|
Second Page: Civil servant with Asperger's fired and labeled a health hazard
Posted on Wednesday, July 26 @ 16:16:58 EDT by | 
Edinburgh, Scotland: A civil servant with Asperger's syndrome was fired by tax office managers after union representatives labelled him a health hazard, a tribunal has heard.
Patrick Roberts, 48, was sacked from his job with Customs and Excise when representatives from the LTS union described his behaviour as "a health and safety risk" to his fellow workers.
Mr Roberts was disciplined following accusations that he deliberately shoved into female colleagues and listened in on their conversations.
Mr Roberts was sacked in 2002 over a row with his line manager, which saw her sent home in tears.
Managers later denied any knowledge of his Asperger's syndrome - which can lead to social awkwardness and eccentric behaviour - and claimed that they were only aware of him being on medication for depression.
The father of two claims he was punished for behaviour linked to his disability and was suffering from depression at the time of the allegations.
Mr Roberts, of Edinburgh, is claiming disability discrimination and unfair dismissal against Customs and Excise after he was dismissed from his job booking VAT inspections with businesses.
The tribunal continues.
(Source: The Scotsman, July 26, 2006)
|
|
| |
|
|
| | The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content. |
|
|
|
No Comments Allowed for Anonymous, please register |
|
Re: Civil servant with Asperger's fired and labeled a health hazard (Score: 1)
by doordoctor Wednesday, July 26 @ 18:13:39 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) | | what the heck??? what are people thinking?? they must think we have some bad mental disorder or glow in the dark! that is a violation of human rights to be discriminated against over medication because of a disorder |
|
|
Re: Civil servant with Asperger's fired and labeled a health hazard (Score: 1)
by trapped Wednesday, July 26 @ 18:39:07 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) | | I disagree. If his disorder caused him to work slower than others, or be less socialable, and he was fired as a result, I would be outraged. However, he was causing other people to feel uncomfortable, rubbing against the opposite gender innappropriately, listening in on personal phone calls, etc etc.
Either seperating him from the other employees or else terminating him are appropriate in my opinion. No one should be put in the position others were put in while at work...it simply isn't fair. I would hope he would be given a generous severance package as a result though, considering his behaviour was caused by a neurological disorder. |
|
|
Re: Civil servant with Asperger's fired and labeled a health hazard (Score: 1)
by Enigmatic_Oddity Thursday, July 27 @ 01:23:41 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | They're not discriminating against him because he has Asperger syndrome, they're discriminating against him because he's a twit. I hope he loses his case. Nobody should use their diagnosis as an excuse for behaviour that is so obviously inappropriate.
It would be excusable if he was some kid, but this guy is 48 years old. He's had more than enough time to learn that pushing people around is going to get you into trouble. |
|
|
Re: Civil servant with Asperger's fired and labeled a health hazard (Score: 1)
by one1ai Thursday, July 27 @ 09:40:36 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) | | actually I have to sign up on the scotsman, to read the news, so for anyone interested, I expect they sign up and read the original article at "the scotsman". |
|
|
Re: Civil servant with Asperger's fired and labeled a health hazard (Score: 1)
by Remnant Wednesday, August 09 @ 22:36:22 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | I don't suppose that there is any chance that he was victimized by the kind of kangaroo court that is often set up surrounding such allegations. Shoving into female colleagues might be what they call it when a female colleague insists on rubbing against him to make him uncomfortable. Listening in on their conversations might be what they call it when he is trying to do his work while they gather together near his work area and have a long loud conversation concerning their husbands, boyfriends, and feminine hygiene. Even more inappropriate touching may occur when the man has to rush to the bathroom to be sick after having maliciously listened in on a conversation that was taking place practically on his desk.
If people are going to read something like this and read things into it, you read your story into it and I'll read mine into it. |
|
|
Re: Civil servant with Asperger's fired and labeled a health hazard (Score: 1)
by danielcanberra Saturday, August 26 @ 00:18:04 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | Hmmm... it might have helped if he made his managers aware of his situation.
I have found CBT to be helpful.
Like many people with AS, it helps to be told when particular behaviour is inappropriate.
The sacking was a bit harsh. They should have counselled Mr Roberts and tried to find out what was going on. |
|
|
Re: Civil servant with Asperger's fired and labeled a health hazard (Score: 1)
by mhe1968 Monday, September 11 @ 02:37:54 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | Health and Safety risk? that makes it sound like the guy innoculated every woman there with small pox or tripped them. LOL, Kidding....
I think if they would have known how serious his illness. I think neurotypicals are so clueless about a lot of our problems... However Patrick was obviously raised or nutured by parents who allowed his behavior and never corrected by his superiors, his parents or anyone. What galls me how people don't stand up and say "Hey" what you are doing is inappropiate... I don't care if you have Aspergers, are a sociopath or just a plain jerk.
I am so glad that my parents will to do that with me... |
|
|
Re: Civil servant with Asperger's fired and labeled a health hazard (Score: 1)
by ThunderFox Monday, October 16 @ 03:12:26 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | In situations such as this, it is most often that the person with Asperger's Syndrome is the ONLY one following safety rules and the others are in danger because they fail to follow the same rules.
A Union can be a tough customer when it comes to someone to confront, as they can often work around the law with force of numbers and threats of strikes, but they have a weak point, being caught in falsehood.
Usually this can be taken care of by demanding arbitration by an independent expert advisor from OSHA, or whatever the safety inspectino department of your respective government is.
Legally, the Union cannot find a better expert arbitrator (government official on the subject) for a lower cost (free) and obviously if they had a government official do the arbitration they will have to be subject to an inspection by that inspector, thus showing that the workers who complained are the ones whom should be fired.
Due to this fact, they will likely wave the whole proceding, and give back the job with all backed pay and benifites. |
|
|
Re: Civil servant with Asperger's fired and labeled a health hazard (Score: 1)
by Druid Wednesday, January 17 @ 04:41:09 EST
(User Info | Send a Message) | | When I worked for the National Health Service some years ago, I was accused of slamming a door on leaving a meeting.
At the tribunal my Union representative took the members of the tribunal to inspect the door.
The door was fitted with a large spring which could NOT be slammed.
The tribunal found in my favour.
Two months later I was made redundant with a significant payment of redundancy money.
The accusations were made simply to try to get away without paying me redundancy.
The lady who told the lies was not punished but she caused the Trust to loose over £800,000 because of mistakes she made.
I learned about this from staff who had worked for the both of us after I left.
What I didn't know at the time of the tribunal was that they had all been threatened as well.
The system I implemented saved the Trust over £350,000 per year on an ongoing basis.
I may be socially inept but that's no reason for large organisations to bully me out of my rights.
Could there have been other reasons why they wanted to get rid of Mr Roberts?
|
|
|
Re: Civil servant with Asperger's fired and labeled a health hazard (Score: 1)
by P-We Friday, May 11 @ 22:58:48 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | I'm from Ireland but in Dunedin in New Zealand at the minute.
There was a story on the news this week which I found to be even more shocking. A girl with Aspergers sacked from the local Subway store for sharing the free drink she was entitled to have with an upset friend during a break.
Worse than that, after they had sacked her (without following proper procedures) they reported her to the police who arrived at her door two weeks later, arrested her, charged her and threw her in a cell overnight.
All for $3 (just over a quid) worth of diet coke.
What vindictive bast***s.
There are bills posted all over town for a march to Subway which happened last week. Thankfully someone somewhere (in the NZ Police dept, not Subway) has seen sense and dropped the charges as of yesterday. I walked past the offending store about an hour ago and was almost going to go in and hand out some grief. I think people here have got the message tho - the Subway in question appeared to be the only empty shop in the street.
Read all about it...
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=74&objectid=10438638
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/4054887a10.html
Phil
PS - first post - hello - glad I found this place. :-)
PPS - how do you do a link on this thing? |
|
|
|
|
|
