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Can an employer refuse to help via occupational health?

OAP - Older Autistic Person

Made a very hard decision to speak to my manager about ASD diagnosis and ask for Occupational Health support.

HR have refused to refer me.

My manager is now blaming me for not being expert enough in ASD to tell him what support I need as an informal agreement within work. The fact that ASD is a developmental disability that affects communication is lost on him.

...and people wonder why disabilities are not discussed in the workplace by those suffering.

Parents

  • There is no legal requirement for your employer to have an occupational health service or refer you to it. However there is a requirement for your employer to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people including autistic people. One reason businesses tend to contract out occupational health to consultant companies is the legal requirements can be quite hard for inexperienced middle management to navigate.

    Your managers inexperience won't be a defence though should it come to an employment tribunal. The fact that they have an occupational health service and chose not to refer you to it is possibly a failure to make reasonable adjustments in its own right. After all what could be more reasonable to expect than sending the disabled person with communication issues to the service you retain to determine the needed reasonable adjustments of disabled people.

    That said I'm not a lawyer and you shouldn't take this as legal advice. Are you in a union? Some unions have a lawyer you can consult over discrimination issues. Even if yours doesn't you might want to speak to your union rep?

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  • There is no legal requirement for your employer to have an occupational health service or refer you to it. However there is a requirement for your employer to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people including autistic people. One reason businesses tend to contract out occupational health to consultant companies is the legal requirements can be quite hard for inexperienced middle management to navigate.

    Your managers inexperience won't be a defence though should it come to an employment tribunal. The fact that they have an occupational health service and chose not to refer you to it is possibly a failure to make reasonable adjustments in its own right. After all what could be more reasonable to expect than sending the disabled person with communication issues to the service you retain to determine the needed reasonable adjustments of disabled people.

    That said I'm not a lawyer and you shouldn't take this as legal advice. Are you in a union? Some unions have a lawyer you can consult over discrimination issues. Even if yours doesn't you might want to speak to your union rep?

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