Husband facing disciplinary

fairydiamond

Hi. My husband is facing a disciplinary at work for being sick 4 times in a 12 month period.

My husband is in remission from cancer and does not have the best immune system. He picks up bugs really easily. He only ever has time off if he is really, really poorly. The latest one was last week. He had a cold/flu bug and it gave him a really bad chest infection. He needed to have an X-Ray as the doctor was concerned.

For each of the 4 occasions he has been to the doctor and been given antibiotics.

Anyway, he is facing a disciplinary for his sickness and we feel as though this is unfair. I understand that companies need to follow their policies for everyone to keep things equal, but I do feel as though they are not taking his circumstances into account.

I understand he is covered by the equality act 2010, as this covers people who have, and have had cancer. But how can he get this across at the disciplinary? I am pretty sure he is going to come out of it with a warning, and he is really angry and upset about it.

Any advice?

Torry_Quine

Does he have a union as they would be best to advise him?

fairydiamond

Unfortunately he does not have a union.

scheming_gypsy

fairydiamond wrote: »

Anyway, he is facing a disciplinary for his sickness and we feel as though this is unfair. I understand that companies need to follow their policies for everyone to keep things equal, but I do feel as though they are not taking his circumstances into account.

As you say, they have to follow policy for everybody so the disciplinary is part of that and anything could happen. They could just discuss his reasons and make sure everything is ok etc, and no action taken.

Emmzi

the equality act does not mean "cannot dismiss." He still needs to be fit to do the job with reasonable adjustments. One of the adjustments *may* be slightly higher trigger points, but not unlimited. 4 times in a year is actually a lot!

What do you think reasonable adjustments would be?

j.e.j.

It's a sad thing when people are facing disciplinary at work because of being ill! I could understand it of course if someone was frequently phoning in sick and the 'sickness' was due to them having had too many drinks at the pub the night before, but threatening someone who's genuinely been ill (and who otherwise I'm assuming is a good worker?) with disciplinary is out of order. The stress of it may even cause more illness, so what are they trying to achieve?!

OP you say he was off 4 times, - was he off for a long while each time? I think if I were him I would be looking for legal advice from someone who deals with employment law. The CAB might be able to point you in the right direction.

lizzywig

I would be interested to know what his contract says about being off sick. Our company handbook says that you can be paid up to the amount of holiday as outlined in our contract.

I know you're not disputing pay but if they outline how much sick leave is allowed to be taken then this should add some clout to his meeting.

SarEl

The amount of sick pay or sick leave to which someone is contractually entitled has no relevance at all to capability processes on the grounds of sickness absence. Being "allowed" sick leave is not "permission" to be off sick!

The situation here is clearly that the employer has a managing sickness absence policy, and the OP's OH has triggered this. He needs to obtain a copy of that policy to determine what the process is, but it would certainly not be that the employer could simply dismiss on a first hearing for sickness absence. It is also not necessarily the case that the outcome will be any formal action at all. But if such a policy exists, then it must be applied equally to all staff - but like any "disciplinary event" that is not the same thing as saying that the outcome must be the same in every case, because circumstances differ. So he needs to be poiting out that the causes of his higher sickness rate are a result of his cancer, and that the cancer qualifies as a disability so he would like the employer to take this into consideration and consider whether reasonable adjustments to the outcome of the hearing, and any possible future use of the process should be made on the basis of his disability.

However, Emmzi is certainly correct that a continuing high absence rate may well result in dismissal at some stage, and as part of the hearing it may be advisable to look at what suggestions can be put forward which may help to alleviate this. Could Occupational Health (assuming there is one) work more closely with his GP / specialists to seek ways of reducing the risk of sickness absence? Is it possible to look at flexible working - perhaps working from home if he is able to work but not well enough to get in to the office?

But in the end, whilst I fully appreciate why he is upset about this, 4 absences in a year is a high number, and these policies exist because employers employ people to work and not to be sick. I do not say that meaning to be harsh - it is simply the world we live in, and there is no point in expecting employers to be social workers, because they aren't. No matter how good (or bad) the employer, many of them now have these sorts of policies and they are expected to apply them equally with everyone. What they are not permitted to do (as one poster here suggested they should) is decide that they will only apply the policy when they think someone has "bad reasons" for being off sick, and let off everyone who has "good reasons".

vax2002

Its the new way, its called Overmanage, it started in local councils where bicksittle HR staff gang up on those that actually do the work, probably out of shear jealousy.
When overmanage happens at a private company it is usually the first sign the company will soon be going bust.
Any company relies upon extra unpaid above and beyond duties from staff, but once you start coming the harse, the workers start doing what they get paid for and nothing else and down hill goes the lot.

fairydiamond

The 4 occassions have been less than a week each time. Funny how someone else can have 6 months off and nothing is said about it.

Annnyway, thanks for the advice.

I have been doing some research, and on Mcmillian's website regarding The Equality Act 2010 it says:

''discrimination may occur if your employer doesn’t take your situation into account. For example, this can include:

• an employer giving you a warning for high sickness absence levels, but not taking the cancer diagnosis into account''

Surely this applies to my hubby? If they are following the same policy for everyone (i.e 4 occassions of sickness) then they are clearly not taking his situation into account?

Uggh this is so fustrating! He has already said if he gets a stomach bug, he will go into work and see how they like that!

I can see if from the employers point of view too, I wouldn't want people off sick, but at the same time, these acts are here to protect you.

Annisele

fairydiamond wrote: »

I have been doing some research, and on Mcmillian's website regarding The Equality Act 2010 it says:

''discrimination may occur if your employer doesn’t take your situation into account. For example, this can include:

• an employer giving you a warning for high sickness absence levels, but not taking the cancer diagnosis into account''

Surely this applies to my hubby? If they are following the same policy for everyone (i.e 4 occassions of sickness) then they are clearly not taking his situation into account?

From what you say, the employer hasn't actually given a warning (yet - I appreciate that it may do later). Plus, "discrimination may occur" isn't the say as "that would definitely be discriminatory".

Hard as it is I think you just have to wait and see what happens.