Dismissed My Job Due To Absence linked to my Disability

[mummytippy]

Apologies for my lengthy post. I added a post (in May) regarding wanting advice for my employer to look to make reasonable adjustments for me due to my disability of hearing loss and Tinnitus. I had been employed by my ex employer 22 months. I had gone of work last November due to work related stress but was also waiting on an Audiology referral to come through. My employer was aware of all of my health issues. I had an attendance and wellbeing review (AWR) in May and was told I could discuss appropriate headsets at my next AWR which was scheduled for 18/6. I did contact the RNID and Tinnitus UK so that I could gather as much knowledge as I could prior to this. Before the AWR in June I had also bumped in to a colleague who has a similar hearing issue to me and he had recommended the headset he wears and sent me a link for it which I forwarded to my team leader. Just before the AWR, I then received an invitation for a capability assessment/attendance review to take place on 23/6. I contacted my TL and she said that it might not go ahead. It would depend on the outcome of the AWR with her. I had a fit note with a return to work date of 14/7 with recommendations from my GP. On the 18/6 I attended the AWR and tried to discuss my RTW but it was like the tone had completely changed. I took with me a proposed phased RTW plan to discuss, information from the RNID, Tinnitus UK and also evidence I had been speaking with an Employment Support Advisor via Talking Therapies but it all seemed to fall flat and was met with no interest. I was dumbfounded. I asked my TL to discuss my proposed phased RTW plan emphasising it would need to meet with her approval but she was not interested. She was really quiet. The note taker during the AWR was also a TL I knew (but not well) and he asked me questions which I felt were hostile. The whole experience was awful. I felt completely ganged up on. I did manage to show my white noise sound support and show how it sits behind my ear. The reasonable adjustments I asked for were: to sit somewhere quite on ‘in office days’ and for ad-hoc additional health breaks to adjust/remove my sound support. These were agreed to verbally. Where I raised the question about the link to the headset and the link I’d sent my TL, she said that she had been unable to follow the link and she asked why I had not just bought one. I explained that we were due to discuss headsets at this AWR. there was a cool response, my proposed phased RTW plan was merely photocopied and I was told the Capability/Attendance Review Hearing would still be going ahead. At this point in time I had 2 further medical appointments to still attend. One was my final session of CBT therapy due to happen the day of the hearing (23/6) and the other was with the Audiologist on 20/6 (rescheduled from 30/5 due to the Audiologist being ill). This was a follow up appointment to see how I was getting on with the sound support. Through my employer I had private medical cover. I had spoken with them at the end of May and a report was compiled. The report stated I have a disability and that my employer should allow me to trial a RTW after all my medical appointments were completed.
as I hadn’t like the time of the AWR and the Attendance Hearing was still going to go ahead, I sent a letter to my TL requesting a reasonable adjustment for the 2 requests above. This was never acknowledged. On top of this, when the notes from the AWR meeting were sent to me, they were inaccurate and incomplete. I replied to the email containing the Tale notes with my version of the notes asking for them to be recompiled. This was not done before the hearing. I had joined the Union but too late for them to represent me but they were able to give me basic advice which was if I wasn’t happy with the notes I needed to make this clear but I could attend the hearing to discuss my return to work. Unfortunately I didn’t receive a reply from the Union representative until after the hearing but the morning of the hearing I did send the hearing manager an email to ask her if it could please be rescheduled and why. She declined and because in the invite it had said that a decision on my employment could be made in my absence I felt I had no choice but to attend. My final session of CBT took place and ended an hour before the hearing. I did have a colleague attend and take notes. The hearing was a hideous experience. The hearing manager was very dismissive of my health issues and seemed to have an issue with my proposed phased RTW plan. I emphasised I was not happy with the notes from the AWR and that the RTW was a proposal. From the audiology appointment on the 20/6 the audiologist had put a new program on the device which was a hearing aid function and this was a significant improvement for both my hearing and Tinnitus. I was advised to have a period of ‘habituation’ to get used to this so explained this. In relation to the CBT my practitioner had advised a period of stabilisation following this (as she had also recommended I have some bereavement counselling too). I explained this and I must point out the final reports were not available at this time as still being typed up by the health professionals. I was just completely unheard. The hearing manager had also still been sending additional things into the appendices for this hearing on the 20/6 which was just one working day before the hearing (as a Friday) so I felt everything was rushed. The hearing manager ended the hearing at it was agreed I would speak with my GP to see if I could return to work sooner than 14/7 so I had agreed I would seek their guidance due to the recommendations above from the Audiologist, CBT practitioner and the companies healthcare provider which stated phased RTW at beginning of July after all appointments completed. About and hour after the meeting the hearing manager phoned me and asked if I could RTW on 30/6 and she would put 24/6 through to 27/6 through as annual leave. As I was away from 24/6 because my boyfriend had booked a surprise short break for me as I’d had a rough time and he knew I did not want to take any further time off work after returning, the earliest I could see my GP was on 30/6. I assured her I would seek their guidance on 30/6 and update her as soon as possible. I felt very pressured and told her this. I did this on 1/7 sending a revised fitnote in with a RTW of 7/7 with my GPs recommendations in the comments which included the habituation period and the stabilisation period and details of a phased return to work. I also added that I was open to speaking with my TL to discuss the plan for the following week during the course of that week. She acknowledged receipt, said she was still reviewing my case and that she would be in touch on 3/7 with her decision. I had logged in on my work laptop through the week, reading emails and preparing myself to return. On 3/7 I received her decision which was to dismiss me. She stated I had further delayed my return to work. I was distraught. I feel like I have been punished. I appealed the decision but the outcome remained the same. The hearing manager of the Appeal Hearing was a Customer Service Manager so I feel this wasn’t really appropriate either as no HR / Occupational Health element. I am now going through the Early Conciliation process with ACAS. I would like reinstatement as I do not feel I should have lost my job. My boyfriend (we do not live together) works for the same company (it is where we met) and I just feel completely isolated now as this has made things very awkward. I feel I have lost my career. My colleagues (our colleagues) who became friends now feel awkward. I’m now unemployed, obviously have outgoings and have gone from being in a secure position to the opposite and where I had improved my mental health to return to work, this has deteriorated again due to what has happened. If anyone could please advise me as I am so upset about all of this. TIA.

Totally agree. I've worked with a few people over the years who suddenly only want to join the union when they have a work problem. You are either in a union or not. It's not just something to join when the going gets tough.

This isn't true, OP - you did know at least one headset that was approved by your employer because you stated in your opening post "Before the AWR in June I had also bumped in to a colleague who has a similar hearing issue to me and he had recommended the headset he wears and sent me a link for it which I forwarded to my team leader." Why did you bother doing that? If your colleague was wearing this headset for work without any negative feedback from your employer, you knew it was approved for use.

@Puzzledandpissedoff Everyone deals with the same situations in different ways is all I was trying to say. Of course other people may have been through the same or similar to me but it doesn’t mean to say it has affected them the same way. Everyone’s experience is different and you cannot compare how you handle something to someone else.

You’d been there 22 months and sick for 6 of them. It is a lot.

As a society, Ithink we’ve lost sight of the fact that the primary purpose of jobs is to complete tasks needed to be done, for the benefit of the organisation. They’re not just there to pay people salaries.

They can get rid of you for nearly all reasons under 2 years.

however disability is protected. But th burden of proof would be on you tha they did that.

I had asked and got nowhere!!! I was meant to discuss it at the AWR with my TL but then she didn’t want to look at any, not even the one a colleague employed with the same hearing issues had.

@ERthree But what would you do if your employment was terminated? Just take it and accept it?

I agree,and whilst i have empathy for the op situation i have current first hand experience of working with someone who is more often on sick leave than at work, it has a knock on effect on the whole team and greatly affects morale.
If someone can't commit to a workplaces advertised working hours and be a contributing team member i question whether any job is really suitable for them at that time and perhaps they shouldn't work until they are both physically and mentally stable and can be relied on to carry out their job.

I was paid SSP

But why are you so fixated on the headset, OP. You weren't due back at work until mid July, so it wasn't really a priority at the AWR meeting in July, was it? Because you weren't actually doing any work that would require a headset?

You seem to have latched on to this point because you perceive it as something that your employer did wrong and presumably you think that might strengthen your case. But it isn't relevant because you were still signed off.

If you had actually returned to work and the headset that you had requested hadn't been made available, then you would have a point that reasonable adjustments had not been made. But you can't evidence that your employer failed to do something in the future.

So you may not have received occupational sick pay, but you were actually paid and you were costing your employer throughout your absence.

Best not to claim that you weren't paid when you actually were.

I’m sorry OP as someone with both hearing loss and other disabilities, You sound like you play very much poor me and it’s people like you that cause companies not Wanting to employ people with disabilities. You’ve absolutely took the piss.8 months off in 22:… How bad is your hearing loss ?

You couldn’t just call up your IT department and ask what they could provide for your circumstances? Dh needed some additional equipment as RA for wfh. IT organised some, others he ordered and claimed back cost for, having sought prior approval. It is up to employee and/or A2W to come up with options as they are best placed to identify need and recommended solutions. It feels as if you created unnecessary stumbling blocks around RA and upcoming appointments resulting in a protracted potential return date. What happened with sick/annual leave at end of June? Once off the sick leave you would have been due to return to work after those annual leave days.

It isn't about fitting my timeframe. Fourteen months is a ludicrously long time to obtain probate - even the most complex estates would only be expected to take up to a year and as an Executor you have a legal responsibility to apply for probate as soon as possible after death.
We all have parents and those of us who have lost them have been naturally upset about their loss. I was 30 when my mum died and I took two weeks off work. Despite the emotional distress life goes on - it has to and you work through it. If you were in that secure a financial position to take all that time off work, consider yourself lucky - most of have to continue working through our grief hoping we don't make mistakes or humiliate ourselves in front of our colleagues.
You seem to lack any resilience to the extent that even when you are the architect of your own misfortune you cast around to find someone/something else to blame. As a pp stated, your locus of control is clearly external.

As an employer, running a small business and very much relying on my employees being there for me and showing up to work, you sound too much like hard work
you wouldnt have a leg to stand on at tribunal. Furthermore, I think your post is really outing, and if you do take it further be mindful that this post is in the public domain now, and you aren’t coming across in a good light.

in these circumstances, yes. I'd have been anticipating getting my marching orders for months by this point.

what did ACAS say when you asked their advise? You could argue the employer had not followed the correct procedure and had not attempted to make reasonable adjustments due to your disability. You would need the help of an employment lawyer I would imagine

it was you who said most people hadn’t been through similar. But if your point is that you were unable to work while others were able, then surely you can start to see that well, you were not able to work so you were let go. And that’s the right decision because in both this job and the last you’ve not been able to cope, even with adjustments, and it’s not been the disability/tinnitus that’s the reason why not. If you’re reinstated it will happen again because even with all the wfh it was still too much for you.

Probably kicked myself for going on holiday instead of going back to work when I had the chance.

Indeed. OP's post was crass at best and deeply offensive at worst. I would hazard a guess that the majority of women on MN have at some time suffered bereavement, illness and some stage of menopause!

How long was your probation period?
Did you pass your probation?
Were you paid in full for all that time or did you go to half pay at any stage?
I don’t know your previous work history but it does seem that you should look for something more suited and in future, I’d advise joining a union from day one.
Best wishes.

@AngelicKaty Yet it was okay for someone to say it to me?! I know everyone on here will have experienced some kind of trauma as it is a support site and that is all I was trying to say.

No, she'd been there 22 months and was sick for almost 11 of them - that is a lot.

I am wanting reinstatement to my original role after having the CBT to be able to cope with the role. My employer knew this was the reason for the CBT - to alleviate the WRS. The company have been actively recruiting for 40 plus new people to form 2 teams in my role. This is because there is such a huge turnover in staff. They are due to start training next month.

Lucky you only having the flu!