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.

I agree with this. OP, you want sympathy from your employer but you have none for them. You will have been employed in good faith and they will have expected you to do the job, turn up and actually crack on so they had a good reliable staff member but you have been the opposite of this.

The frustration you have caused these people and your co-workers would have been significant but you haven't given this a second thought.

From early on, it was drummed into me that I need to go to work every day, show up, do what I am paid to do and keep my nose clean. I had two weeks off when my DMum died by suicide and the same when DDad died of dementia. I had to organise both funerals and estates of both. I could list all my physical ailments/injuries but no-one would believe me but I still just kept on showing up. Life is shit but don't make it shit for everyone around you in addition.

If you were reinstated, they would 'manage you out the door' inside six months. Move on. Get work you can cope with no matter what comes your way.

Well said. At no point has OP recognised impact on colleagues.

Oooh……….

yeah…..that really doesn’t look good then.

Which might explain why colleagues have distanced themselves

And it can be horrendous. I used to work with someone like this, she’d have six months off minimum every year…for four years until they finally got rid. Plus come back on phased return and then have a years worth of annual leave to take in about the 4 months she had left. Then the year would reset and she’d be gone again.

When it was a small team and I had to constantly pick up her work the stress was unbelievable and I think it’s actually physically affected my health permanently as I’ve developed 2 autoimmune conditions which I’m sure have been brought on by stress.

she had a month off with a pulled calf muscle once, apparently she couldn’t even wfh! She only got the sick note because it was a suspected Achilles tendon rupture, but the scan showed it wasn’t but she’d already got the sick note so stayed off all month!

Same @CameForAVacationStayedForTheRevolution 1 year off on sick, phased return, loads of leave to take, then said was being bullied by us as we'rent showing interest in her holiday chat!

I had exactly that with a colleague for over 4 years, and when he'd come back he'd be mister proactive and take a shit load of client schemes on just to drop them a few weeks later! And we worked with people that needed to do work on it near the railway! I usually had 50 assorted client schemes of my own at any one time and then I get a load of his and have little clue what work he'd done on them up to pissing off again. It's sad because there's elements of that job that I still miss but I had to leave because the workload was a liability and it was just too many plates to spin with very high stakes such as risk of a high speed passenger train crash!

I had a colleague who did that fir four years! He probably worked a total of 3 months in 4 years and had the cheek to moan to me that they'd offered him a lower band job because he claimed to.have work stress, he honestly felt that he should have been offered a promotion! He had no clue how insulting he sounded when I was trying to claw my up the career ladder on merit and hard graft!

Think Op is probably kicking herself that she didn’t make GP appointment due to holiday. Could be she missed the opportunity to get a sick note but it gave the company the opportunity to say goodbye.

Did she put in a holiday request form?

Wow......😯

@TableTopTreesorry, what? @MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBackemployed someone in an outreach role they had applied for. When they were a “new employee” they said they had a disability which prevented them performing the role they applied for and wanted a non existent back office role.
And you are saying that the case law you quote would oblige @MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBackto provide RA to this employee by inventing a role of which the company has no need so they get a trial period in the non existent role.
If this is true no wonder our economy is stuffed if tribunals insist businesses owe people unemployable in their company a living.

This last paragraph is exactly right. The pendulum has gone too far the other way.

I've worked with people that take the piss. The amount of bad feeling it engenders is incredible and the poor bloody managers have to deal with that as well.

See a job as a precious object. 'Mortgage mouth' is probably the only thing keeping this country running.

She went on holiday with her boyfriend (who also works at the same company so, to answer your earlier question, although OP hasn't explicitly told us her former employer knew she was going on holiday, it's possible they found out from casual conversations he may have had with colleagues that they were going on holiday that week).

The pendulum hasn't swung because employers are not obliged to employ someone who can't do the job or if off sick constantly. The pp was talking rubbish, as several people have pointed out. Tribunals are extremely stressful, difficult to win, and generally come with four figure payouts.

@mummytippy How are you getting on? Any update?

What's your problem...? What has "a man" got to do with this thread? Username indicates why you've jumped on. Reported.