Published on 12, July, 2020
This happened to me and I'm wondering how often it has happened to others. For me, the disability is ASD, and that would be relevant for most here as well, but I am interested to know about other disabilities as well.
This is an example scenario:
You inform your employer that you have a disability. You provide proof (sick notes, diagnosis letter, etc.). They refuse to provide reasonable adjustments, or they promise reasonable adjustments for a particular event/meeting/etc. and then refuse to provide them at the last minute when you are already in attendance at the event/meeting/etc., and then they later use the excuse that not only do they not accept that you have a disability, but that they do not even believe your diagnosis to be genuine.
Has that happened to anyone here? Was it during employment or afterwards, e.g. at an Employment Tribunal, that they made it clear that they refused to accept the disability? Did they request further proof of your condition at the time, or did they simply keep it to themselves that they thought that the evidence you provided was not enough.
Who is responsible in a case like this? Is the employee required to provide proof of the disability when they disclose the disability to the employer, or, if the employer doesn't think they have been provided with enough evidence, are they expected to make their position clear to the employee and request further proof?
I get that we are treated badly as a matter of course, just because we are on the spectrum, but I wonder whether I am even more unlucky in that regard than others on the spectrum or if others have experienced this.
Thanks.
Thanks for your response. My former employer is a huge educational institution, and was well-able to provide the adjustments I requested, as they would not have cost anything at all because all I was asking for was a minor adjustment in how a meeting was held.
I was already unhappy at my job because my colleagues, on the basis of my disability, deliberately put wheels in motion to destroy my professional reputation and end my career, so it wasn't exactly an employer who cared about my comfort level.
I did provide medical evidence for my disability, but it was impossible to tell whether that was enough because I was never told that it wasn't. At the point of the employee having provided the evidence, I think that the onus for requesting further evidence, as required, shifts to the employer.
Do you say that the onus is on the employee for a legal reason, or just from common sense? It does not say anything about such responsibility in the Equality Act, so I want to know what the law actually says. If you are saying that there is a law requiring the employee to provide proof and the employer has the right to ignore the proof and still claim that there was no disability, please tell me where I might find this law written down.
Hi DragonCat16,
Sorry to hear what you've experienced. Personally, I've not faced this before - they have been happy to accommodate for my needs. But not all employers are able to accommodate for these kinds of adjustments, and so they reject - not because they discriminate or hate people disabilities, but because they don't feel they can provide the adjustments, and thus feel that you'd be uncomfortable and unhappy working at the firm.
In terms of responsibility, the onus is on the employee, since they are requesting reasonable adjustments. The employee needs to provide evidence that their request is supported by medical advice/documentation. However, it is polite (but should not be expected) for the employer, upon receiving a request for reasonable adjustments, to ask the employee for documentation, rather than outright rejecting the request.
Much love <3
I would recommend writing your Line Manager or whoever is in charge a detailed letter outlining your disability, how it affects you, what in your work environment puts you at a disadvantage compared with others, and what reasonable adjustment(s) you request in order to put you in a situation in which you are less disadvantaged. Use words like that and take a look at the text of the Equality Act for specific phrases to use. Tell them that you look forward to their reply and that you will await their response in 14 days.
Here is a template:
www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/.../350
Don't give up. That's what they want you to do, so that they won't have to do anything. If they still don't reply, take it to the next level. Be firm but polite. Don't give them a reason to blame you or victimise you.Get help from your union if possible. Keep a record of all communications and minutes of all meetings, following meetings up with an email if there is no other written record.
Writing that letter will let them know that you know your rights and are serious about them.
I’ve been waiting for over 2 months now. At first, the only response I got was “it’s being looked into”, “leave it with me”, and “these things take time.”
Now, I just get ignored.
Not sure whether or not to just give up.
Thanks for the advice. The matter is already a Tribunal case but keeping records of everything is an excellent suggestion for anyone presently seeking reasonable adjustments, or for anyone who has the slightest suspicion that they are not being treated fairly because of their disability.
I know what the Equality Act says, but with the way it is worded, the legality or illegality of some of the things that happened to me are open to interpretation, which I really hate because I think laws in particular should be black and white. Apparently, if an employee discloses a disability, it is perfectly ok for an employer to outright deny reasonable adjustments, or to promise and then later deny them, and then claim later that they didn't accept there was a disability. This is the argument put forward by the solicitors, anyway, and a barrister I briefly consulted also said that this was considered acceptable from a legal standpoint. I keep getting different answers back from different people, even other legal professionals. It is up to the judge to decide what's legal or not, but surely there is some way of knowing the law without having to rely on someone being favourably predisposed to me on the day of the hearing (which is of particular concern to me, given that most people aren't favourably predisposed to me, because of the disability that compelled my colleagues to treat me so badly in the first place).
I would like to get support with this but I don't think I can face making a phone call right now, and there is a month-long wating list for receiving a reply from the NAS via email.
While advice would be nice, this situation has pretty much destroyed me and I don't think I will be able to get past it, especially if the Tribunal decides my former employer did nothing wrong, or, even worse, decides that they did do something wrong but doesn't see fit to do anything about it.
I would really like to know if this type of thing has happened to anything else, or if I am just suffering alone. I don't even know whether it would make me feel better to know this is a common thing and I'm not alone, or if I really just want to be assured that mine is a unique situation. From what people have already posted, it seems that similar things happen to others, but I wonder why that is the case. Do employers do this stuff because they know they'll likely get away with it, since disabled people rarely pursue their rights at a Tribunal? If that's the case, then obviously stiffer penalties should be imposed. Not only should the employee be compensated, but employers should be made to pay a punitive fine, so that they'll think twice before treating people this way.
Sorry to hear you've had such a bad experience at work. It sounds like from your description that your employer may have violated the Equality Act and you may have a case for workplace discrimination (disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this isn't legal advice!). At the very least they should provide you with reasonable adjustments without creating conflict and certainly without implying that your diagnosis isn't genuine.
I would recommend that you call the NAS helpline and talk through the situation with someone there, who might be able to put you in contact with someone who can help and be an intermediary between you and your employer. The helpline is on 0808 800 4104 (10am-4pm Mon-Thur, 9am-3pm Fri).
It would be useful to keep a diary of sorts of any interactions you've had with your employer on this issue, what has been said to you on the subject of your diagnosis, what reasonable adjustments were promised and not given, and so on.
Best wishes,
Ross - mod
I haven't had a line manager not believe but I have had two, out of 6 posts, refuse to give me the adjustments I needed. The issue was more about them than me though - they were the kind of people who desperately wanted to fit in and changed based on the people they were with. I don't think they could understand that not everyone can or wants to do this and that some people have fixed needs that need to be met in order for them to be able to work.
After meeting those bad apples, I am now in a post where they are incredibly supportive and all of my needs have been met.
Gosh, that stinks in so many ways. I'd think if you disclose it in order to get some kind of "special treatment" it's reasonable for the employer to ask for proof of some sort, but if you have provided your diagnostic letter then surely that should be enough? I mean, by not believing in it they basically say, without having any qualification in the area, they can tell better. Guess that isn't rare, happened to me too, they even arranged for one of the doctors and a counselor and then decided they know better than those two... (that was not an ASD diagnosis though). Hope someone can give you some advice, Trainspotter maybe? Perhaps you can also get in touch with the place you got the diagnosis from? Maybe they have some advice? It would be nice if they could write to your workplace and assure them that it's genuine (which they may still not believe, but then there would be something to show them that their ignorance can have unpleasant consequences). But from experience I guess it's likely that they don't want to get involved in anything themselves.