Bumping duty holder off because of disability ?

[daveyeff]

no not supposed to, unless a duty has been specifically ringfenced. but even then, there are conditions. you seen the rep?

If someone was in a car accident and left with a disability, how could any duty have been ringfenced for them in advance?
RM has a legal responsibility to try and provide work for anyone with a disability and if that means an able bodied colleague losing their duty so be it.
They have the choice of vacant duties until a resign.
Which would most people prefer - the mild inconvenience of having to do a duty they are trained for until they can pick one more to their choosing or a lifetime living with a disability?
Some people need to understand when they are well off and stop whinging.

you CANNOT just bump someone off a duty just so YOU can have it because of a disability. there are procedures to be followed. I am classed as disabled as I now have 2 prosthetic knees due to replacements. I need a flat duty. we had a repick. what they did was identify 9 duties that I could do that were on relatively flat terrain. (I struggle on stairs). the repick started on the seniority basis. 6 duties were picked on that ringfence list before my turn eventually came round. so there was 3 i was left to choose from. had it have went down to only one being left, THEN, and only then, would it have been reserved for me and been 'out of bounds' to anybody else.... you CAN'T just go to a duty holder and say 'his knees are f****d' so you'll have to give him your job. royal mails responsibility lies with finding you suitable work but that doesn't mean displacing others to do it!!

[motherhubbard]

. what they did was identify 9 duties that I could do that were on relatively flat terrain.

So what would have happened if you work in an area where only 1 duty could be identified as suitable?

[daveyeff]

. what they did was identify 9 duties that I could do that were on relatively flat terrain.

So what would have happened if you work in an area where only 1 duty could be identified as suitable?

if someone was on that duty, they would not be displaced. Royal Mail are then supposed to make 'reasonable adjustments' to your existing duty in order to accommodate you. for instance, in my case before we had the re-pick, part of my duty was steep hills, and some high steps. I was leaving that part of my duty in to be covered. management were not happy. they said there was no other work available, even down the mail centre, so it was looking like ill health retirement. but I was given an atos report saying that reasonable adjustments had to be made to the duty, plus the union stipulated that I was completing my full duty time of 4.45 so management did not have a case. once the re-pick came I got a ringfenced duty on flat terrain.

[motherhubbard]

Imagine this scenario:
A colleague has just returned from an operation for cancer. They can no longer do a delivery and there is only one indoor position in the DO.
They are trained and capable of doing that duty and they want to return to work to try and get some semblance of normality back into their life.
They don't want retirement on the grounds of ill health.
Do you really think that the postie holding that indoor position can't be moved because it is "their" duty and they signed for it?
How much weight do you think a resign holds in a courtroom?

It isn't "his" duty.
Operational needs means he can be moved.

[General Mannerheim]

Imagine this scenario:
A colleague has just returned from an operation for cancer. They can no longer do a delivery and there is only one indoor position in the DO.
They are trained and capable of doing that duty and they want to return to work to try and get some semblance of normality back into their life.
They don't want retirement on the grounds of ill health.
Do you really think that the postie holding that indoor position can't be moved because it is "their" duty and they signed for it?
How much weight do you think a resign holds in a courtroom?

It isn't "his" duty.
Operational needs means he can be moved.

S Williamson V Royal Mail.

http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 18&t=50879" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Section 21 of this judgement onwards.
The whole point of reasonable adjustments is that you give the person in question a duty or adjustment that they can do to stay in a job,not just make up a load of duty's that they `might` be able to do and then let them pick one when it eventually gets round to them ,based on seniority,that is just plain f***ing dumb.
There are at least 2 cases off the top of my head, where an EAT has even said and expected an employer to move somebody off a duty to make way for a disabled colleague indeed the now defunct DDA code says this:
The 1995 Act, however, does not regard the differences between disabled people and others as irrelevant. It does not expect each to be treated in the same way. It expects reasonable adjustments to be made to cater for the special needs of disabled people. It necessarily entails an element of more favourable treatment."
The facts are Royal Fail and CWU reps don't like rocking the boat(even if they are acting illegally )they don't like it when their mates are shuffled off a duty even if it means somebody else loses their livelihood,they look as it as `natural wastage`

[daveyeff]

Imagine this scenario:
A colleague has just returned from an operation for cancer. They can no longer do a delivery and there is only one indoor position in the DO.
They are trained and capable of doing that duty and they want to return to work to try and get some semblance of normality back into their life.
They don't want retirement on the grounds of ill health.
Do you really think that the postie holding that indoor position can't be moved because it is "their" duty and they signed for it?
How much weight do you think a resign holds in a courtroom?

It isn't "his" duty.
Operational needs means he can be moved.

imagine THIS scenario. the job the cancer patient is hoping to get as its the only one he can do, happens to be held by a postie who has a disability and can only do that one job. then your cancer patient is IHR. scenarios like this are probably an exception to the rule. but as was mentioned before, a duty holder cannot just be displaced because of someone elses disability. there are skills matrixes to be dealt with. can the bloke being displaced do the job he is given? this is why every avenue is supposed to be explored and adjustments to duty considered and all eventualities and knock on effects considered.

[halfull]

. what they did was identify 9 duties that I could do that were on relatively flat terrain.

So what would have happened if you work in an area where only 1 duty could be identified as suitable?

if someone was on that duty, they would not be displaced. Royal Mail are then supposed to make 'reasonable adjustments' to your existing duty in order to accommodate you. for instance, in my case before we had the re-pick, part of my duty was steep hills, and some high steps. I was leaving that part of my duty in to be covered. management were not happy. they said there was no other work available, even down the mail centre, so it was looking like ill health retirement. but I was given an atos report saying that reasonable adjustments had to be made to the duty, plus the union stipulated that I was completing my full duty time of 4.45 so management did not have a case. once the re-pick came I got a ringfenced duty on flat terrain.

off subject but why the hell would you want to do this job with 2 knee replacements? do you know how fast those knees will wear out? they only last about 10 years once fitted anyway & so ive been told the surgery to re replace them again can have many complications.
I would be out the door looking for lighter work! but thats me.

[daveyeff]

im hoping to get out in about 3 or 4 yrs. its hard to get ANY job now, and at 56 with two knee replacements its nigh on impossible. the duty im on now is all flat terrain and I use the trolley all the time. my knees are better now than they've been for years. its purely financial reasons that's keeping me here. but it used to be a good job....distant memories.