Reasonable adjustments

sceneparade

I am wanting to apply for reasonable adjustments at work, but I have had one this year for needing Thursdays off to attend my Autism Psychoeducation classes. My employer says I am only allowed two adjustments per year.

Is this correct?

Holly_Scope

Hi @sceneparade Are your classes educational, or something you're doing to support with your needs? Sorry to ask, I've not heard of these before. Is it that your needs have changed and you require a new review to support your accessibility needs at work? Sorry for all the questions!

sceneparade

Hello @Holly_Scope,

The educational classes were arranged via the 3 Borough ADHD and Autism clinic. It is arranged to help me understand my disability and provide practical solutions to my struggles.

The new reasonable adjustment would be to return to my working schedule that I was given when I first started working at the company, before I requested to be put on a late rota via an reasonable adjustment.

Holly_Scope

Hi @sceneparade Bless you, so that's really important for you. May I ask what the additional adjustment is for (if you don't mind stating). It just helps me understand a bit better where you might stand. Have you had an occupational health review?

sceneparade

@Holly_Scope,

I wanted to changed my working hours from lates back to scheduled rota just like neurotypical employees.

Bydand

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/131009/reasonable-adjustments

Hi, your employer is wrong to state that you are only allowed two adjustments per year….there is no such thing as a limit.

Each application for reasonable adjustments must be taken into consideration on its own merits. However that does not mean an employer has to agree to them but they must inform you of any reason why they cannot accommodate your request.

However My advice would be to do reasonable adjustment requests with the help of Occupational health as they are the ones who generally recommend that reasonable adjustments might be necessary due to an illness, condition or disability. If they recommend reasonable adjustments to an employer then it would be a brave employer who didn’t at least thoroughly look into the recommendations. Going through OH also keeps everyone right.

sceneparade

Hello @Bydand,

On the Psychoeducation classes, there was one member who went through an occupational therapist at their workplace. The occupational therapist recommended 42 reasonable adjustments, and they implemented just 3. In addition, the employer is now onto them so that they can find reasons to dismiss them - all as a result of the employee needing reasonable adjustments.

These employers are very vindictive, but preach support for DEI policies.

My employer did want to refer me to the occupational therapist some months ago - when they thought it benefited them. Now that I can see it being beneficial to me, they have ignored all requests to see a occupational therapist. I still have not seen one.

I am worried they would view me as "difficult."

Bydand

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/996280#Comment_996280

Hi again,

I think any employer would likely find introducing 42 reasonable adjustment recommendations impossible, and I would also think that the employer would be at least within their rights to look into whether the employee is fit for their role or job as a result of such comprehensive OH recommendations.

A lot of people think that employees have all the rights but this isn’t the case, employers also have rights but their systems and policies should be robust enough to allow them to manage employee issues both sympathetically and effectively in order to resolve problems for the benefit of all parties.

When I went through reasonable adjustments before my I’ll health retirement I could quite easily understand the difficulties that me remaining at work would likely cause my employer, so you do have to take into count everyone’s perspective, even though that’s not easy at times.

You are correct though in as much as some employers do make things difficult and at times openly do not follow their own policies, which is why I would always recommend getting HR involved as this effectively makes them the middle person between employee and employer, this is especially important when issues have not been resolved or one or the other party feels aggrieved and tensions are running high.

If I have learnt anything in my dealings with employers it is that you need to be proactive. If you are in a union I would suggest keeping them in the loop. It may be that you could ask for some sort of mediation with your bosses (with HR involvement) so that both sides are allowed to have their say and perhaps come to some sort of solution. I would certainly reach out to HR, explain your situation and ask for an OH referral explaining that this would allow everyone to be aware of the most up to date information and OH recommendations.

Good luck moving forward and do let us all know how you are getting on.

S