Thanks for everyones input. Its good to see different opinions. I have only got the dates as far back as January 2004 which was a warning and its states, Absent Migraine on 14 Dates, so employer was aware but they also informed me at my 1st appeal hearing, that I had been absent due to migraine in Oct 2000 so they knew I had migraines from start of my employment. I went back to doctors in Dec 2004, as they were becoming more frequent, I had been seeing gp about migraines since about 8 yrs old. In the disciplinarys notes for the April 2006 Hearing it says Migraine - Main trigger iced products. Now avoided, has tablets for early signs of "headache" days off for migraines should be reduced substantially. Must continue as good as the improved 2005 record. There must be no further absenteeism in the next 6 months. He knew that there was a good chance that I could not stick to this. If they had looked at adjustments then, I could have gone in on most days that I had been off, and If they had discounted my migraines, I would not be where I am now. My partner always phoned for me at that time anyway. I could'nt see the need for 1st hearing anyway, as all they had to do was look at the hours I was putting in, over 9 week period prior to hearing average overtime was 9 hours, I had 2 migraines from January 2006, 1 day I had made up completly and the other I had covered 6.25 hrs. My manager had messed up on everything including disciplinarys big time, Never given me statement of employment, never issued with company hand book, all dates I was being Disciplined for were received on the letter I received after the hearings telling me of outcome. Dates were wrong, they had dates down that were when the company was on shut down in August. Good Friday April 07 was accused of not ringing in. Manager did'nt even know what handbook says regarding dismissal, said I would be paid till the end of the week. I informed him differently when I got home from being dismissed. However I think they have strengthened my case as there are so many clerical errors in paperwork, even after I was reinstated. They keep saying that I have "failed to comply with the reporting requirements, a breach of your contractual terms and conditions and the agreed return to work arrangments we put inplace for you" thay then refer to the letter dated 31st May 2007, it states that I am to personally phone in on each and every day of absence. This is different from works handbook, It also states that a back to work plan will be agreed after medical and risk assesment and that they will contact me once they have taken place. I was then sent letter on 30th July 2007 from Employee benefits manager saying having now discussed the situation with works manager, we feel that the time is now right for you to return to your original job. Please attend on 1st Aug 2007. No meeting nothing. I wanna know who agreed to these terms and when they were put in place, should they not have been set out in an agreement.? The adjustments were too late in coming anyway, by the time I had waited for both medical + workplace assesment, situation has now changed anyway. In the letter for capability hearing they state" we feel that psychological factors are now playing a major part in preventing your return to work. I'm so sick of them, Its a relief to be not imployed by them anymore. I have had 1 migraine this week which is great, even thou I am worried about money, and getting another job, its nothing to how worthless they have made me feel. Thanks again for all your posts they have kept me going this week.

inline 66 I was getting ready to give up until I saw your post. I had my appeal yesterday and nothing has changed. Felt totally worthless after appeal, they blamed everything on me and basically said that it was all in my head. They did admit to me again though that the whole process In April 2007 was a sham basically. But they wouldnt discuss before April 2007 because I had been reinstated. Every time I brought up anything from last year they say it isnt relevant. They fail to see how the pressure they have put me under from the begining of last year 2007 has affected me, and them keeping from work only made things worse. Now they seem to be blaming me as they keep saying I have only worked 3 days since April 2007. They seem to be forgetting they suspended me on my reinstation at end of may. I also had a disciplinary hearings in July 2006, August 2006, November 2006 - 2nd written, January 2007 - Final, April 2007, Dismissed. In every disciplinary report it states my migraines are to blame. In 2004 I had 14 migraines, 2 other illness. In 2005 I had 12 Migraines, 5.5 other. In 2006 I had 10.5 Migraines, 17 Other - 2 weeks was a viral infection In 2007 up till april. 22 migraine days. Prior to Feb 2007, I could get rid of Migraine if I could sleep them off for a couple of hours and be feeling better by 11am. If they had let me go in by mid-day on most days i'd been off with migraine, I would probably been able to attend work. Since Feb 2007 thou I have been getting up to 15 migraines a month lasting for a couple of days at a time, between the medication im currently taking and the migraines some weeks I hardly get out of bed. I was starting to feel better this year and the medication was'nt making me so tired at the beginning of Jan 2008, have had a bit of a relapse since End of Januray 2008, because of my dismissal. I have worked there for 8 years, I could take normal factory banter, but to be blantly ignored by people I used to get on with, I was bound by confidentiality so could not even ask them what the problem was. You know where you are not wanted, I'm not an idiot. HR told me "we can't mitigate for the way employees deal with each other in the workplace" I'm gonna keep fighting. They have given me so much written evidence. I think I have a good chance. Your post means so much:) Thank You

I am in the process of claiming for disabilty living allowance, but as far I understand from what I have read on the disabilty Rights website I do not have to be registered disabled to be covered by the disability discrimination act. The Occupational Health Adviser also stated to my employer in several of his reports that it is very likely that I would be covered by the act. I can see what your saying but I was in a role where nobody had to cover my job, more of a floater covering other people if anything, I was one of only a few that could operate most of the machines and was doing more and more work with the maintenance side of things. I wouldnt class myself as unreliable either, In the 8 years I was there I had a max of 25 weeks paid sick, 17 weeks of these were due to the period of sickness I was on when they dismissed me. Previously the longest period of sickness was 2 weeks with a viral infection. We used to have the "Bradford Factor" in the canteen showing days off for all employees, I was never at the top. Thanks for your views thou, although they are not quite what I would have liked to hear. I have wondered on many occasion if its worth the stress of it all, but at least it will all be over monday and I can try and move on with life.

Yes I was suspended at this time, I did not want to be suspended from work, even though it was full pay I would have preferred to go back straight away, as I had already beeen away from work for over 6 weeks. I had made them aware of this but it Seems to me as if they did'nt want me back and they were trying everything they could to aviod this. Unfortunately I cannot say when I am going to get a migraine, so I can't see what difference it would have made, being suspended or not. They were ok with doing the risk assesment without me, although there there was need for them doing the risk assesment in the first place, as they were already aware that it was nothing to do with the jobs I was doing at the time. Otherwise I would have suffered with more migraines than I had been getting. Nothing had changed. They were saying that they were short staffed, so why exclude me from the workplace. Even if I had, had to attend work once a week just to visit the office I would still have had contact with the works, I feel this break of contact made matters worse. All contact from work ie letters was from head office people that I had never even worked with. They admitted they had made mistakes but were now passing the blame on to me, saying the onus was on me to prove I was capable of doing my job, which I had been doing perfeclty well up till this time. Should it have not been up to them to prove that i was incapable. Nobody else was treated like this. I now know that one of my main triggers for my migraines is stress related, I feel they added the stress to the situation by suspending me in the first place. There was no back to work plan stating any of these adjustments like they said there was going to be. So they were not clear. My partner had always rung in for me anyway. So no change there. They originally wanted me to sign a letter on 6th June 2007 before any medical or risk assesment had been carried out saying that I would personaly ring in before 11am, the works handbook states that they should be notified before end of the day. They were making it more difficult for me to report in, knowing that I was unable to do ring in if I had a migraine, the only place it notes that my partner could ring in and that I could attend late, was a recommendation in one of the occupational reports, this was not actually agreed to by anyone. Yet they are now saying that I have not stuck to agreed terms, but there were no terms for me to agree to as there was no back to work plan in place. Up until this year my migraines were not too bad if I could go back to bed and sleep them off I would normally have been feeling a better by about 11am, however this year they have been harder to shift and have been lasting, sometimes for a few days. It would not have been ok to turn up at work drowsy from the new medication that I started taking around August, as I would not have been able to operate machinery safely. The occupational health adviser had advised them that it could take time to get my medication right, I had tried several and there were still different ones I could try. In September 2007, my doctor signed me off for migraines and work related stress, occupational health noted this in one of there reports to them in november and advised that they talk to me about it, but nobody has even spoke to me about the stress side of it, apart from a letter to inform me in Jan 2007 that they wanted to visit me at which it was likely that I was going to be dismissed. They seem to ignore everything even suggestions from the occupational health. My manager had already informed me that their was discontent in the workplace at the June 07 meeting. Why were my collegues now ignoring me, I was bound by confidentiality, why was there discontent in the workplace, they had obviosly got the idea from somewhere that I had put the works at risk. I also partiticipate in a dream team with a number of my colleagues one of them had had made a sarcastic coment on the web site, saying to another collegue about their buddy with a forever headache, how did he know what I was absent for as if it is supposed to be confidential? How can they use as an argument for me not returning to the workplace? Thanks for your Views

Sorry this is long but I have tried to wrap it up as short as possible I have tried to include as much as I can. I am a 38 year old male who has suffered from migraine all my life. Up until recently I have been getting about 12 a year. So they had not been affecting my life too greatly. I Started work with a major brick manufacturer in June 2000. I worked 39 hours a week, sometimes with the option of 12 hours overtime. They were aware of me suffering from migraines from the start of my employment. I had odd day off due to migraine normally 1 day sickness at a time, which was taken as unpaid sickness, if I had holiday days remaining I tried to use them as I couldn’t really afford for shortage in my wages. My 1st paid sick leave was in 2003 which was for 1 week, so they could see I was not abusing the sick pay. In April 2006 disciplinary action was started with regard to absenteeism, mainly migraine related. I received a first official verbal. Disciplinary Hearings continued and In January 2007 was on my final warning. My Migraines had got worse and was signed off sick In February. They asked if they could get medical notes from my doctor, which I agreed. I was also referred to a neurologist by my doctor, which I advised them about and told them the appointment was for May 2007. The Occupational health advisor confirmed that I suffered from migraines. The report was never discussed and I was dismissed in April 2007 due to absenteeism. I appealed and was reinstated In May 2007 with a clean disciplinary record, due to mistakes in the disciplinary procedure. I was to return to a meeting with my manager on 6th June 2007, but then I would be suspended with full pay on Health and Safety Grounds until I had a full medical examination and a risk assessment was carried out. They said the onus was on me to prove I was capable of doing my job. They said there would be A back to work plan drawn up after the medical and risk assessment. Although I was not happy with this I agreed, but I would not sign the agreement as it stated terms which I knew I couldn’t stick to, I spoke this through with my manager at the meeting. He also told me that there was discontent in the workplace as work colleagues thought I had put the works at risk. This played on my mind considerably. In June 2007 I had a medical examination by their occupational health advisor, and In July 2007 the risk assessment was carried out in my absence as I had a migraine on the day it was being carried out. Both medical and risk assessment said that I was capable of doing my job, and there was nothing in the work place causing my migraines. They advised that it would take time to get the right medication for me and that I could always suffer from more migraines. I was asked to return back to work on 6th August 2007, however when the time came for me to go back, I felt anxious and was suffering from daily migraines. I had had no contact apart from letters with my work since the June 2007 meeting with my manager. They visited me on 9th Aug 2007 at my home I was suffering with migraine on the day of the visit, they accused me of being at home to look after my kids and told me that if I did not return after the shut down period (annual Holiday), that I would deem myself resigned. Even though they thanked me for seeing them as they could clearly see I was unwell. I returned on 28th August 2007, there was no back to work plan and the reasonable adjustments that they had made were that my partner could phone in for me when I was unwell (even though she had since the start of my employment) and that I could go in late to work on the days that I had migraine, although this was not clearly stated anywhere. I worked 3 days and suffered a migraine on the Friday, which I think was due to stress and the fact work colleagues that I had previously got on very well with were either ignoring me or very abrupt. I was signed off by my doctor and my medication was changed this made me very tired and I was depressed because of this. Various medications were tried and I was starting to get my migraines under control a bit better. I had been off for 17 weeks, when in January 2008 they attended my home even though they said I looked a lot better than the previous visit they dismissed me on Incapability through ill health. I have an appeal hearing on Monday 25th Feb 2008, could anyone please advise me on a few things. I am only appealing now as part of procedure before taking them to a tribunal. I do not feel that I could go back as the stress of it all has really taken its toll on my health and my family, financially and emotionally. I feel they have failed me twice. If I get my job back do I have to accept? If I refused to go back would the tribunal accept my claim. I have read up on Disability discrimination and feel like I would have a strong case, but am unsure how to present a case as there are many issues regarding the whole case. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Please Help