advice needed

[ardley]

Hi all, just after some advice. Been a postman more than 6 years now and enjoy most parts of the job. Went of sick last jusly because was having problems with my hands and feet and was in alot of pain and stress cos i didnt know what was happening to me..Anyway i stayed of sick while further investigations took place and a few months down was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. After trying different medications etc ive finally got control of the condition and iam 95% better than when i ist went sick. Ive used atos all the way through and my own doctors/specialist. After nearly 6 months of sick i had a telephone consultation with atos who declared me fit for to return to work on a steady basis , just a fews hours a day each week until i reached 6 hours aday cos iam on a 30 hour contract. So of i went and did my 1st week back and had no problems. Then i get home to find a letter from royal mail saying that they were retireing me on ill health grounds from the very next day..and they payed me out a lump sum..Now to say i was confused was an understatement. I phoned my line manager and he had no idea what was happening, what a joke !!. Anyhow got the union involved and they said the same, so obviosley i appealed against the decision. This was at the end of january and iam still waiting for a decision and its now june. Again royal mail have sent to do face to face , and was declared fit, then 4 weeks ago a specialist was sent to my work and i was tested to see what capabilities i could carry out , specialist said i was fit enough to do all tasks, I thought this would have been sorted by now , the way my case has been dealt with has been a joke and very stressfull..can anyone give me any advice cos i dont know where this is going , Thanks

[krussel]

I am really sorry to hear about your troubles I am afraid i am not experienced to offer you the correct advice but i am sure the folks on here can help. Sadly this poor treatment of staff is quickly becoming the norm and i hate it. I wish you the very best of luck and hope you find a solution.

[norbert]

I am really sorry to hear about your troubles I am afraid i am not experienced to offer you the correct advice but i am sure the folks on here can help. Sadly this poor treatment of staff is quickly becoming the norm and i hate it. I wish you the very best of luck and hope you find a solution.

see your Branch Secretary ASAP and let the union deal with it , not RM's idiots in charge and their quacks , if you've got a good case , the union will pay for specialists to sit on a panel

[mailman337]

Have you gone though the 3 stages ?? sounds like a breach of proceedure.

How long has the treatment lasted so far ?? If 12 months or more and the ongoing condition is likely to impact your daily life, you come under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) which gives you rights to reasonable adjustments to your duty should they be required. Go to the union m8 !!!

Read through this first.........

Who Is Covered By The DDA?

One of the major questions for members in respect of Disability Discrimination arises when there is doubt over whether someone is disabled within the terms of the Disability Discrimination Act.

As a first step employers have a duty to consider any member’s claim that they are covered by the DDA and the employer must give consideration to this matter including the seeking of medical advice from their own specialists. If the medical advice from the employer’s medical people is negative in respect of DDA status the employee can seek their own medical advice



To be covered the person will have to show:

• that they have a physical or mental impairment
• the impairment has a substantial effect which is long term and
• the long term substantial effect must have an adverse effect on normal day to day activities.

In other words, if the member is suffering from a condition which has lasted for 12 months or more, or is likely to last for 12 months or more, which is serious and affects their life in more than a minor way, they will have a disability for the purposes of the Act.

The matters affected are:

• mobility,
• manual dexterity,
• physical co-ordination,
• continence,
• ability to lift, carry or otherwise move everyday objects,
• speech, hearing or eyesight,
• memory or ability to concentrate, learn or understand, or
• perception of the risk of physical danger.
• HIV, MS and Cancer from diagnosis

If a person can show they are adversely substantially affected by the condition under one of the above headings, their medical condition may be deemed to be a disability under the Act.
If you want to raise any disability issues with the CWU Equality Department then send an email to acrisp@cwu.org or phone
020 8971 7205

Good luck brother!!! :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo

[mailsort6]

Hi all, just after some advice. Been a postman more than 6 years now and enjoy most parts of the job. Went of sick last jusly because was having problems with my hands and feet and was in alot of pain and stress cos i didnt know what was happening to me..Anyway i stayed of sick while further investigations took place and a few months down was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. After trying different medications etc ive finally got control of the condition and iam 95% better than when i ist went sick. Ive used atos all the way through and my own doctors/specialist. After nearly 6 months of sick i had a telephone consultation with atos who declared me fit for to return to work on a steady basis , just a fews hours a day each week until i reached 6 hours aday cos iam on a 30 hour contract. So of i went and did my 1st week back and had no problems. Then i get home to find a letter from royal mail saying that they were retireing me on ill health grounds from the very next day..and they payed me out a lump sum..Now to say i was confused was an understatement. I phoned my line manager and he had no idea what was happening, what a joke !!. Anyhow got the union involved and they said the same, so obviosley i appealed against the decision. This was at the end of january and iam still waiting for a decision and its now june. Again royal mail have sent to do face to face , and was declared fit, then 4 weeks ago a specialist was sent to my work and i was tested to see what capabilities i could carry out , specialist said i was fit enough to do all tasks, I thought this would have been sorted by now , the way my case has been dealt with has been a joke and very stressfull..can anyone give me any advice cos i dont know where this is going , Thanks

I would seek legal advice asap (e.g. employment lawyer, they will give you 30 minutes free consultation). You said that you were 95% fit and you returned to work , so why have RM given you ill-health retirement? This seems like a breach of contract. Due to your condition did you come under the DDA, were reasonable adjustments made to accommodate you and what reasons did RM give to retire you on ill-health if you were 95% fit to perform your duty.

[k979aaa]

Hi all, just after some advice. Been a postman more than 6 years now and enjoy most parts of the job. Went of sick last jusly because was having problems with my hands and feet and was in alot of pain and stress cos i didnt know what was happening to me..Anyway i stayed of sick while further investigations took place and a few months down was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. After trying different medications etc ive finally got control of the condition and iam 95% better than when i ist went sick. Ive used atos all the way through and my own doctors/specialist. After nearly 6 months of sick i had a telephone consultation with atos who declared me fit for to return to work on a steady basis , just a fews hours a day each week until i reached 6 hours aday cos iam on a 30 hour contract. So of i went and did my 1st week back and had no problems. Then i get home to find a letter from royal mail saying that they were retireing me on ill health grounds from the very next day..and they payed me out a lump sum..Now to say i was confused was an understatement. I phoned my line manager and he had no idea what was happening, what a joke !!. Anyhow got the union involved and they said the same, so obviosley i appealed against the decision. This was at the end of january and iam still waiting for a decision and its now june. Again royal mail have sent to do face to face , and was declared fit, then 4 weeks ago a specialist was sent to my work and i was tested to see what capabilities i could carry out , specialist said i was fit enough to do all tasks, I thought this would have been sorted by now , the way my case has been dealt with has been a joke and very stressfull..can anyone give me any advice cos i dont know where this is going , Thanks

So in essence you are sayin you were medicaly retired on ill heath even though you did the job in the week before they retired you!. This is crazy

[General Mannerheim]

I`m guessing that your Dom or Area Manager was getting itchy feet with you being off for six months and asked Atos `certain` questions...when Atos in their wiseness over a telephone conversation decided you where fit for duty, then returned you to duty it didn`t fit with the veiw point of a certain management..not that I`ve never seen it before.

[ardley]

cheers for the advice everyone, got a phone call today from my union man and told good news, i start back to work monday...so its back to the grindstone. nearly been off work a year now, but its done me the world of good..got my health back and thats the most important thing. Going to do the job properly from now on and take my time and try stay relaxed and not get stressed at work..Its good to be back tho especially in this day in age when there are no jobs about and everyone is struggling financially..cheers everyone ! and thanks to my union man for supporting me because i think they would have got rid of me without the union.

[andy2007]

It's great to hear that you've got your job back. Justice at last!

[TrueBlueTerrier]

[freespirit]

Hi im glad you have sorted everything out, i don't want to be personal but i have been off work myself for 5 weeks as im having problems with my hands and feet too i just wondered what your symptoms were ive got swollen fingers, hand pain, knee pain, foot and toe pain, muscle twitches and pins and needles when i sit for a while, i have had nerve conduction test and blood test which came back ok, and im seeing rheumatologist again in 2 weeks as he doesn't know about my knee/foot problems yet, RM are sending me to see a occupational doctor and have talked about me coming back to do sorting or something light, what sort of tests did you have to have for your diagnosis? and did you get much hassle from work while you had time off? any info would be helpful.

thanks

[krussel]

cheers for the advice everyone, got a phone call today from my union man and told good news, i start back to work monday...so its back to the grindstone. nearly been off work a year now, but its done me the world of good..got my health back and thats the most important thing. Going to do the job properly from now on and take my time and try stay relaxed and not get stressed at work..Its good to be back tho especially in this day in age when there are no jobs about and everyone is struggling financially..cheers everyone ! and thanks to my union man for supporting me because i think they would have got rid of me without the union.

Great news

Well done just take your time and your be back into it and moaning like the rest of us in no time

[DGP1]

Well done just take your time and your be back into it and moaning like the rest of us in no time

[ardley]

Hi im glad you have sorted everything out, i don't want to be personal but i have been off work myself for 5 weeks as im having problems with my hands and feet too i just wondered what your symptoms were ive got swollen fingers, hand pain, knee pain, foot and toe pain, muscle twitches and pins and needles when i sit for a while, i have had nerve conduction test and blood test which came back ok, and im seeing rheumatologist again in 2 weeks as he doesn't know about my knee/foot problems yet, RM are sending me to see a occupational doctor and have talked about me coming back to do sorting or something light, what sort of tests did you have to have for your diagnosis? and did you get much hassle from work while you had time off? any info would be helpful.

thanks

Both my big toes were swollen and both my thumbs swollen, also had foot pain and problems with my wrists (tendonitis), also my jaw and shoulder pain. Also got psoriasis on my chest..had blood tests and x rays which showed damage to some joints.. this is linked into the psorisis and is a condition called psoriatic arthritis. this took along time to get diagnosis, noticed trouble with feet about 5 years ago after playing football my feet didnt feel wright and its just continued. Been on tablets past 6 months and my condition has improved greatley, layed of the alcohol, and tried to eat more healthy and been going to the gym. In total been of 11 months and yeah in the early stages were getting a bit of hassle, but your heath is more important than work so i decided it was going to be a long term sickness while investigations were going on. How long you been having problems by the way .

[freespirit]

Hi i have been having problems since January so six months now but have only been off work for 4 weeks and have 1 more week off until i go back, your symptoms sound similar apart from instead of my big toes swollen i have 2 bent toes the ones next to the big in both feet, and sharp pains on top of right foot and to the side, it seems to take forever to get a diagnosis i never know what to tell work whether its arthritis or a nerve problem, well i hope to find out more in a couple of weeks thanks for replying and i hope your feeling a lot better especially now your back at work.