The governmentfunded body that promotes the UKs
The government-funded body that promotes the UK’s culture and education abroad has sacked a disabled teacher, despite its own internal investigation concluding that it failed to provide her with the reasonable adjustments she needed to do her job.The British Council, which proclaims itself a Disability Confident employer – under the discredited employment scheme run by the Department for Work and Pensions – was able to dodge its Equality Act duties by arguing that the legislation does not apply because Emily Frisby worked in Morocco and so was subject to local employment law.Internalinvestigations upheld her complaint about the failure of managers to provide her with thereasonable adjustments she needed and even concluded that “management may havecrossed a red line in terms of intimidation/bullying” of Frisby.But althoughthe British Council then agreed to provide the adjustments she needed, managersrepeatedly refused to provide details of the provisions they would make, shesaid, and ignored her emails asking for clarification.She hadexperienced months of disability discrimination at the hands of British Councilmanagers after transferring to Morocco from Vietnam in 2017.She wasdenied the reduced hours she had in her previous British Council job, whichworsened her health condition, and was forced to take a “protracted anddehumanising” grievance procedure because of the refusal to provide her withthe reasonable adjustments she needed.Hercondition affects her hearing and balance, and symptoms include vertigo,hearing loss and tinnitus, all of which can be triggered by stress.But when shetried to secure the reasonable adjustments she needed, managers refused toprovide them and instead questioned her impairment, and, she said, bullied andharassed her.As a resultof her treatment, she was signed off work with stress and anxiety and anexacerbation of the symptoms of her condition.She wasforced to drop a legal claim for discrimination because the British Councilargued that the Equality Act does not apply to its actions in Morocco, eventhough it is a UK charity, receives funding from the UK government, issponsored by the Foreign Office, and has signed up to Disability Confident.Now theBritish Council has given Frisby three months’ notice under the “Moroccan laborcode”, blaming her for her failure to return to work and telling her they aretreating this as a resignation, even though her GP and an occupationaltherapist advised her to make sure the adjustments were in place before shereturned to work. She has beenoff sick for more than a year and received sick pay only until August. She hasnot been paid since. She said: “Ihaven’t had any indication of how the adjustments would work in practice…despite repeatedly asking for and obviously needing confirmation and clarification.“My GP andoccupational health advised to have the adjustments in place before I returnedto work to avoid further stress and delays and it seemed sensible consideringit would be impossible for me to return to work without any discussion or knowledgeof my working hours and classes. “All Iwanted was to reduce or change my timetable and have a level of support andunderstanding about my health condition.”She added:“My emails and sick notes are often ignored entirely, or they just repeat thatadjustments will be made on my return to work, ignoring the otherquestions and concerns.“It’s hardnot to see this as part of the same hostile environment for disabled peoplecoming from the UK government, and as retaliation for speaking out and complaining.”The BritishCouncil argues that it does not need tocomply with the Equality Act because Frisby was employed in Morocco and wassubject to local employment law. It also says that “thespirit” of the Equality Act is captured in its “equality policy, values andbehaviours”, which apply to all staff globally. A BritishCouncil spokesperson refused to say whether it would provide Frisby with anapology and compensation for the treatment she has received.She alsofailed to say why the British Council could not go beyond Moroccan law andtreat disabled people as fairly as they would be treated in the UK, and she refusedto say if the British Council believed it could continue as a DisabilityConfident Employer in the light of her treatment.But thespokesperson said in a statement: “Our own internal investigation into thisfound that we didn’t handle some aspects of the adjustments required verywell. “Althoughthe changes were later put in as requested, we are sorry for the upset thissituation caused.“We hadsuccessfully made adjustments for Ms Frisby in a previous role, in a differentcountry. “We have nowshared how we handled these requests with our Disability Facilitators –speciallytrained staff in global teams – so they can help assist employees and managersin these situations. “As an organisation, we fully recognise that people with disabilities face discrimination and barriers, and we are committed to identifying and removing those barriers so we can improve our practice.”Picture: The laptop that was refused for four months as a reasonable adjustment by the British Council despite it being agreed in Frisby’s previous role, shortly before moving to Morocco A note from the editor:Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations. 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