Thanks to Annette, for telling us about this. We wouldn't always know
without such faithful "Newshounds" keeping us up to date, either because a
story is not online but only in the local paper, or people assume that we
will know already, or someone will already have told us. So, please join our
pack of Newshounds and tell us anything you think we should know about
and/or reply to.
This is in response to a story about Julie Pine, an ME sufferer who has
brought a case for unfair dismissal against her former employers. It
appeared, first in the London Evening Standard, 8 April 2008 but is also in
the Daily Telegraph, 9 April 2008.
The links are below my signature.
I think there will be more coverage, whatever the outcome. If anyone can
manage a reply, the e-mail addresses are:
London Evening Standard letters@standard.co.uk
Daily Telegraph dtletters@telegraph.co.uk
One idea for a theme is how ME is switched to CFS to make it easier for
employers, insurance companies and tougher for wronged employees but the
more ideas/experience the better, to raise awareness.
Cheers
John
drjohngreensmith@mefreeforall.org
*London Evening Standard Letters*.
While Julie Pine waits for the outcome of her appeal for unfair dismissal
against Cinven Ltd, a leading investment company in the buyout market (*ME
sufferer 'sacked for her illness' sues firm for £100,000, London Evening
Standard, 8 April 2008*), a similar case is pending in the Supreme Court in
Canada (Honda v. Keays).
The few such cases which receive publicity are a tiny fraction of the true
magnitude of those affected. This is because, if the sick employee doesn't
make it easy for their employer to "let them go", simply by being too ill to
attend and drift from Statutory Sick Pay on to disability benefit, a
campaign of bullying by both management and fellow workers is successful
behind closed doors and they "resign" or "step down", without further
entitlement. If it enters anyone's head to bring a case of unfair dismissal,
they are usually talked out of it by friends, or warned by lawyers that it
may go worse for them.
It doesn't end there. Having been hounded out of work on to subsistence benefits, they are now routinely disbelieved, ridiculed and bullied here too. Periodically, an attempt is made to hound them back into any sort of work, regardless of its suitability or level of pay, the chances of which,
of course, become increasingly rare, due to the reduced number of
opportunities and increased number of years older and out of work. The
alternatives to benefits - charity, black economy, crime and suicide -
sometimes become preferred options.
One wonders if there is any other species on Earth which treats its
chronically ill members quite so badly.
Yours sincerely
drjohngreensmith@mefreeforall.org
Dr John H Greensmith
ME Free For All. org
http://tinyurl.com/5tu88g
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23475657-details/ME+sufferer+'sacked+for+her+illness'+sues+firm+for+%C2%A3100,000/article.do
ME sufferer 'sacked for her illness' sues firm for £100,000
Benedict Moore-Bridger
London Evening Standard
08.04.08
A City worker with ME is suing a private equity fund for more than £100,000
after she was fired for being disabled, an industrial tribunal heard.
Julie Pine, a database administrator for Cinven Limited - which recently
bought Bupa's hospitals and assets for £1.44 billion - claims she was
hounded out of her £30,000-a-year job because of her chronic fatigue
syndrome.
The 31-year-old said senior PA Melanie Price embarked on a whispering
campaign by closely monitoring Miss Pine's absences, describing her as a
"malingerer" and discussing her illness openly in the office.
Now house-bound with the condition, Miss Pine told Kingsway Employment
Tribunal via video link that her inability to come into the office led to
spiteful comments between colleagues, including an email which said: "Tell
her to die."
As a result of Mrs Price's harassment, Cinven Limited - which has a minimum
investment criterion of ¤500 million - "orchestrated" her redundancy after
she went on long-term sick leave because it "did not want to be saddled with
a sick employee," she claimed.
The tribunal heard that after Miss Pine developed symptoms including
lethargy and exhaustion in January 2006, she asked if she could work from
home, accessing the company database remotely.
But Mrs Price complained to HR manager Andrew Broomfield, insisted on being
kept up to date on Miss Pine's absences, and gossiped about them in the
office, the tribunal heard.
Miss Pine, who lives in Suffolk, said she was "extremely upset, distressed
and humiliated" by Mrs Price's " malicious" treatment.
She said: "I believe that Mrs Price embarked on a deliberate campaign to
blacken my name, and sow seeds of suspicion and distrust about my illness
and absences in the mind of my employer and other members of staff.
"I believe that Mrs Price created a situation whereby I was perceived as a
malingerer and actively encouraged Cinven Limited to dismiss me.
"It is also clear that she wielded considerable influence over management.
Cinven Limited orchestrated the redundancy situation to provide a cloak of
legitimacy to dismiss me."
Mrs Price says her interest in Miss Pine's absences was out of concern for
her well-being.
Miss Pine signed off on long-term sick leave on 23 August 2006, and told
Cinven Limited she had been diagnosed with ME the following month. She was
formally dismissed on New Year's Eve that year. No other positions were
offered and an appeal was dismissed by the company.
She said: "I do not believe that I would have been dismissed on the grounds
of redundancy had I been able-bodied and not had any time off work due to
sickness, as my work record was unblemished and I was good at my job."
Mr Broomfield told the tribunal that the redundancy was not related to Miss
Pine's condition, but to the reduction in the amount of work available.
He said: "The position was redundant as far as we were concerned and the
disability, whilst unfortunate for Julie, had no real effect on the job
disappearing." Cinven Limited and Melanie Price deny unfair dismissal,
disability discrimination, harassment and victimisation on the grounds of
disability.
The hearing is due to end on Friday.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/09/nworker109.xml
City worker with ME 'treated like malingerer'
Daily Telegraph
09/04/2008
A City worker suffering from ME is suing a private equity fund for more than
£100,000 after a senior colleague allegedly gave the impression that she was
a "malingerer" and helped orchestrate her redundancy.
Julie Pine, 31, developed chronic fatigue syndrome while working for Cinven
Ltd, a leader in the "European large buyout market" which recently bought
BUPA's hospitals and assets for £1.44 billion.
She claims that a senior PA, Melanie Price, embarked on a campaign against
her by monitoring her absences and discussing her illness openly in the
office.
Miss Pine, who is now housebound, told a London employment tribunal via a
video link yesterday that Cinven made her redundant after she went on
long-term sick leave because it "did not want to be saddled with a sick
employee".
The tribunal heard that Miss Pine, who earned £30,000 a year as a database
administrator, began suffering symptoms including lethargy and exhaustion in
January 2006 and asked if she could work from home.
Mrs Price drew attention to her absences by sending an email to HR manager
Andrew Broomfield which said: "Just out of curiosity, how many days sick and
how many days compassionate leave has Julie taken since she joined?"
Miss Pine, of Leavenheath, Suffolk, said of Mrs Price: "It is apparent from
her emails to colleagues and the level of monitoring of my absences that she
was intent on creating the impression that I was a troublesome employee and
a malingerer."
Mrs Price claims she was only concerned for her colleague's well-being. In a
statement, Cinven strenuously denied the allegations, saying: "Filing an
employment claim does not automatically mean the allegations within it are
true or have merit. We are entirely confident that the tribunal will see
this claim for what it is."
Cinven Ltd and Mrs Price deny unfair dismissal, disability discrimination,
harassment and victimisation on the grounds of disability. The hearing,
which is due to end on Friday, continues.
Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited
* * *
Atleast she was allowed to work from home. I proposed to a number of employers that I could do everything from home except answer the office doorbell and was told this was not acceptable. Invariably, I was asked "how would we know you're working as many hours as we're paying you for?" -- the State Disability judge observed "because either the work is done or it isn't", but the employers themselves couldn't figure that out. (Or didn't want to figure that out, because they didn't want a disabled employee.)
Patients are routinely let go for using the health insurance (which employers believe will increase the premiums) or for taking too many sick days or, conversely, for not taking sick days and trying to work through it, which allows their employer to see for a fact that they are sick and not "malingering". Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
The best way to avoid being discriminated against is to not become disabled. Unfortunately, the only way I could've avoided becoming disabled would have required being a wacko germophobe who refused to come out of my nice germ-free apartment during flu season.
I wasn't engaging in any risky behavior, I didn't become disabled from skydiving or anonymous sex or doing drugs -- I caught the virus doing things that everyone does every day: leaving my apartment to go to work and grocery shopping. If someone coughs right in your face, there's not much you can do to avoid catching their germs: CFS isn't a lifestyle disease, it's a virus that's passed through casual contact. No one else I know was sick that week, or developed CFS, which means that I got the virus from someone I don't know, perhaps someone who touched a door or something in the store shortly before I did.
In other words, the detractors and denialists are just as likely as anyone else to wake up one day and find that they have become CFS patients. (See "Disease makes Dubious Doctor a Believer" http://journals.aol.com/kmc528/Lifeasweknowit/entries/2008/03/31/disease-makes-dubious-doctor-a-believer/1983 )
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