After an accident, I have been unable to walk and required physical therapy weekly.

Last month, a colleague was promoted to become a supervisor, a job that I knew was meant for me, having seniority and better skills than the one promoted. I've talked to both our HR and department manager about this, and it turns out that they based their promotion on employee appraisals we had. And they said that it was a close fight between me and my promoted colleague.

What gave him the edge was simply, attendance. I had been absent a couple of times because of my PT treatments and some painful episodes where I was not able to report to work.

I am thinking that there is a disability discrimination case here somewhere, as I have been bypassed a promotion due to my absences which were related to my disability?

I think this may fall under the reasonable adjustments clause, which may require your employer to make adjustments for you due to your disability.

Actually no, the reasonable adjustments clause prevents any employer from terminating an employee with disability without first trying to accomodate the employee by making these reasonable adjustments. This would include, among other things, physical adjustments to the office like putting up a disability ramp, or giving you a computer that is more suited for the visually impaired if you need it.

I don't think that it can be used in this case.

Actually, in this case, you should look at how your absences has been recorded. It could be that your PT sessions and absences due to your pains (which could be related to your disability), has been recorded as part of your attendance record. It should not be.

All absences from work that you have that is related to your disability is supposed to be recorded separately and discounted when you are being considered from promotion. This is true if you are also included in redundancy procedures and training selection.

And yes, this is part of reasonable adjustments.

Ah, I was about to say this. I think you are absolutely right. Your company cannot use your absences related to your disability against you in any way. They cannot even terminate you for being constantly absent if these is due to your disability.

I had a colleague who was always out of the office due to severe back pains, and management decided to terminate him for that. They soon had a disability discrimination case in their hands!

That's odd. Our company was also sued for disability discrimination, but they were cleared of it. The case involved terminating an employee who became deaf after an accident which left his eardrums punctured.

What was the guy's job in the first place? Employers can terminate you if you can't essentially perform the job anymore. Like if he was answering phones or a call center agent, then no matter what the employer does, he will not be able to perform the function anymore. Same thing if you're a construction worker and you lost both of your hands.

That's correct. The absences were for PT work, so it's tied to his disability!

And I am quite sure he won it That's the beauty of labour laws in this country, they are absolutely pro labour

That's right, what people miss about disability laws is that the employer is required to make reasonable adjustments, not move heaven and earth to accommodate a disabled employee!