• Replies 12 replies
  • Subscribers 83 subscribers
  • Views 11612 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

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

  • Thanks for the replies so far. I'm sorry, but what is it too late to worry about? My former employer has been asked by the Tribunal whether they concede my disability and, in reply to the Tribunal, given my impact statement and all the evidence I provided, they have said that no, they don't concede and that, among other things, I have not provided expert evidence that I have ASD. Is that just another bullying or delaying tactic or can what they have claimed be considered by a judge to have merit, even though they haven't really made any concrete claims? My impact statement, which the judge ordered me to send to the former employer and not to the Tribunal, was several pages long and included information about trouble with social interaction and sensory overload, etc., and I pointed out several items that were already known to the employer, because they were mentioned on my performance reviews (basically they were criticising me because of traits related to my disability).

    I guess what I am asking is whether the former employer's justification for not conceding my disability be considered sufficient by a Tribunal judge when all it contains are blanket statements and no specific rebuttal of any of the paragraphs contained in my impact statement. Is it common for the employer not to concede disability when there is an official diagnosis, which was provided to them both during employment and again when the impact statement was provided? Do employers often claim that there is no expert evidence that there is an ASD condition under these circumstances?

    From what you have said, it seems that the evidence I have provided is enough, but I am wondering whether it is possible that a judge would take my veritable mountain of information and the former employer's one page response and still determine that I am not disabled under the Equality Act. What additional information can I provide as proof of my disability if the impact statement and official diagnosis letter wasn't enough?

    Basically the former employer has claimed that I have lied in my impact statement and justifies that by saying that I have provided no proof. At this point, who carries the burden of proof, in a legal sense? Do I need to prove everything in my impact statement, or do they need to prove that the paragraphs in the impact statement are not true?

    Thanks again.

  • in reply to DragonCat16
    DragonCat16 said:
    My former employer has been asked by the Tribunal whether they concede my disability

    So Your Former employer has been told, ok thats the evidence, do you now accept that X is disabled? 

    They have said no, but has the tribunal asked you for anything else?

Reply Children
  • in reply to DragonCat16

    As a few people in this thread have suggested I'd get an advocate or solicitor to look at it. It seems like it is making you really anxious. I think by the sound of it the judge has allowed your former employer to dig a deeper hole for themselves. The judge now has it on record that they have recieved evidence from yourself. Your employer sounds either stupid, full of hubris or a combination of both. Your former employer is saying the evidence isn't enough, not the judge. I'm concerned you are worrying a lot, you have provided everything asked by the judge. You can't do much more except get some advice in the real world but it seems that the judge is letting them dig themselves into a very deep hole.

  • in reply to Song

    Yes, that is essentially the present situation. The Tribunal has not yet responded to the latest communication from my former employer. I just don't want it to be assumed that I didn't provide evidence because I don't have any, when the truth is that I didn't provide the evidence because I wasn't asked for it. The judge simply asked for a statement from me as to how my disability interferes with my day-to-day activities, and I provided such a statement amounting to several pages. The former employer made a blanket statement saying that I have factual inaccuracies in my documents, but they did not state what any of the supposed inaccuracies were. A document previously provided by them has a lot of inaccuracies and misleading information (incorrect dates, inaccurate lists of meeting participants, sequences of events presented in a skewed order that could only have been designed to cast me in a bad light, etc.).

    Another question is whether, when the judge makes the decision on the disability issue, will my former employer get another opportunity to submit information on that specific issue? They were ordered to provide reasons for not conceding my disability and they made no specific statements whatsoever, just blanket claims that I had not provided expert evidence (which I did provide), witness statements (which I was not asked for), or evidence for my claims (which I was not asked for). Will they be allowed to present any new information on the topic and will I have a chance to answer what they say, or has my chance to do that run out already because they have not provided me with anything to answer?

    I feel that I am being treated the same way my employer did when I launched an internal grievance against my colleagues for harassment: I made my statements, and they answered them and made further allegations against me that I not only didn't get a chance to answer, but I didn't even know what they had accused me of until several months later and it was nothing but a pack of lies anyway. If I had been given the chance to defend myself, I could have provided plenty of proof against their claims, but they didn't give me that opportunity. They didn't even take into account the mountains of evidence I provided for my own allegations, simply concluding that there was "no evidence" for my allegations and that no "reasonable" person would be offended by what my colleagues did to me, which included several acts of public humiliation. Is that likely to happen in the tribunal, or will I get a chance to answer whatever they say?

    I have a tendency to be long-winded (or whatever the written equivalent of that is), but what I really want to know is whether the impact statement I have provided will be accepted as accurate, given that nothing I have said in the document has been specifically refuted by my former employer. Have they now been given the chance to do so and lost that chance, or will they be given yet another opportunity for that at the preliminary hearing at which the issue of whether I am disabled will be determined?

    Thanks.