HR

[NameChange101113]

I was given a letter to attend Stage 3 meeting regarding absences due to my disabilities, where it stated I could potentially be dismissed. I asked the HR officer if I should resign, since I’d probably end up being dismissed anyway.

She re-assured me that I wouldn’t be dismissed because if the employer wanted to dismiss me, he’d call me “into his office and do it that way.”

Long story short, I ended up being dismissed. I feel so stupid for believing the HR officer. I feel so wronged that she told me I wouldn’t be dismissed, then ended up having my contract terminated immediately.

Do I have any grounds to attend a tribunal for that issue with HR? I’ve already decided that I’m going to make a tribunal claim for disability discrimination anyway (for other reasons that I haven’t mentioned).

I had worked there for 3 years btw.

Bump

How much sickness had you had over 12 months?

Had you been referred to occupational health & reasonable adjustments suggested before it got to stage 3?

Did you take a union rep with you to the stage 3 meeting?

A disability doesn’t mean you can stay in your job forever, regardless of sick time etc. As long as they followed the process of reasonable adjustment and occupational health and all the steps required to “manage you out” then they haven’t done anything wrong.

You can’t just keep a job but not do the work and claim disability discrimination.

Maybe there is something in there about the HR person telling you not to resign as you weren’t being dismissed, but it might be better to use that to negotiate better reference terms to allow you to get a new job (one you can actually do).

I had nine days off due to being ill in 12 months. I was hospitalised (was rushed in via ambulance) for two of those days.

My union said they didn’t have enough time to send a rep out because I was only given the stage 3 letter two days before the meeting.

So I ended up having a colleague in attendance, rather than a union rep.

What other meetings/written reports led up to the stage 3 meeting/dismissal?

Who was present apart from you at previous meetings, what exactly was said (and more importantly written)?

It would be professional suicide for any company to dismiss someone like that, out of the blue, particularly for absences/if the person has a protected characteristic.

What form did the other disciplinary meetings take?

I know that, like I said other forms of disability discrimination happened too. I’m not going to mention them as they’re potentially outing.

X posted.

You haven't been dismissed for 9 days sick leave in 12 months. What was your sick record like in the other 2 years and did you have any written concerns about it on your record?

Annual appraisals? What were they like?

Adjustments for your disability?

I had stage 1 and 2 meetings in 2022 and 2023

Thats such a stupid thing for a HR person to say, for many reasons, I doubt anyone would believe you tbh op 😔

It wouldn't change anything as you could have still offered to resign during the meeting anyway, but the employer can still decide to go through the disciplinary. they often do this so they can demonstrate a fair process was followed and the disciplinary was justified in the first place, especially if they feel there is a risk involved. And resigning before a disciplinary could look like you know it was "a fair cop" so could weaken any claim (although if clear evidence of discrimination, probably not)

Seven days, sorry*

Do they have anything in their policy about how long they monitor absences for? Bringing up absences from 2 years ago is highly unlikely to be considered fair.

Do they know about your disability? Any occ health assessments done?

Have you been offered the opportunity to appeal in the outcome of disciplinary letter?

You need to get a copy of your company's disciplinary process and make sure they have followed it.

Giving you two days notice to attend this meeting is not sufficient, especially as your union rep was not available. You should have requested an alternative date. As you didn't, I would appeal against the outcome on the basis that they didn't give you enough time to get a representative to accompany you. You can add that the reason you didn't request another date that the rep could attend is because you were advised by HR that the outcome wouldn't be dismissal.

Disciplinary hearings are not meant to have a foregone conclusion, as they could then be automatically unfair. It's going to be your word against HR's though, but you can use that as reason for your appeal also.

You need to appeal against the decision to terminate you before you start a tribunal claim, an ET would look to see that the internal process has been completed. If they didn't offer you the chance to appeal then they aren't complying with the ACAS code of conduct. Here's some information about appeals:

https://www.acas.org.uk/appealing-a-disciplinary-or-grievance-outcome

Ah so you were given 7 days notice of the hearing and not 2 days? In which case that is sufficient notice.

You still could have requested another date due to your rep not being available though.

I had stage 1 and 2 meetings due to significant mental health issues.

My stage 3 meeting was due to one absence (two days) regarding symptoms of a diagnosed mental illness. My second absence (two days) was due to being taken into hospital,

In terms of reasonable adjustments, I was allowed to use a fidget toy in the office.

As I said, there was other instances of disability discrimination (not due to my absences), but I’m not going to explain them as it’s potentially outing

That’s such a good point. I’ll check the sickness policy now.

I was given two days notice.

Sorry - I thought your correction above was changing the two days to seven days.

As such, my advice stands then. Two days notice to attend a stage 3 disciplinary is not sufficient. What does your disciplinary policy say about notice of meetings?

I’ve been through this as a manager & got to stage 3 with an employee. It took a year & we had numerous stage 1 meetings, OH referrals & reasonable adjustments before we even got to stage 2. Everything was documented & meetings were constantly rearranged to accommodate the employees union rep to attend. After that we looked at redeployment, that was a no go, so we went to stage 3 & I alongside HR had to write a very detailed report to the director to ascertain if the company could sustain this level of sickness from an employee. The answer was no so they were medically retired.

So either this company have not followed policy & have potentially acted unlawfully or there’s relevant info missing.

We’re you fired specifically because of sickness days? Or are there other issues with your work (which could not be resolved with reasonable adjustments). And the adjustments do have to be reasonable, they can’t change the job descriptions completely or give you significantly less work than other people in your role etc.

I have the documentation in front of me now.

In terms of the Stage 1 and Stage 2 meetings, I had time off due to my mental illnesses (symptoms relating to those) (March 23) and an absence regarding a sinus infection (Oct 23).

Regarding my Stage 3 meeting, it has listed my two days off due to being hospitalised (Nov 23) and another two days off due to symptoms relating to my disabilities (April 24).

I have already appealed, but they upheld their decision.

There isn't actually a set notice required but it needs to be reasonable to give you time to prepare, it all depends how complex it is/how much evidence there is to go through. Ultimately it would be an ET that would decide if the notice given was enough. 48hrs is the generally accepted bare minimum. Unless as pp says their policy states something different.

If you appeal I'd go down the route of you didn't realise you could have asked for more time for union rep to be available. although invite letters would usually state something like "please let us know if you have any difficulties attending", if it did then they could say they did inform you that you could have let them know. But still worth a try.

It's best to exhaust the appeal process before going through ACAS early conciliation so you can demonstrate you gave the company the opportunity to review their decision.

You’re clearly a good manager.

They didn’t mention the possibility of redeployment or even offered to make any changes to my workload prior to dismissing me.

Did they obtain a occ health report at any point that confirmed your disability?

So the only time off you've had relating to a disability is in march 23 and April 24??

Yes, it was just because of my sickness absences, which I’ve got the minutes from the meeting to back me up. Employer said my quality of work isn’t being disputed, which is stated in the minutes.

I’ve had nothing but positive appraisals from clients and my managers etc. I’ve already asked my former employer for any documentation regarding those.