Reasonable adjustments at work (field of education)

[theia]

Hello,

I am going back to work after a major relapse. I already have a set of reasonable adjustments in place to facilitate pacing and I was wondering if someone had any successful experiences negotiating any useful reasonable adjustments. Any advice?

I am wondering if any of you has managed to :

1) get extra paid recovery breaks

2) reduce certain work activities without reducing pay

3) teach online

The only reason that I manage to keep working is because I do not have any social life and I have an extremely supportive partner who does everything. The only thing I do is conserve my energy for working. I do not have work/life balance as all my limited energy goes to work. Are you aware if any union has been successful in arguing that the employer should facilitate the reconciliation of work and life balance by reducing work hours without reducing pay?

Employers usually accept the reduction of work hours as long as it is accompanied with the reduction of pay.

bw

[Bevvy]

I 100% understand where you are coming from. Have been in similar situation as you with ME plus additional health issues. In all honesty I would be surprised if you can get many reasonable adjustments without it affecting your pay. Are you in receipt of Personal Independence Payment? Years ago now I applied for what was then Disability Living Allowance (prior to PIP) receiving that money meant I was able to reduce my hours from full time to 3 days per week. This actually kept me in the work place for many more years than had I tried to continue full time. Whilst many local authorities will try to accommodate reasonable adjustments ultimately you are being paid to do a job and if you are unable to carry that out then they can consider capability proceedings. I fought to not have hours reduced and subsequent loss of salary, which PIP couldn’t entirely cover. But ultimately I had to accept it and as said this kept me in the work place.

2 1/2 years ago following another significant bout of illness medical retirement was considered. I was supported in this by the work place plus my gp and I obtained ill health retirement and have been retired for 2 years now.

My union did help me over the years but to be honest it very much depended on who was supporting me each time as to how well things went!!

I am aware you are not getting the answer from me that you are hoping for but I can only go by my experience.

Hope things go well for you.

[theia in reply to Bevvy]

Thanks so much for your reply Bevvy. Good to hear that you have obtained ill health retirement Hope you have managed to regain some of your energy. In terms of your questions: During the last years half of my marking has been covered by access to work resources. Marking has always been one of the most energy draining work activities which requires tons of recovery time. This has worked mostly well and has enabled me to continue working full time. oops.......no more energy....will continue the email in the following days....

[theia in reply to theia]

Good morning,

I am in the process of updating the reasonable adjustments I need and I came across some useful documents related to a Disability Passport. Check here: tuc.org.uk/reasonable-adjus...

Also, the Royal College of Nursing has an excellent guide and template which you can can find here rcn.org.uk › december › pub-006598PDF

"A health ability passport also known as 'disability passport' 'adjustment passport' or 'workplace adjustment passport' is a document completed by an individual with a disability or neurodiversity and their line manager. It is a record of the workplace adjustments that have been agreed for that individual".(RCN, 2022)

tbc

[theia in reply to Bevvy]

Hi again Bevvy, in terms of your experience of union reps you are right. Unions are stronger in their collective struggles rather than in their case work. This is because their case work is constrained by policies that are created by the employers for the employers. From my experience when workplaces and managers are trully informed by the social model of disability and are humanistic in their approach then unions reps can be successful. If the workplaces operate with strict market/neoliberal criteria then successful individual case work can be really hard for union reps. The most important thing is to fight collectively to change the workplace policies. Hence, the need everyone to join their union and collectively demand a humanist workplace and overall a humanistic and caring society. “One of my favourite quotes is by Mary Macarthur, the suffragist and trades unionist, who said 'unions are like a bundle of sticks, they tie their members together and create a strength that individual sticks don't have on their own'.  The more we are the stronger we are. The more we fight the more successful we are. It took ages for us to be able to influence the NICE guidance ...... everything takes so much time ......and we have an energy deficient disability......anyhow we all do what we can x