Off sick since august , been called in for a 'catchup ' with HR ??

janiebaby29

Hello , please bear with me while i write my history ,
I work for a well known retail supermarket and ive been there 10 years ,
I was diagnosed with a crumbling disc diease in 2008 ,
Over time it has got worse , this is the longest i have been off since august , im currently awaiting treatment from the hospital which could be in 6 to 8 weeks time .
I cant stand , sit or walk for a long time .
My job was in the office , which suited me , then they had to change hours which meant there was less hours in the office and moved me onto the tills , knowning that i had this back condition , this caused my back to get worse .
I still havent had any Occupational health advice at all .
Obvoiusly I dont want to resign or get sacked , What options do I have .
Ive been called by HR to have a catchup with them , and would like to be savvy to my rights .
My sick pay runs out very soon , in fact i only have a couple of weeks left .
Docs and consultants all say , stay off work and i have been getting sick notes to them on time .
Any advice would be welcome .
thanks

tanith

I wouldn't be too worried, HR need to know what the state of play is, are you awaiting surgery? is your back likely to get better enough for you to resume your job? Could they make adjustments to your work place to accomadate you?. Before I had to take Ill-health retirement I had many meetings to HR and Occy Health.. I would ask them to refer you to the O/H dept so that you have an ongoing record with your work as to your progress or lack of it... in fact it was my O/H who suggested ill-health retirement in my case and as it turned out they were correct in the assumption that I would actually never be able to return to work... When my SSP ran out I claimed Incapcity Benefit till my retirement came through which took a year or more altogether.. I think its called something else now though... hope it works out for you and if its what you want you get back to work eventually

fengirl_2

HR will be wanting to find out when you are likely to be able to return to work. I'm sure you realise that they can't keep you on indefinitely.
If your doctor has advised you not to work, your company may want to write to him/her to find out when you are likely to be able to return. Would you agree to a visit to occupational health?
Ultimately, if you can't give a date for return to work, they would have a case to start dismissal proceedings.

janiebaby29

Yeah , I am wondering if they will have a job that accomadates me , if not then i guess they would have to make me redundant .
I'm awaiting a pain numbing injection by a specilist pain consulatant , but if that doesnt work then i will have to have surgery .

jdturk

janiebaby29 wrote: »

Yeah , I am wondering if they will have a job that accomadates me , if not then i guess they would have to make me redundant .
I'm awaiting a pain numbing injection by a specilist pain consulatant , but if that doesnt work then i will have to have surgery .

they won't make you redundant unless they are offering voluntary redunandacys. They will sack you on capability grounds or retire you on ill health grounds

janiebaby29

fengirl wrote: »

HR will be wanting to find out when you are likely to be able to return to work. I'm sure you realise that they can't keep you on indefinitely.
If your doctor has advised you not to work, your company may want to write to him/her to find out when you are likely to be able to return. Would you agree to a visit to occupational health?
Ultimately, if you can't give a date for return to work, they would have a case to start dismissal proceedings.

they have just set up occupational health for me , in my view this should have been done in 2008 when it was requested
Can they atually sack me whislt on sick leave though

jdturk

janiebaby29 wrote: »

they have just set up occupational health for me , in my view this should have been done in 2008 when it was requested
Can they atually sack me whislt on sick leave though

yes because of capability grounds, as it is you are uncapable of doing the job. They should be trying to find other suitable work for you but they don't have to find one for you.

Sorry if this isn't what you wanted to hear but its best to be prepared.

ankspon

I was in a similar position,my employers did all they could to help,redeployment and basically bent over backwards to try and help me.Sadly i had to retire.I had numerous visits with HR and OH doctors,it's nothing to worry about,they should try and help you even if it means changing jobs and work hours to suit you.

jdturk

as for occupational health why should have the company paid for it when you were showing no signs of being of for long period of times?

tanith

They have to go through quite a long procedure before they can get rid (for want of a better word lol) of you.. go down the O/H route they really are usually very helpful and mine were more on my side than the company I worked for.. do you think you will ever return to your job?

janiebaby29

jdturk wrote: »

yes because of capability grounds, as it is you are uncapable of doing the job. They should be trying to find other suitable work for you but they don't have to find one for you.

Sorry if this isn't what you wanted to hear but its best to be prepared.

But they changed my job as they were too many hours over in my original job , but placed me in an area where they knew it was'nt good for my back , so if they had'nt done that , i would have been ok