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Employer still won't accept I am disabled in a Tribunal case

DragonCat16

I have been through a nightmare at my previous employer, who bullied and discriminated against me. What they did to me has left me unable to work or even function. I have taken them to the Employment Tribunal. You can read details if you search my previous posts.

At this point, they are still claiming that I am not disabled and that I wasn't disabled at the time of my employment. One of the things they claim is that they don't believe that I have ASD. This is despite the fact that I have provided them with a letter from the psychiatrist who evaluated me and diagnosed me with ASD. They are demanding that I provide expert evidence, even though I have already provided the evidence in the form of that letter. What could they possibly be asking for if not what I have already provided?

Even though I provided an impact statement of several pages, they are saying that I didn't provide proof of each paragraph in the document. The way the judge described the impact statement when it was requested of me was that it needed to describe how my disability affects my day-to-day activities. He didn't say I need to provide proof for everything. If I had, it would have been a ridiculous number of pages, and they were already complaining about  the number of pages I provided to them. I provided my former employer with the documents they requested, and now they claim that they have factual inaccuracies, but of course they don't list even one of those supposed inaccuracies.

Some people on this forum have said that their impact statement was only one page and it was accepted by the employer right away. I provided considerably more than that and they are still not accepting my disability. I know that they are doing this because the only way they can get out of being found responsible for what they did to me is to convince the tribunal I'm not disabled.

This is really causing me a lot of distress and it's as if they didn't even read the documents I provided. I don't understand why they are further risking their reputation by continuing to treat me this way.

Has anyone had this much trouble at the trbunal getting their former employer to accept their disability? Did the Tribunal eventually decide that you did have a disability? What evidence did you need to provide?

Thanks very much in advance.

Parents

  • have you seen this?

    “It is not enough for the employer to show that they did not know that the disabled person had the disability. They must also show that they could not reasonably have been expected to know about it. Employers should consider whether a worker has a disability even where one has not been formally disclosed, as, for example, not all workers who meet the definition of disability may think of themselves as a ‘disabled person’.”

  • in reply to NAS64820

    This would apply for example, if someone kept tripping over things and falling over and this had been noted.  For mental impairments, someone who had periods of, for example, anxiety and depression for an extended period would be showing signs of a disability under the act.

    It might be worthwhile bringing this up if not previously disclosed.  Autism is a lifelong condition, so once you have disclosed you may be able to argue that past issues were caused by your impairment even if not disclosed at the time, and have past warnings, sanctions, etc expunged.

    This is why I I would always advise anyone to join a union.  A good rep, especially a trained equality rep should be able to support you and point you in the right direction.  Unfortunately these days many workplaces have become de-unionised and this encourages poor employment practices by employers.

Reply
  • in reply to NAS64820

    This would apply for example, if someone kept tripping over things and falling over and this had been noted.  For mental impairments, someone who had periods of, for example, anxiety and depression for an extended period would be showing signs of a disability under the act.

    It might be worthwhile bringing this up if not previously disclosed.  Autism is a lifelong condition, so once you have disclosed you may be able to argue that past issues were caused by your impairment even if not disclosed at the time, and have past warnings, sanctions, etc expunged.

    This is why I I would always advise anyone to join a union.  A good rep, especially a trained equality rep should be able to support you and point you in the right direction.  Unfortunately these days many workplaces have become de-unionised and this encourages poor employment practices by employers.

Children
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