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Working threatening to fire unless I go in

NAS64138

Hi,

I have been working from home since around 2020 due to Covid, though before that  I was already trying to request to work from home as I was having shutdowns in work. I had an occupational health assessment done where they said I should continue to work from home unless it was essential to go back into the office. Now however my work have declared despite everybody working 2 days a week from home that it is essential I go back in, and when I asked why they gave reason such as "to watch management to learn good behaviours" and "so when training people you can see their reactions to before understand if they are getting it".

I tried to explain that basically all their reasons are things that as an autistic person I can't do and that it shows a complete lack of understand of my disability, but they refuse to discuss it further and are now just saying "you are not in a position of power" and implying I will lose my job if I don't go in due to being put on a PIP.

Does anybody have any advice on how legal this is or if I will just need to look for other jobs while suffering probably daily shutdown / meltdowns? I'm honestly scared at this point, I had a discussion yesterday which resulted in a meltdown and curling into a ball for 2 hours, and they have said they are booking in something else for today and need to organise an "in person meeting" to prevent things "getting worse".

Is this legal? does autism have so little protection that you are forced to just have daily meltdowns if thats what an employer demands?

Parents

  • 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.

  • in reply to Mr T

    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.

  • in reply to NAS64138

    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.

  • in reply to NAS64138

    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.

Reply
  • in reply to NAS64138

    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.

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