Your employer was totally in the wrong. How would they know if your violent or not...they're not trained professionals. I don't trust employers...that's why I have a social worker to back me up. The sane people have a way of misjudging everything and put everything in a bad light.
I see you point and maybe they do it for everyone where I used to work but I was told specifically though that I was escorted by security because I wrote I get psychotic under stress and they think that automatically means you're violent and that they have someone sit in on the being fired part when they're afraid someone will attack them for being fired.
I won't get into the discrimination involved between being discharged for mental health versus any other reason, but where I work (with at least 250,000 employees in the US) ALL terminations require security and/or management escort...and that's even you got to work in the first place. It's not uncommon for some to get to work and find out that their access card doesn't work. So they call in to see what's up and get "the talk" and a box of their personal effects in the mail. This is 100% the case for contractors. Employees get the same treatment, but at least there's an HR arbitration, but what a joke that is. Whose side do you think they're on? After that it's the civil courts, who has the energy to put into that?
Here is Canada we have something through our Human Rights Legislation. The last step is a tribunal where they decide who wins the case. It is a very lengthy process. I am in year two of it. The money you can recover is minimal - $8000. But in the end for me it isn't about the money but about preventing them from doing this to anyone else they come across.
The advice I give is only go into this process if you feel you can mentally handle it. It is gruelling. You have to tell your story over and over and over again. The opposite side tries to make it out that you were unreasonable and that they were shiny saints. And you need to accept that even though you are right - you may not win.
I'm half way through the process and it is extremely difficult. Each time I get a letter from them I am mildly unstable for a few weeks. It isn't easy and my husband has to remind me from time to time why I started this process. But it feels really good to stand up for myself and say "This isn't right"
Tanya
OK my curiosity got impatient so I looked it up. I do not live in the UK where employment tribunal exists as far as I was told by where I looked it up and have schizophrenia instead of bipolar disorder but I have been discriminated against at work for my mental illness (they told me I would be fired if I didn't keep my work and psychosis separate) and fired in such a way that nearly everyone tells me I was unlawfully discharged and unemployment sided with me and awarded me unemployment benefits. They also had security escort me out as I was fired because I wrote I get psychotic under stress and my supervisor thought being psychotic automatically means your violent which him and my exboss are like two peas in a pod so I know she probably thinks that too which to me seems like more discrimination. I can't seem to get an attorney to contact me back however on the matter who is in my city to even give me a consultation.
What's an employment tribunal?