3 absences from work in a year - can OH be disciplined for this?

System

you cannot be disciplined for emergency leave and it can not be added to sickness to form a disciplinary proceeding. my ex managers last act was to have me disciplined for sickness and emergency time off, i was given a formal warning but i appealed and won .
there's loads of info on direct gov download it and take it to the meeting.

yvonne13_2

Gosh, I collapsed in work a couple of months ago and my manager called an ambulance for me and when I returned to work two days later she pulled me in the office and told me of like a naughty school girl blaming me for getting sick.

When she said she was going to put on my record that I have had one occasion off as sick, I said I was going to HR then as she was aware that one of my co-workers gave me diabetic chocolate as a joke and she did nothing.

All of a sudden the telling off turned to "well because I called the ambulance and I know you weren't faking, it wont go on your record this time"

Emmzi

yvonne13 wrote: »

When she said she was going to put on my record that I have had one occasion off as sick, I said I was going to HR then as she was aware that one of my co-workers gave me diabetic chocolate as a joke and she did nothing.

How is diabetic chocolate a joke? Is quite yummy. What am I missing?

liney

Emmzi wrote: »

How is diabetic chocolate a joke? Is quite yummy. What am I missing?

It's a laxative if eaten in large amounts I think (?), but i'm not sure why anyone would collapse after eating it.

yvonne13_2

Emmzi wrote: »

How is diabetic chocolate a joke? Is quite yummy. What am I missing?

I am not diabetic and I collapsed because my throat swelled up and I could hardly breath.

They thought it would give me the runs

CFC

yvonne13 wrote: »

I am not diabetic and I collapsed because my throat swelled up and I could hardly breath.

They thought it would give me the runs

OT - really sorry to hear this, you need to be very careful. There is nothing particularly unusual in diabetic chocolate, these are commonly used ingredients, you are at risk of another unexpected nasty incident unless you can find out what put you into this state.
As diabetic chocolate is neither noxious nor illegal, I'm not sure what you expected your manager to do, personally, unless it was part of an ongoing campaign of 'tricks' against you.

meds12_2

Hi guys,
thanks for your replies. Sorry for not getting back sooner as had lots of emailing / facebooking / phoning people to update on my son's condition.

Your answers have really settled us as it does seem likely it is just procedural, although it is held under disciplinary conditions eg right to bring along a person to support you etc. I think his strategy will be to keep calm and just explain it, hopefully they will apologise for being what I think is grossly insensitive. My OH is feeling pretty insulted, undervalued and unsupported by his employer right now and I can completely understand why.

Again, many thanks to you all for posting replies and experiences - he will definitely appeal if he is given any sort of formal warning.

EconomicsGirl

Hope your son is getting better now. This must be adding a whole lot of stress you don't need.

I'm surprised they are doing this if the absences were unpaid for the child and after they have been so ill - not the most sensitive of employers. I worked in the public sector and if you were ill the third time in a rolling 12 months or for 10 days you did have a meeting with your manager to discuss it. However don't think unpaid absences counted and it was at the manager's discretion - so someone say with cancer would hopefully not be made to attend meetings. They were not termed disciplinary meetings but ultimately they would have been. Hope it goes OK.

Soubrette

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Not in the NHS! Policies were deliberately loose and relied on the line manager anticipating patterns rather than a clear indication of what would be viewed as suspicious, which made it near impossible to manage w/o risking grievance proceedings. It's actually v difficult to maintain a viable team if HR lets you down left right and centre.

Hence a particular staff member would take a sickness absence every month, when I was well aware that she was spending that time in bed with her OH. Staff elsewehere in the organisation would routinely spend their time not working and randomly accusing others of bullying, harrassment and racism.

I used to work for NHS Direct and I have already stated their policy previously - extremely strict and automatically triggered at each stage. The only manager's discretion was at the final stage when you were hauled in to discuss whether you would be continued to be employed by them after 3 times off sick in a rolling year.

geri1965_2

meds12 wrote: »

My OH is feeling pretty insulted, undervalued and unsupported by his employer right now and I can completely understand why.

I totally understand why he feels that way. I had three days off sick last year - but because they fell within a 6 month period, and were three individula days, they triggered something within HR and I had to explain myself and fill in a dozen forms. If I had been off sick continually for 3 months, it would only count as one absence and that would have been fine.

Odd days do look suspicious I know, but what they don't realise in my case was that I was ill for longer than that, but struggled in for the other days because I don't like to let people down!