Disability Act

[rosie-b]

I work for a big company which is reducing its head count. I am being encouraged to leave being told there are no roles suitable for me and if I take the money now I will get it but in a couple of days time the offer ends. If I carry on and go looking for other work and don't find any thing I will have to leave with nothing. I would have thought there might be something.But an MS nurse has said try to find a role if you can, don't worry if you can't. If they have to then by law they can pay you to leave. Would this happen under Disability Act?

 

Am I right to take her advice?

 

Rosie

[happyandy]

Hi Rosie,

 

I would check with the Union if you have one or Citizens Advice. Even if you did not have a disability there is a minimum pay off requirement usually a week for each year. To encourage people to leave there is usually an enhanced package wich is more that the minimum legal requirement.

 

All I would say is your company has to tread carefully when it comes to dismissing disabled workers due to the possibility that the decision has been discriminatory

 

Hope that helps

 

Andy

[Stumbler]

Totally agree with Andy.

 

If you have a union, they'll be better placed and potentially better informed.

 

I was talking to my union as my career came to its untimely end. They actually put each available option in order of priority of benefit to you.

 

If you don't have a union, or you aren't a member, go with the CAB.

 

Good luck

 

[Heste]

If we put the disability thing to one side for a moment then the key point to remember is that roles become redundant not people. If your role is redundant then they pay you redundancy. As Andy says this is a minimum of a weeks pay for every year you have worked for them. They often offer a better deal as a sweetener if they want people to go freely. If there are other roles available then they are obliged to offer it to staff rather than redundancy if you are capable of doing that role.

 

As it is a big company then your HR Dept will know this and who ever is saying you should go or you will get nothing sounds like a manager who is in fear of losing their own job.

 

You MS nurse not offering bad advice but you would do well to consult your union or CAB (as Andy already suggested).

 

Bringing back the disability thing. If there are alternative roles to be taken then your company would have to decide if you are capable of doing it. Under the Disability discrimination Act they cannot say you are less suitable because of a disability unless they have very strong grounds that justify it. Again, as you work for a big company with a grown up HR department then they will be careful not to make it sound like the decision was in any way related to your health. If they have one alternative role for every 10 staff looking at it they might just choose someone else for other reasons. They will not be so silly as to say you were rejected due to your disability. I doubt the DDA is going to help much.

 

What is probably going to help is if you have a reasonable attendance record, you do a good job and you get on with people.

 

In my company we went through a similar head count reduction. Ours was not optional (mainly because the people they wanted to keep would have gone and visa versa). We had managers who were quite rightly scared of losing their job and it lead to some people getting a little "protective". Desperate managers wanted people to leave because at the end of the day it was all down to head-count. Of course, with fewer staff we need fewer managers.

 

So try to find that other role if you can. Don't feel you need to leave on account of managers or peers suggesting it.

 

Regards,

 

John