Disciplinary Help!!!

MrRedundant

stephbond89 wrote: »

What would be misconduct?? He has not NOT declared anything- he declared his medication to his boss from day one. Anti depressants are anti depressants, his boss was made aware of the meds he was on, which was what he was asked, he was NOT asked of any side affects they may have had, only what medication he was on, and what it was for. If he said he was on Warfarin for thinning his blood due to blood clots...he would have simply said Warfarin for Blood Clotting. He would never have been expected to go into the ins and outs of the side affects which occur in 1 in every 1000 people. His medication doesnt make EVERY person drowsy who take it, but it IS a rare side affect, but ALSO so is a heart condition resulting in the medication, high blood pressure etc. All of which are 1 in 1000 cases. Just as there are side affects with ALL medication no matter what it is, there are always side affects which happen in SOME cases. If drowsiness was something which came with the drug (as it is with some) then YES it was something he should have mentioned, but seeing as it had not affected him for 12 months, he had NO reason to believe it ever would, his doctor had never made him aware of it either. The drowsiness ONLY kicked in that weekend, and the first chance he got he went to the doctors!!!! He fell asleep on the Monday ngiht, he couldnt see a doctor over the weekend, and he was working on Moinday so couldnt get an appointment then, Tuesday was the next available time, and low and behold by then, he was suspended...!!!!!

He has never not declared something, so how it can be gross misconduct I dont know, if he had not declared his medication then yes that would be.

As they say gross misconduct.
He was a security officer who fell asleep.

His mitigation is medication that he had side effects from but didnt think relevant to tell his employers about. Dependent on their policies that was probably misconduct too.

You can't seriously think your husband falling asleep at work wasnt misconduct. The shifts are common for this work.

At best DDA could have been invoked but I am not convinced it would even be covered.

The rest of your post is flannel and your OH's employers seem to know the law therefore its likely to be a waste of time and simply make their course of action more decided.

prosaver

stephbond89 wrote: »

Well we thought this was the case, we spoke to ACAS about it who said that there were no exceptions to the rules about having 11 hours between shifts. He works (or worked!!) Monday 5pm til 8am and Tuesday 5pm til 8am- that leaves 9 hours between shifts, these shifts were in the minority (only two nights a week), but they were not voluntary shifts (not overtime always written into his rota). But, we dont think this would holod up in a tribunal to help with the case of his dismissal...though we're not sure!! He was not working the 15 hour night shfts the day he fell asleep he'd been on 12 hour days the weekend before, and he fell asleep on the Monday night at 2am approx.

So dont know if it would hold up there?

you might have a case if the 15 hour shift was in the same week or 7 days-
still being tired because of the 15 hour shift was only a few days before ?
What ever happens the employer was in a breach of the law and the health and safety duty of care act.
Before the incident did he have a few days off and then started doing 12 hour shifts?)
what was his tea breaks or rest breaks on the shifts?

MrRedundant

prosaver wrote: »

you might have a case if the 15 hour shift was in the same week or 7 days-
still being tired because of the 15 hour shift was only a few days before ?
What ever happens the employer was in a breach of the law and the health and safety duty of care act.
Before the incident did he have a few days off and then started doing 12 hour shifts?)
what was his tea breaks or rest breaks on the shifts?

Irrelevant in most likiehood given his job.

stephbond89

No no I do agree that falling asleep on the job IS gross misconduct in his type of work, as I said I am not making excuses for him. Not in a milliuon years, I know he should never have gone to work a night shift if he was that tired that he fell asleep.

But i do think that the comment about his medication is unfair, as I said, the drowsiness was never a problem before that weekend. His medication was never a problem before, but anti depressants can change as time goes on as the body gets more used to them etc. And the fact he was already exhausted after 6 weeks off work following me giving birth and prior to me giving birth when I was very ill- probably had something to do with it. He is meant to have a health review each month with his employers which is meant to be reviewed by a medical proffessional which he never had after coming back from such a long break, he didnt see a supervisor for 3 weeks after going back to working after having such a long stint off from working such long hours, to make sure he was ok in his work. Surely an employer should work WITH an employee who they KNOW has a mental disability to ensure they are coping with their work, and not rely on the employee to ALWAYS come to them, some peope are just too proud to admit they have a problem, and this health check which shioyuld be done monthly would have showed this up.

stephbond89

prosaver wrote: »

you might have a case if the 15 hour shift was in the same week or 7 days-
still being tired because of the 15 hour shift was only a few days before ?
What ever happens the employer was in a breach of the law and the health and safety duty of care act.
Before the incident did he have a few days off and then started doing 12 hour shifts?)
what was his tea breaks or rest breaks on the shifts?

He was doing the 15 hour night shifts 4 days before the night he fell asleep yes, and before the 12 hour shifts of the weekend he had had one day off- he had worked 15 hours on the Thursday night (finishing at 8am) and then had Friday night off, to start work again at 7am on the Saturday morning, so he had 23 hours off between the shifts.

He doesn't get any breaks in his work as Security Officers dont need to have them due to the nature of the work x

steve1980

As he works for a security company he would have had to tick a box saying that he is willing to work over X amount of hours.

At the end of the day a new born baby is no excuse, nor is medication (as others have said, he should of read the leaflet that is enclosed with his anti d's) to fall asleep on the job.

I also work for a security company and I would be preparing myself for the dismissal. If he doesn't then he can think himself very lucky.

There are loads of security jobs available if that what he wants to be doing.

prosaver

2 options use both..
first have you got personal insurance? I think it comes free with car or house insurance.. this means you can have access to a lawer... free of charge..
1 shifts too long...2 no medical after month ....3 unfairly treated

no-oneknowsme

Stephbond - Did you check your Husbands contract to see what it says in reference to the unpaid suspension?

MrRedundant

Pro-Saver. What are you on about? Care to back up any of your post with legal argument?

Re the suspension. Unpaid suspension is not illegal; the case law however does limit this from being excessive. The OP has unpaid if not allocated shifts so its half right. What is the discliplinary process?

I am suspecting it will cover them. the company seems to be quite on with their behaviour from a legal stance.

stephbond89

You cannot OPT OUT of the 11 horus between shifts. You can opt out of the 48 hour working week, whuich he has done and was happy to do and is not disputing.

As I said, 1% of people get the drowsiness...it had never affected him before, he personally thought he was simply tired from the working hours, it wasnt until he spoke to his doctor that he realised it was actually his meds...he would have immediately told his work IF he hadnt already been dismissed for it. As I say, it came on of a weekend, doctors are not open then...it was Tuesday beforehe could see a doctor by which time, he had already been suspended.

As far as Im concerned its disability discrimination if he is fired as he told them he was on anti depressants from the word go, they didnt take note clearly, they ignored it and put him onto high stress working hours, which eventually caught up with my husband.