Disability discrimination

The firsr thing you should do is launch a grievance under grievance.procedures of your employer.  The grounds are failing to make reasonable adjustments, disability discrimination and harassment due ro your protected characteristic.  You would also be expected to appeal against the decision if it was not favourable to you.

Then consider whether you want to take further action - in law, this is the employment tribunal but there are several hoops to jump.   First there are time limits.  This is three months less than one day from the date of the problem - in this case the date.of refusal of reasonable adjustments or other discriminatory act.  You would be expected.initially to apply for Early Conciliation through the tribunal service.  This would give one month to reach an agreement.  If an agreement cannot be reached,  you would.be issued with a certificate enabling you to apply to a tribunal within one further month less a day.   A preliminary case conference hearing would then be arranged which would.take.around six months or so for the hearing.  If the judge considered you had a case, you would then be asked to submit your evidence, witness statements, and any specialist.expert evidence within a specified.time.  You most likely would  be offered a COT 3.settlement to.drop.the case and agree to keep.quiet in exchange for.dropping the case.

Very few cases.at.a tribunal favour the employee, around 8%, although admittedly this includes.completely hopeless cases.  If it.gets to a final hearing being arranged, you will be very likely be offered.a.sum of money.  Even if you win the case, the sum of money offered is unlikely to be life changing.

It must be emphasised that you have to go through the grievance.procedures first, but must not put off the initial application.for.early conciliation if that would risk going out of time.  The process is stressful and not easy, although there are no costs involved.for.the application ro a tribunal and costs will only be awarded against you in circumstances such as you refuse.a.reasonable.offer for.settlement.

A no win no fee.solicitor.may take.the.case.on.but they would.have to think there.is enough case for you to win.  Being a.member of a.union would.help (bur only before the trouble.started) as they will give you access to representation at.a.grievance as well as.legal.help in your application and legal.representation if.the case.is strong enough.

Send your grievance application to the person higher up than the person who you have had dealings with.  Even the Ceo if necessary.  And keep written evidence if at all possible.  Your first should have been to write to your employer/manager asking if they accepted you as disabled.under the Equaliry Act and if.not, why not.  It will help.also if you have.an idea of the adjustments.you would.like.

I would strongly suggest you contact Access.to.Work.  They will suggest.adjustments which your employer would.be.advised.to.follow, and can fund training for staff and a support worker for one or two sessions per month.  Failure to follow their suggestions would give you further evidence in your grievance and tribunal cases.

And as for not needing to provide.adjustments because you are a junior member of.staff, this is rubbish.They can refuse because adjustments are not.reasonable or for sound business reasons such as needing to spend exorbitant sums.of.money on building alterations, but this is.unlikely to be a sound defence for someone autistic as the adjustments are in all probability simple.  

I am.a.union.representative and equality rep.  A year ago I was in the.midst of problems.such as yours, but eventually it.reached.a.satisfactory conclusion, but it had taken a.long time.

While I can appreciate the view that by disclosing this will lead to trouble, I believe that we need to fight for our rights and show up poor employment practises.  Rights have to be fought for and the answer is not to roll over with our legs in the air.  Behaviour like this continues because people accept it and do not fight.  The employer certainly would not want the bad publicity which would cost it far more than giving one or two reasonable adjustments and preventing harassment and bullying.

Hope it.all turns out well in the end.

The firsr thing you should do is launch a grievance under grievance.procedures of your employer.  The grounds are failing to make reasonable adjustments, disability discrimination and harassment due ro your protected characteristic.  You would also be expected to appeal against the decision if it was not favourable to you.

Then consider whether you want to take further action - in law, this is the employment tribunal but there are several hoops to jump.   First there are time limits.  This is three months less than one day from the date of the problem - in this case the date.of refusal of reasonable adjustments or other discriminatory act.  You would be expected.initially to apply for Early Conciliation through the tribunal service.  This would give one month to reach an agreement.  If an agreement cannot be reached,  you would.be issued with a certificate enabling you to apply to a tribunal within one further month less a day.   A preliminary case conference hearing would then be arranged which would.take.around six months or so for the hearing.  If the judge considered you had a case, you would then be asked to submit your evidence, witness statements, and any specialist.expert evidence within a specified.time.  You most likely would  be offered a COT 3.settlement to.drop.the case and agree to keep.quiet in exchange for.dropping the case.

Very few cases.at.a tribunal favour the employee, around 8%, although admittedly this includes.completely hopeless cases.  If it.gets to a final hearing being arranged, you will be very likely be offered.a.sum of money.  Even if you win the case, the sum of money offered is unlikely to be life changing.

It must be emphasised that you have to go through the grievance.procedures first, but must not put off the initial application.for.early conciliation if that would risk going out of time.  The process is stressful and not easy, although there are no costs involved.for.the application ro a tribunal and costs will only be awarded against you in circumstances such as you refuse.a.reasonable.offer for.settlement.

A no win no fee.solicitor.may take.the.case.on.but they would.have to think there.is enough case for you to win.  Being a.member of a.union would.help (bur only before the trouble.started) as they will give you access to representation at.a.grievance as well as.legal.help in your application and legal.representation if.the case.is strong enough.

Send your grievance application to the person higher up than the person who you have had dealings with.  Even the Ceo if necessary.  And keep written evidence if at all possible.  Your first should have been to write to your employer/manager asking if they accepted you as disabled.under the Equaliry Act and if.not, why not.  It will help.also if you have.an idea of the adjustments.you would.like.

I would strongly suggest you contact Access.to.Work.  They will suggest.adjustments which your employer would.be.advised.to.follow, and can fund training for staff and a support worker for one or two sessions per month.  Failure to follow their suggestions would give you further evidence in your grievance and tribunal cases.

And as for not needing to provide.adjustments because you are a junior member of.staff, this is rubbish.They can refuse because adjustments are not.reasonable or for sound business reasons such as needing to spend exorbitant sums.of.money on building alterations, but this is.unlikely to be a sound defence for someone autistic as the adjustments are in all probability simple.  

I am.a.union.representative and equality rep.  A year ago I was in the.midst of problems.such as yours, but eventually it.reached.a.satisfactory conclusion, but it had taken a.long time.

While I can appreciate the view that by disclosing this will lead to trouble, I believe that we need to fight for our rights and show up poor employment practises.  Rights have to be fought for and the answer is not to roll over with our legs in the air.  Behaviour like this continues because people accept it and do not fight.  The employer certainly would not want the bad publicity which would cost it far more than giving one or two reasonable adjustments and preventing harassment and bullying.

Hope it.all turns out well in the end.

Thanks for your reply.  It’s really helpful.  I am part of a union, but I have very limited contact with my union rep.  I have been through the grievance procedure and their response has been to reject absolutely everything I have said and to tell me I’m the problem as I have a different account of conversations to other people involved.  I have made detailed notes of everything immediately after they’ve happened since certain comments were made to me a year ago.  I talked to someone independently for advice and they said it appears to be a case of institutional discrimination, with people covering up for each other.  It has gone to the top level of the organisation, and they too have said I am not credible and that other people have confirmed they did not make certain comments I have said they’ve made.  And that it is reasonable for my line manager to refuse the adjustments I have requested because they are unsuitable for a trainee.  I shouldn’t have a screen round my desk because then I can’t see and learn from my team.  The feeling of being watched and stared at distracts me so much I can’t function, and the distractions in general in the office are very overwhelming.  I have help from access to work, but my support worker is extremely busy and i don’t hear from him very often. My last appointment was three weeks ago and my next one is the end of August.  I’m going to phone Acas today and see what they advise.  Because I’ve reached the end of the grievance process now and have been told this decision letter is final, yet there are things that are completely wrong in this letter, wrong dates, wrong information, unfair statements.  It’s completely unfair.