement- answer was no because you can work remotely ! But they're refusing to allow me to work remotely after next week !

Realistically this is a degenerative condition. I've had steroid injections, physio, but nothing is working. I know the minute I'm compelled to drive this distance and use my leg at work it WILL flair up and swell - even walking a short distance causes swelling pain and inflammation.

I've contacted the federation for advice but wondered if there's any disability employment lawyers out there that can advise - I'm at risk of losing my job if I can't get into the office . My job can be undertaken remotely but they are refusing to allow that now despite having done it for 6 months. I hate being bound to a desk - but I'm stuck as can't do the fitness test- knelt down to take a meter reading and had to crawl to car on hands and knees to get up again ....so not much use frontline at min .

Just to establish facts:

• Occupational Health have written a report recommending you be allowed to WFH as a reasonable adjustment for your disability.

• Your job can be performed WFH - presumably this would not have adverse impact on operational need and performance, otherwise OH wouldn’t have recommended continued WFH? Is there any negative impact on others or the outcomes of your work itself if you continue WFH?

• Your management are refusing to allow you to WFH despite this having been recommended by OH as a reasonable adjustment for your disability.

Employers have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments. If they are failing to make reasonable adjustments, and there is no way of them framing that failure as a “proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”, then yes, they are discriminating against you due to disability. Your union rep should be rubbing their hands with glee at such a nice straightforward bit of casework.

If your manager refuses to back down, please be conscious that, if you want to issue a tribunal claim (fairly straightforward if the facts are as above), you have three months less one day from the date of the last act of discrimination. A tribunal panel would want to see you have done everything a reasonable person would to try and get this resolved, and it sounds like you’re doing that - but please do get some assistance to challenge your manager’s intransigence in the face of the OH report.

The EHRC website is a great source of information about workplace discrimination, and the guides for employers and employees are very useful. You may also want to review the EHRC statutory code of practice for employers to check whether your employer is acting in line with that (doesn’t sound like they are, but that will likely be dependent on more detail than you should share online) - and have a look over your workplace’s policies on disability and sickness, and ensure they’re following their own policies.

If you are unable to drive because of the impact of your condition, it may be worth asking your GP or consultant to write you a letter confirming this. That would stop your manager insisting you drive to the office. However, it would be notifiable to the DVLA, and your licence would be suspended, so you would really want to be sure about the not driving.

Finally, if you do not have a current or pending claim for PIP, please consider applying, as it seems you would likely meet the criteria for an award. Being in receipt of PIP can act as a gateway to other help for disability (disabled railcard, for example) - or if you are still able to drive a short while, you may be able to use a PIP award to lease a car adapted for your drivability, which would restore your independence.

Good luck. This must be stressful for you, and of course stress can exacerbate autoimmune conditions.

Excellent advice from @OhTinyBear

Thank you sooooo much for that info !

I rang the federation today and am waiting on them to reply .

I'm expected to go in next Weds for one day , 2 days the week after and then 3 days the week after that then be back on full shifts.
I've emailed my manager saying it's not that I don't WANT to be in the office - but driving has a massive impact on my mobility- I haven't been able to drive more than a few miles for 6 months and I pointed out that if my mobility is affected that has a knock on affect on my rest days for food shopping etc .

My current role could be 100% performed while wfh - all I need is a laptop and phone both of which I have - they haven't utilised teams but that's on them - they could !

I second that PIP claim, and hopefully you get the levels required to receive a motability car with adaptations, such as hand controls as opposed to using foot pedals.

See an occupational therapist for aids to assist your mobility both at home and away. You may need a cane, or walker with seat to rest in for short walks, and or a wheelchair for longer distances outdoors. Hand rails and bath or shower aids etc.

See a pain specialist if you are struggling to get on top of your pain with GP and Rheumatologist. Join online support groups with others who have your condition, or chronic pain and disability in general. It’s important you prioritise your emotional and mental health too, and it helps to relate or vent to others who know exactly what it’s like for you and offer practical and emotional support.

Keep a diary of your pain, symptoms and how they affect you, the knock on effect on every single aspect of your life, work and relationships. Same to keep copies of any correspondence and note what is being said and done by your work.

I feel for you, it’s so unfair. I hope you get an outcome that suits you in the long run.

Just a quick correction to myself - based on your description of your flare symptoms I’d assumed rheumatoid arthritis, but you said osteo - sorry about that!

Either way, although your condition fluctuates, you cannot perform the activity in question (commuting) reliably, repeatedly, and safely - i.e. without it having an adverse impact on your symptoms, chiefly causing you increased pain levels and subsequent decreased mobility. It’s certainly a disability legally, based on what you’ve said here, and it seems that Occupational Health recognise that too.

Do you happen to know if management at your workplace receive any training on disability and how to make reasonable adjustments? I would certainly want to know if your manager had completed any relevant management training on disability, or whether your manager had sought advice from an HR advisor knowledgeable about disability and equality. I would be surprised if an expert advisor would suggest attempting to overrule an OH report, especially when disability is a factor.

Another point I wanted to add: it might be helpful for you to be able to show a few comparator WFH jobs to your manager to help benchmark expectations. In your shoes, I would try to find some job ads for similar roles to yours that are in a WFH capacity, and would save the adverts in case you need to be able to evidence that other forces or service areas are making WFH arrangements work for some staff regardless of disability. (archive dot ph is useful for saving online pages, but I would always save the page as a PDF as well when gathering evidence, for ease of sharing).

They should pay for you to have hand controls for your car. Some adaptions are expensive, but some are quite simple.

Ie if it is your left leg only then you can have a, well it's a sort of paddle that means you use your right leg instead.

Or the pedals can be changed so you use your hands instead.

There are a couple of places around the country where you can go and try out different adaptions.

www.drivingmobility.org.uk/find-a-centre/

Find your local one in the link and book yourself in.

Why do they say you need to return to the office, have they given rationale for why the adjustment suggested by occupational health is not reasonable?

Access to Work could pay for taxis if you are not able to either drive or use public transport. Why not make an AtW application?
Definitely apply for PIP for help to get a blue badge and disabled railcard.
Are you in a union? I was. Won my discrimination case with their help.
You should submit a formal grievance to HR about failure to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010. Make it clear in your grievance that you meet the legal definition of disability. You have an OH report that is being ignored and you have been refused medical retirement as an alternative.
Things should start to happen if you make a grievance and if not, the grievance will be evidence should you take it further.
Any lawyer would tell you always do the formal grievance route first.

I second @CrabbitBastard make an application to access to work (ATW), the wait times are horrific but you can at least demonstrate you are doing all you can to explore options to get into work.
I had a colleague who was blind so could not drive, didn't live near public transport so taxis were paid for, the taxis cost more than he earned so don't assume cost is a barrier - if an ATW application is successful you could propose being in the office a day or two a week and work from home in a hybrid model.

Contact EASS and ACAS. They have template letters. Use these to officially request reasonable adjustments.

PLEASE, don't do anything until you have detailed advice from the Police Federation. Although you are still covered by the Equality Act 2010 most of the advice given to you here is for EMPLOYEES, and you are not an employee, you are a crown servant. The law therefore differs enormously and advice is highly specialised in this area. If you haven't had a response yet then phone the Federation again today and ask them what to do. Don't do anything until they tell you the best approach.

@Quveas the Crown is bound by the work provisions (part 5) of the Equality Act, and additionally the Public Sector Equality Duty - this is written in the Act itself.

Fed rep should be able to deal with this no problem, but if not then @feindVicarInATutu has recourse to the usual remedies.

Yes I am aware of that which is why I said that the OP is still covered by the Equality Act. However they are not covered by employment law generally and since most of the advice above relates to employees and not crown servants then I am pointing out that they should follow the advice of the Police Federation and not, for example, contact ACAS (can't help) or download and use templates which may be entirely inappropriate. But thank you for pointing out that I already said it.

Thanks I've contact the fed .

Probably best not to say to them that going into the office then means you can't do things like the food shop on your days off. That just makes it sound like you can drive and walk around when you want to. I know that's not the case but if your employer is already being so awkward they will look for any excuse to get rid of you.