Working threatening to fire unless I go in

My best wishes to you. My union full-time officer (Unite) has said similar things as has been said to you. Run your grievance letter by the union as they can look at the phrasing as that can be crucial.

The mooching scumbag analogy chimes with my experience of asking for reasonable adjustments and the attitude of management who look at these requests as some sort of perks and have to equitable to others. They seem to think that they can say the needs of the service as a justification to determine my requests as unreasonable and also use thats not the way we work. Supposedly they have checked with their legal office and they have been told there is no failure to make reasonable adjustments and force redeployment.

In my experience keep on at the union as I have gotten the impression that their goal is keep me in employment, which is admirable, but should be fighting blatant unfair treatment of neurodiverse employees.

Being in my mid fifties the prospects of finding another job related to my niche field are virtually zero so could be well and truly on the scrapheap.

That sucks :( I hope it works out in the end at least, it is ridiculous that companies will spout how much they are about people with disabilities, but from my experience if its not a visible one you 100% get ignored and treat like a mooching scumbag, not to say people with visible ones are treated better as it wouldn't surprise me if they tried to find ways to not have to look after them as well.

I've contacted ACAS who sent me a template for a grievance / request letter for a reasonable accommodation, and been in contact with my union, who also seem to think what they are doing isn't legal, so it seems like in the end it could go my way, but whether that means losing my job and getting money in a tribunal I'll have to see I guess. 

Look at the statutory guidelines produced by the EHRC which tries to make clearer what the legalise speak says.

Again your employer can choose to ignore and risk an employment tribunal. I'm in the ACAS conciliation process at the moment as well as having a grievance lodged. I do not hold out much hope on both accounts as the senior manager involved in the final decision about me has had my grievance sent to them to decided who will hear it despite me raising potential conflict of interest issues.

I guess I will be looking at  joining the ranks of the unemployed soon.

NAS64138 said:

Sadly I think I just learnt to late why nobody else complains about being treated like cattle, its because they will find a way to force you out

The jobs market is beginning to get really bad so staff will be very wary of doing something that will put their role at risk so employers are pushing staff back into the office knowing that the ones that complain are likely to be the troublesome ones and they will be better off without them.

This means you will be setting a bad example in the eyes of management if you get to laze about at home all day while your colleagues thrive under the benevolent oversight of management (in their eyes).

This is happening in most companies now and if you involke a legal challenge under the equality act then management will feel vindicated in considering you a troublemaker and will simply make your work life so miserable that you will leave - all perfectly legal in the way they can do it.

If I were in your shoes I would keep careful records of any interactions on the return to office conversation and find a good employment litigation lawyer to have on speed dial. Keep copies of everything outside the company environments in case they cut off your access.

Expect the worst but work to improve your ability to work in the office. Were you doing it pre-pandemic? If so what has changed to make you unable to do it now.

I would also get a psychotherapist with experience of helping autists and work on reducting your stress and any phobias that may be causing you to fear returning to the office.

In the end I expect you will have to go to the office 5 days a week so starting with this as the expected future you can begin preparing for it so you are seeing it as fact and just work through the steps to get there. Sometimes losing the battle to keep your current position can be more damaging mentally when you are counting on it as your future.

This may seem a bit defeatist but I have worked with management teams when dealing with troublesome employees and have seen the thought processes and the way HR are used to achieve their ends.

In your shoes I would also be job hunting - if nothing else it may help you realise if you really need to keep this job, whatever the price.

If they mandate the attendance % they expect from staff, they I expect they are going to start monitoring this at an individual level, and then it really would be interesting to see what they do when any staff fall short of this. I mean if they ask 3 days a week and someone shows up 2 days a week, I feel is a bit different from not showing up all for 6 months.  Gosh I'm hybrid and go to my own contracted office location twice a year, but at the moment my firm  not making any noise about it, so do understand where you are coming from.  

I do think you have to decide what adjustment you want from whatever attendance figure they come up with, which they will need to consider.  Is there a compromise that feels like neither of you is winning at the expense of the other?.   I would have to think hard about that, should I get called back in.

I'm not in a union (have thought about it), but interested to know if they did help you or not, when all resolved.

Exactly :)

This is definitely one to get advice on as you and your employer will need to establish whether face-to-face time can be classed as essential to your job. That's a legal/tribunal decision, so no easy answers. In terms of precedent I think this case is interesting: https://on.ft.com/3GlOi0G

I recommend calling ACAS for advice. There's a lot of information on their website, but for some things it's best to just give them a call. When I've used them, they've given the available options and also the potential risks.

Also, if you have home or car insurance, you might want to check if it has legal cover and if it covers employment. I think it only applies if you get to employmemt tribunal stage, but it's good to know if you have it or not.

They are saying they want to start slowly phasing me in to 3 days a week like everybody else, starting with an in person chat with a manager to discuss it, however they have said people will be working 4 days a week soon and have been upping the days since people were allowed back in the office so by the end of this year I expect either 5 days a week or at least an announcement that its coming.

Sadly nobody else seems willing to risk complaining about anything, and there doesn't seem to be anybody else with disabilities in my immediate team, which I feel is also part of why they are targeting me for this, as this year they made 4.3 billion in profits with the CEO being paid nearly 17 million but almost nobody below a manager level got a pay rise at all, and my complaints about this were met with "we pay a good rate compared to other banks, this isn't an issue". 

Sadly I think I just learnt to late why nobody else complains about being treated like cattle, its because they will find a way to force you out, I'm just hoping that the method they chose for me bites them in the bum as they have no excuses relating to my work as I'm not trained to work on 3 teams (most people aren't even trained for 2), and have always been a higher performer, made many suggestions on improvements and written training guides for people, so this is the only option they have.

Are they expecting you in 5 days a week ? have they said what attendance they would want from you (say ignoring for the moment any adjustments you do need)?  .  Does seem they maybe on a targeted mission - so yes do document any conversations (as others have said) ? perhaps email notes to your personal email address of what was said, so at least you have a record should you need it.  Have you seen evidence that other colleague have already been made to RTO or are also being approached right now ?

Good luck too.  I know in the past I have just walked out rather than fight my corner having experience some bad managers in toxic workplaces - maybe now, with my diagnosis, I perhaps seek a better outcome

Thanks, I've contacted ACAS and they've directed me to their grievance template so I plan on filling that in as the first step they advised was to talk to them, but if having a meltdown on the phone and advising them that I couldn't work today as I was still to shaken up doesn't make them even slightly reconsider I think that step is long gone.

I'll try asking for that as they have declared the accommodation over now so it might help to get another assessment done if possible and let them know what the company has done with the wording of the last person to do one so they could not leave a loophole. While it might not be binding it might help with taking the complaint further.

Just to add to what others have shared here re legal advice - could you request another occupational health assessment that considers your needs if you were to return to the office? 

Occupational health recommendations aren't binding, but having an updated report could help. Either with you being in the office, and/or to see the reasonableness of your employers. 

Thanks, I've contacted my union and disability rights for now as citizens advice doesn't seem to have a way to email them. I just hope something can be sorted before I get fired as I don't think I could honestly cope going back in in general, let alone knowing it was for no reason besides an executive wanting to feel powerful.

I'm so sorry to hear that you're having such a difficult time with your employer.

We can't offer legal advice to each other here, but the NAS offers a lot of employment-related information that you might find helpful, including links to organisations that can provide you with advice and support (including, but not limited to, Citizens Advice, the Equality Advisory and Support Service, Disability Rights UK, and ACAS, for example).

Pages from the Employment section that might be particularly relevant include:

NAS - What support can I get at work as an autistic person?

NAS - What are reasonable adjustments and when can they be requested?

NAS - What can I do if I’m having trouble at work?

The third one also includes a section titled "Dismissal from your job (being sacked)", which covers topics including unfair dismissal, whilst also providing links to the sources of support that I mentioned above.

Hopefully, these articles could prove to be a good starting point in respect of accessing resources and advice to help with your deeply upsetting situation. 

I'm with Unite so will contact them as well. I've tried to look at the equality act but its so long winded and in law speak that I struggle to understand it honestly. Sadly I don't think it will get better as they have decided the reasonable adjustment has ended now and I just need to get back into the office.

Do you have a union?

Have you read the equality act?

It may be a bit of give and take to resolve this.

From my experience where I am being forcibly redeployed after a 30 odd year career it appears you have to fight tooth and nail for everything.

Hope things get better for you.