Is this Employer unreasonable???

eyeinthesky

Floss wrote: »

Actually bedbugs can be brought into the UK in bedding from countries which still have them....a bit like TB & polio carriers are coming into the UK from countries where the illnesses are still active.

So, places where previous residents may have included someone from Eastern Europe or Central Asia could have infested the building.

And that is on good authority from one of my colleagues who is a senior Environmental Health Officer.

Don't kid yourself! they are already here and doing very well for themselves! Try doing a search online and see how many hits you get from uk councils, giving advice on the problem. If you buy a bit of furniture second hand, you are risking being infested. Even taking furniture from friends is a risk. If you stay in a hotel, even in the uk, you should search the room very carefully before unpacking your luggage. It only takes one bug to ensure you get a shedload of the little sh1ts! Your colleague needs a bit of updating!

A single female bedbug will produce around 200 eggs in her lifetime, around 5 per day. A bedbug will shed its skin 5 times before adulthood, which takes a few weeks. Bedbugs will feed for 10 minutes, every 2 or 3 days, and consume around 7 times its body weight in blood each feed. They can survive without food for up to 18 months. Take a look here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7999260.stm

Horace

On the Victorian Farm that is being repeated on BBC4 last night, they were using a turps and seasalt scrub to get rid of bed bugs. Bed bugs are alive and kicking - you only need to watch Verminators on the telly to know that:eek:

As others have said, I don't think that your wife's employer is being unreasonable in refusing to let her have time off.

ceridwen

Okays - I'm convinced - euch!!! Personally - if I were the employer I'd be thinking "Prevention rather than cure - just how far can the little blighters travel then? Best to make sure for my own sake and that of my other employees (thinks:idea:.....litigation:eek:) that he's got them cured pronto. A bit of enlightened self-interest here time...I dont want to take any risk of getting any of the little b*****s hitching a ride to work in his stuff".

mquine

OH has to book his holiday months in advance and can only take off time in entire weeks. He can't take a day off here and there because of rota issues.

My work would let me have the time off as holiday, make up the time or work from home, but there's no legal obligation. I'm just lucky in that respect.

Usually there is one partner with a more accommodating employer. That's the person who takes time off when there's a domestic problem. Unfortunately, that person seems to be you. I don't think your wife's employer is being malicious - her work simply can't spare her at the moment.