Not myself but my mum.

Last April 2015 whilst on a weeks holiday in Rhodes she fell hard on a set of marble steps outside her apartment, the air conditioning unit outside their door at the top of the steps was leaking water/fluid and she didn’t notice. She slipped at the top of the stairs and landed on her back 5 steps down fracturing a couple of vertebrae and bruising a decent percentage of her back/hips/legs thus spending the next 6 days in the Hospital getting scans etc. Thankfully the fractures healed without major complications apart from leaving her with two bulging discs in her lumbar area which has caused her pain/tingling and pins n’ needles pretty much constantly. Needless to say she has spent the last year signed off from work and she was called in for a meeting this morning in which i advised her to record the proceedings using the voice recorder on her phone.

The HR dept said she was not allowed to record the meeting, the outcome of the meeting ended up with her dismissal with her accrued holiday pay as they felt that they could not offer her any placement in the workplace (she worked in a packing dept of a food manufacturer and thus there is constant bending and lifting of items) where she would be able to continue employment.

My question is this : Were the HR dept correct in informing her that she could not record the proceedings of the meeting?, that sounds a bit iffy to me. She has worked there for 17 odd years and has an exemplary attendance recorded with barely any sickness days in her 17 years of employment. She’s not that bothered as she was going to retire next year anyway (she’s 63).

In answer to the specific question, yes they can say that. However, there should be a documented record of the meeting that only becomes a valid record after she agrees and signs it.
It also sounds like this wasn’t the first meeting with your mum, if it was I’m amazed they dim missed at this meet.

^ what the previous poster said.

It wasn’t her first meeting with them as they have been kept updated everytime my mum attends the hospital/physio for treatment and her continual examinations by the consultants not to mention the sick notes she has had to supply them with, they also sent her for an occupational health assessment recently which may have forced their hand to dismiss her.

Not to worry, she’s not that fussed but is annoyed that after 17years of service she is dismissed with only her holiday pay to show for it.

Unfortunately thats the way it is. She is unable to do her job or any suitable alternative they could offer.

Or is there an alternative post she could do? You could look at disability discrimination law but it might well be a very weak case to make

As tinybits says – she has to sign off on a record of the meeting as it being correct and she could have had a witness there. What does her union say?

They offered her the opportunity to have a union rep or another employee attend the meeting but the union rep is bloody useless (so is the union) as has been shown in issues over the previous years.

Cheers for the replies peeps.

Under disability discrimination legislation the employer is required to make reasonable adjustments to her job to allow her to continue in it and / or seek an alternative post within the company that she could do. If they haven’;t done this then it could be unfair dismissal.

They offered her a desk position/job but she has never sat behind a desk in her life and due to her bulging disks she suffers quite bad pain and muscle spasms if in one position for any amount of time, she just wants to get back to fitness so she can go walks/cycle again so at least she can now concentrate her daily efforts on getting back to health.

Not worth pursuing any case against them as it’s stress she can do without, it was minimum wage paying job anyway.

They’ve been more than accommodating with alternative roles and keeping her position for over a year.

There comes a point where they just can’t be expected to keep her position open any longer and I’m sure they would have legal advice before following such a process.

The disability discrimination act was replaced, amongst many other acts, with the Equality Act 2010 which covers disabilities at work

Was medical retirement not mentioned? Seems they’ve been quite fair offering the alternative desk job though.

If they offered a desk job then thats it really.

Reasonable expectation of fulfilling contract of employment.
Your decription is in keeping with what I understand to be the outcome of an injury or illness where there is no reasonable expectation of recovery to complete the contracted duties. This also happens to people with such things as cancer.
The no recording is also the practise where I have worked. Although given my experience of the “official” record of events I would record regardless of permission.

Check out the ACAS guide on Discipline and Grievances. If the company has failed to follow the steps outlined then the dismissal could be unfair….

http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/b/l/Discipline-and-grievances-Acas-guide.pdf