Disability discrimination?

[heliocentric]

Hello all,

I'm new to the group and relatively new to diabetes and fear it could be partly responsible for my imminent job loss. Today i have attended a redundancy meeting and the outcome does not look promising. Part of the process involves points scoring. I have been marked down in my earlier development review because my "attitude" and "moodiness" have recently been brought into question. I am in my 8th year of employment with the company and have a completely clean record.
I am just coming up to my 6 month review for my type 2 diabetes but don't know exactly when my blood sugar went awry. I know that it was before diagnosis as looking back both myself and my partner recall sometimes irrational mood swings usually around meal making decisions.
I have informed my company of my condition and what it may entail but at times no allowance is made to ensure i can take my breaks and no allowace has been made for adjustments to my condition. I have to mention that at times I have been made party to situations that are, I believe, very dubious and questionable with regard to what we can ask employees to do. I obviously feel passionately about this and have voiced my opinion. If I did this in a "stroppy" way i did not even realise I was doing it.
I guess my question is can my company mark me down in such a way when I am still trying to come to terms with my condition and the dietary and medication balance we should all be trying to achieve.

I must say that the decision hasn't been made yet (I find out on monday) but it doesn't make much difference to the way I feel now.

Apologies if this is protracted/garbled but my head is not in a very nice place right now.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Viki]

If it was me i think id try and get some proper independant advice ASAP.

So sorry you having to deal with this on top of everything diabetes throws at us. Keep us posted on how you get on.

x

 

[DiabeticDave]

Sounds like my company.........be prepared to seek legal advice, you may have grounds for constructive dismissal!!.

 

[SilentAssassin1642]

first of all, welcome to the forum!

secondly, it sounds like you have good grounds to seek out the DDA (Disibility Discrimination Act). I myself had to bring that up with my old employer, and he's currently going through major disciplinaries over his treatment of me (not letting me treat hypos etc, telling me i was making it all up. Regarding the breaks thing as well, that's something i'm also having firsthand experiences of at the moment. Work places need to understand how important it is for a diabetic to have a break and get something to eat - take for instance today, I started work at 9am, went hypo around 11.30am and still didnt get a break until 3pm. Utterly disgusting.

I'd certainly look up the DDA if I were you and seek some advice. Try going to the CBA and having a chat, they may be able to help.

 

[tracey w]

so sorry what you are going through, if you think you are being unfairly treaded then i agree get some professional advice, dont let them get away with it, good luck

 

[am64]

you are not alone...I just thought i was going bonkers...but it seems that the mood swings all come hand in hand with the D....
When i was diagnoised 1 year ago i lost my job within one month...and my boss was a diabetic....I just thought ...not again my stroppiness has lost me another job! I was too exhausted to follow it up in any way...I had no idea it was probably to do with the D until i found this place..get some independent advice..union or good HR manager ?
You found a good place here... read back over the threads and hopefully it will help you make some sense of it all
good luck🙂

 

[heliocentric]

Wow!! Heliocentric!! Quite a post! May I start with welcoming you to this marvellous forum, which is visited by a whole range of people with different issue's and experience who are all willing to share for the benefit of other's.🙂

If you are experiencing mood swing's due to your diabetic condition, which are impacting on your present employment, we all understand this from here. Your problem seem's to be a question of education and understanding of your disease by your employers. Unfortunately it will probably be incumbent on yourself to acheive this. This obviously requires a fair amount of tactful description and learning. I suppose you could be heavy handed and quote verbatim employment laws, but my experience is that this just 'steels' their conviction that their decision is justified. I'm very concerned for you, this is becoming a pet subject for me and I appreciate your bravery for coming here and sharing with us🙂

Hello again and many thanks for all of the prompt and supportive replies. I appreciate the reply but if it is my responsibility to educate I will not be in a position to do this having lost my job. We are in a department of 24 staff 3 of which are type 2 and believe it or not my line manager (who did my review) is one of them.

Please believe me when i say that I want to keep my job (this is not about a claim for financial gain) although if I do keep my job it puts me in an awkward position with regard to my line management.

Since i have been diagnosed i have possibly treated my condition with a little contempt. I have not taken the mickey regarding diet or medication but shamefully have treated it as insignificant? My partner (angel) has helped me with my diet/medication but this has also involved not recognising the signs or symptoms of what is actually happening to me.

 

[Copepod]

Hi Heliocentric
Hope you can get some independent legal advice eg from union if you're a member or advice centre, such as CAB. Or look at EHRC website http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/ which lists helpline phone numbers for England, Wales & Scotland on top right of page. I suspect that the exact order of events eg mood swings, diagnosis, informing your employer, redundance interviews etc may be the key point in your case, so it might be worth writing those details down before phoning.

 

[twinnie]

so sorry to hear that you are having problems at work
i had to give my job up because of medical problems {not just diabetes}
my ex employer was so good with my diabetes
but some of my co workers were very unsupportive and started to resent me
cause i had extra breaks to check my blood sugars and covering my shifts for docs appointments i hope everything works okay big hug

 

[am64]

Sound advice Helio, it's not easy to get your head round it, but please, please, think of yourself now. You have a disease for which there is no known cure. We all accept this here and as a community support each other through good and bad. What is important is yourself.... easy for me to say? Well I had to shell out a ?250 phone bill from my disabilty payment this month. Sorry if I'm rambling but the point is..........start paying more attention to yourself now.......because the other's that depend on you simply won't have you if you get ill with this disease. Take care my friend🙂

too right about this forum ...all ok sharpwaa ?

 

[Steff]

hi there and firstly welcome .
Sorry to hear you are having a hard time of it at work, i can only echo what has been said seek pref help ASAP X

 

[Einstein]

Hello and welcome,

The DDA is quite clear in its function and expectation.

Essentially, all reasonable and practicable adjustment should be made to ensure the access and accomodation of disabled persons (employees, customers or suppliers or others) is accounted for.

Under the 2005 ammendments diabetics were classed as disabled. As such if you can reasonably prove that your frame of mind is caused by poor levels then you could have a reasonable argument against your employer.

If you don't know your latest HbA1C results or you're not yet due a test it's worth an appointment with your GP to ask if they will do the test for you. Asking for test strips if you don't already have them will illustrate to you how your levels are on a daily basis.

The equality human rights web site do offer a facility for your to send a reasonably comprehensive email to ask for their advice.

Alternatively, you may have access to legal assistance (free legal advice) through your household or car insurance or as another membership benefit. It is worth some research here as you could be speaking to a solicitor at no charge to get an opinion and in many cases a plan of action as to how to engage the company. Always better to fight the case politely from the beginning than in the County Court at a later date.

Cases under the DDA are either at arbitration (free - I think?) or in the County Court, the general route is arbitration, but there is then usually a non-disclosure clause put in any settlement.

Another free source of information is Citizens Advice, however, that depends who you get as an advisor, often I am told it's worth finding a CAB office where you can phone and book an appointment, at least you will see someone (hopefully) who understands employment law and the DDA.

Good luck.

 

[heliocentric]

Well it happened today. At 2pm i had my "meeting" and by 215 I was on my way out of the door. I don't think I've been at a lower ebb since i was first diagnosed. I feel totally let down by my employer and feel that absolutely no consideration was given to my condition and I wasn't even aware or made aware of my perceived moodiness and the consequences of this.

 

[Northerner]

Well it happened today. At 2pm i had my "meeting" and by 215 I was on my way out of the door. I don't think I've been at a lower ebb since i was first diagnosed. I feel totally let down by my employer and feel that absolutely no consideration was given to my condition and I wasn't even aware or made aware of my perceived moodiness and the consequences of this.

Very sorry to hear this. I think a lot of employers work in this way. Usually, it was at the time of my annual review when they would bring out all their minor little complaints about me so they could justify not giving me a pay increase, rather than telling me at the time if they were unhappy with something I had or hadn't done. In the current economic climate, I guess they are just using the same methods to make people redundant. I hope that you find something soon, and with a better employer!

 

[Adrienne]

Well it happened today. At 2pm i had my "meeting" and by 215 I was on my way out of the door. I don't think I've been at a lower ebb since i was first diagnosed. I feel totally let down by my employer and feel that absolutely no consideration was given to my condition and I wasn't even aware or made aware of my perceived moodiness and the consequences of this.

What do you mean? Do you mean you were sacked? I hope not. I'm so sorry you have been let down by your work, this is inexcusable and is totally covered under the DDA. Please go and seek legal advice on this. This is out and out discrimination and he needs dealing with.

😡

 

[twinnie]

so sorry to hear you have losted your job i can only say what others have and to take it further i have done some study on major legisatation in scotland and it clearly says that they cant not to it . i take it would been the same anywere in the uk
big hugs twinnie aka vickie

 

[Copepod]

Heliocentric, as your meeting with employer has taken place, and it sounds like you were alone without a representative (?), your only chance to redeem the situation if to show that you made attempts to get a representative, but failed in the time available. "In the interests of natural justice" that could count as a reason to "set aside" the decision that was made at the meeting - at least that's how things work in disbility benefit tribunals and, although this wasn't a tribunal, the same principles could be applied - worth a try?
In any case, you really do need to seek out legal advice - several of us have given you pointers of where to find this.

 

[Twitchy]

Hi Heliocentric,

So sorry to hear about what you are going through, it's a nasty thing to happen & the way this company has handled itself sounds shocking. There's already been loads of good advice re the legal side of things, but whatever you decide to do, in the meanwhile, please do take care of yourself! 🙂 Don't take the company's action personally - my hunch is that unspecific, vague complaints of moodiness are a just really easy way for companies to score someone poorly without having to justify it vigorously...in fact it's a pretty bad metric to have on a redundancy matrix! (My burning question would have been if my attitude was so bad, how come you didn't pull me up on it at the time?!)

It sounds like this was not a nice company to have been working for! Who knows, maybe this forced change could even end up being a change for good, you never know where it might lead you to in the long run, so please do try to stay positive, look after yourself & your health (number 1 priority!) & remember, we're all here for you!

All the best,

Twitchy x

 

[Nat]

You are most definitely covered under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and your employer has to show they have made reasonable adjustment to enable you to function. Are you in a union? If so they will be able to help (mine is doing just that!) or get legal advice from Citizens Advice or from a "free legal advice" advert in your local press.
Good luck