Earlier this month I had a one to one meeting in work in which one of the questions asked was ''do you have any concerns'' to which I replied, '' only my ability to carry out my duties if my health worsens '', fair play to my foreman he said he would arrange a meeting with HR to see if I could have an easier role ( I'm a plasterer ) should the need occur. This week I attended the meeting with HR and explained the situation and was left gobsmacked by the reply '' the company will want as much out of me as possible and in his opinion if my health worsens it's my own fault because of my lifestyle choices '' as you can imagine I was not a happy bunny and gave him an in-depth lesson on type 1 diabetes and told him that I've been type 1 for nearly 50 years so my lifestyle choices have been as good as they could have been, he did say he didn't know a lot about diabetes and would make a point of reading up on it. That's what you get for having a member of HR barely out of nappies with little life experience.
I'm going to comment on this from a Managers viewpoint, not necessarily HR (I have no HR background, but have managed lots of people in my time).
Firstly, I don't think any business can really promise to do anything for anyone in the future, unless it is the very near future. What any business can do for an employee will be governed by law, influenced by the management regime at the time, and by the individual at the time "something" needs to be done.
Reasonable adjustments in a multi-national, successful business are likely to differ in their potential scale and potential generosity to those made by a very small business without too many resources. The legal requirements may change and also your ability to work and your attitude to work may change. I'm certainly not suggesting they would or will, but they could.
Had I been managing you, and you brought your query to me, my response would probably have been that I would be sure the fir would stand by their legal obligations, and that based on your efforts and quality of work remaining good, I would support changes for you, where possible. I doubt very much I would have set up anything with HR at this stage. HR don't know you (I assume), but here they have "some bloke" who wants to set up a cushy number for the future if he gets a bit knackered, due to a condition I really don't understand.
I know that last paragraph will smart a bit, and please be assured it's not my assessment of you, but it could be how some stranger brought into a meeting could start off.
In my view, any such meeting with HR would have involved significant preparation, with lots of data, summary sickness records, absence records, any existing adjustments, and a summary of the issues currently being experienced - all up front, so that the HR person is also forced to be prepared to discuss what you actually want to discuss, not be batted off with glib comments.
In my view, your current foreman, in his efforts to do the right thing, hasn't necessarily served you very well.
I do hope it's a very long time, if ever, before you have to ask for significant adjustments to be made to your working life. Undoubtedly, the very manual nature of your current role could make that quite tricky for them. What do they do with a plasterer who can't plaster, or who can't plaster above shoulder height or below hip height because his joints are going? Do you have other skills you could utilise in the workplace, should any of these things arise?
I might be thinking about that sort of thing; what else you have to bring to the party, so that if ever you need adjustments, you have something inaddition to offer your employer to make you a continuing attractive employee. That very sad fact of the matter is no employer has to keep someone on because they have a condition protected under law. If that person is unable to do the material duties of their role, and play a good part in the business, then an employment tribunal is unlikely to uphold any case for wrongful dismissal - unless they completely balls up the process - which isn't entirely unknown!
My advice would be to skill up and continue looking after yourself as well as you possibly can and do a little dance to the D-gods once in a while for good fortune and continuing health.
Sincere good luck with it all.
