This is a letter that DPAC have sent to the British Council asking them to respond to the issues raised by one of their former employees. She has asked them to respond to these points several times before, and her MP, Paul Blomfield has also asked and each time, British Council has given no response.
Emily (we’ve removed her surname) as a disabled person, has contacted DPAC to see if we can assist, so we are going ask British Council about some of the same issues, but this time we are going to publicise it, in the hope that it might shame them into responding.
We will publish their response – if we get one. If we don’t get a response, we’ll have to see what we will do next.
Here is the letter we sent to British Council:
Dear Sir Ciarán Devane and Claire Vincent
It is with concern that we have been made aware of Emily’s situation via her blog and the correspondence between the British Council, Emily, and her MP Paul Blomfield over the last few months.
We understand that she has faced multiple problems since becoming ill at work in 2015, and subsequently disclosing a disability – from repeated failure to make the reasonable adjustments recommended by her doctors and implement occupational health recommendations, to the refusal to address serious concerns about bullying and harassment or to share and fulfil grievance investigation outcomes, to eventually terminating employment without warning, contractual benefits or a right to appeal.
The issues she has raised and documented, and the consequent lack of communication from the British Council, while knowing the effect this continues to have on Emily’s health, suggest both an alarming disregard for employee rights and disability equality, and her personal well-being. This stands in stark contrast to the stated aims and values of the British Council.
As you know, Emily has put an enormous amount of time and effort in to raising concerns, providing evidence, and advocating for basic rights, according to your policy and processes but is still waiting for answers.
She had no meeting throughout the grievance process or since. She has had no acknowledgement of the grievance reports and the private emails between senior management she subsequently received from the British Council via her Data Subject Access Request. The grievance report that she hadn’t been allowed to see was favourable to Emily and the emails between management reveal a lot about the discriminatory attitudes and processes she faced as well as their efforts to discredit her personally.
Neither has she had a response to specific concerns, which she was promised, needs and is entitled to (at a minimum).
This is a list of some of Emily’s main outstanding concerns, which you have previously received via email and letter:
- Why was she refused simple reasonable adjustments despite them having been previously agreed by the British Council, and why was she required to go through the grievance procedure over this?
- She tells us that she was subject to harassment including jokes about her hearing aid, aggressive body language and shouting, comments about not being able to manage her workload, being an expensive hire and therefore needing to “squeeze” the most out of her. Why was this allowed to happen, and what action did management take to prevent it?
- Why was she denied access to professional development, refused reimbursement for expenses (that other teachers were given), physically prevented from attending one meeting and told she wasn’t allowed to attend or be accompanied at other meetings?
- Why was no action taken when she tried to resolve things informally except being told to wait until the managers in question left or leave herself?
- Why was she told that she could not join a union or the local staff association?
- Despite going through a process which took months, why wasn’t she allowed to see or discuss her grievance investigation report and why were the (favourable) outcome and recommendations overruled and ignored?
- Why were the recommended reasonable adjustments, doctor’s notes and her emails also ignored for months making work extremely difficult and a return to work impossible?
- Why was her holiday pay refused at Christmas, in the absence of sick pay and any resolution to her concerns or a supported return to work?
- Why was her employment terminated with three months’ notice but no notice pay, which just prolonged being stuck in Morocco without work, pay, sick pay, medical care or any support networks?
- Why was her Moroccan health insurance cancelled before the end of her employment, despite knowing her medical situation and the fact she couldn’t return to the UK without communication and support from the British Council?
We would also like to ask you, as you claim to be a Disability Confident organisation, how can disabled people have any confidence in you as an employer after reading the above list of issues?
In case you don’t know of our organisation, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) was set up in 2010 to campaign against the harmful effects of austerity on disabled people, but we also campaign on disability equality issues for disabled people as a community and as individuals. Our approach to campaigning ranges from research, media appearances, supporting legal challenges, activity on social media through to street civil protest and occupation.
We will publish this letter on our website, and we invite you to send a response, which we will also publish, in order to give you a right of reply
We hope that you will be able to respond swiftly to this letter, in order that Emily be given the answers that she has waited for for too long.
The DPAC Steering group
Oh, do I need to speak to you guys. They cancelled my contract when I was 5 months into a high risk pregnancy and after a work place accident, that aggravated my spinal condition. Given a month to pack up and leave.
Thanks DPAC.
More info and background here: https://starfishmainlyobeys.wordpress.com/
As reported, an extremely concerning case and (for Emily) human predicament. Far, far too often institutional practices and the concerning egocentricity of those in power, lead to just such outcomes. Respect to DPAC for using its hard-won platform to represent Emily.
I sincerely hope this will be dealt with in a fair manner. My own daughter was doing her masters and she had a disability assessment done. When her supervisor was told he expressed annoyance and said she would be a hindrance and questioned why she was doing it if she was disabled. . Consequently my daughter stopped doing her masters as she lost her confidence. She has since found out he has done the same to others and is now been supervised. She is very upset and drmoralised.
I think all councils operate the same policy and don’t make any allowances for disabled people. It’s discriminatory. There is a complete lack of understanding ,tolerence and most of all compassion for what a disabled person might be going through. Instead it’s cold hearted intolerant and just plain evil.