Discrimination against Aspergers in the workplace

mickyd240667

HI

My son has recently been dismissed from his dream job, he is 20, receives PIP support. I am his carer. We are in ACAS conciliation process and I have received DSAR information from the company. I believe they have not given us all of what they have in relation to my son's employment.

They have entered conciliation and have stated that they are "open to monetary settlement but would not be prepared to go above what it would cost to defend the case".

I see that as an early indication that they have let my son down badly and they feel they will probably lose the tribunal.

My question is what level of settlement should we aim for?

There is harassment, colleagues referred to my son as "the tism" frequently and called him lazy and useless. The company were internally discussing whether his Asperger diagnosis "qualified" as a disability. 4 months into his employment they were discussing whether they should look at any reasonable adjustments etc.

I am not legally trained whatsoever and have experienced out legal system to my detriment commercially, so am nervous about what is real, possible, likely etc. This may read like I know what I'm doing....I don't!

I have exhausted all "free" legal advice and no win no fee solicitors.....there always seems to be a catch!

My gut tells me start at 1 year salary plus 10K for harassment and bullying....am I a dreamer? I just want the best fir my son....he is not in a good place and talks about "not wanting to be here anymore!". Breaks my heart!

Any help gratefully received. Many thanks in advance

mickyd240667

Thanks AKR

Any and all experience, views are gratefully received. I myself have experienced the legal system and went into a case with 85 pieces of hard evidence….an "un-losable" case…….I lost!!

So, I certainly appreciate your insight.

One question that keeps springing to mind as I do my research is "does the legal system recognise Aspergers as a disability?" It is all well and good the Government saying yes through the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), but I do not see much 'precedent' in law? it is slightly concerning?

Thank you so much for sharing!

Rachel_Scope

Hi @mickyd240667.

I see you've had some wonderful information given already but I just wanted to say how sorry I am that your son has been treated like this. I hope he is able to move past this once all of the legal processes are done.

mickyd240667

thanks all, much appreciated. You do think you are going slightly mad when this sort of thing happens, especially to a child of yours!

I know that when I think through all of the information we have a very clear case to argue at least, however our justice system is anything but just in my experience. He who has deepest pockets, wins!

Stress……a million times over! And I think it is slightly crass for me to be talking in terms of monetary expectation, my son will not come out of his room and is talking about his "life being over". Even if he won 50K, his self esteem and experience will have what has happened to him logged away forever. However, it is the only thing I can do for him as a parent….life sucks!

Anyhow….that is my problem. I thank you all for your words, the picture becomes clearer and I guess we have a game of poker on our hands…….wish us luck!

Thanks

Rachel_Scope

I wish you the best of luck.

The money could be used to get him some mental health support to deal with all of this and maybe a holiday where he could relax? It'll also ease the stress of not earning anything for the time being 😊