Time off work for hospital appointments?

Fleago

CHRISSYG wrote: »

i have diabetes and am certainly not disabled and would take issue with anyone trying to suggest otherwise. my child has recently been diagnosed with epilepsy and i have had to take her to numerous apointments i always makeup the time .

You've made a very fair point, ChrissyG, regarding your own diabetes. However, what we've been talking about in the case of LilacLillie's OH is a legal definition of disability that affords protection under the Disability Discrimination Act in terms of employment.

Mr LilacLillie may feel very much as you do for all we know, but should his diabetes, were it not treated, affect him in such a way as to meet the criteria of the DDA, then indeed the law would consider him to be disabled for the purposes of the Act, whether he felt himself to be disabled or not.

Techno

And considering the number of people who swing a duvet day when they have a bit of a hangover - allowing a good worker a couple of hours off to attend a genuine hospital appointment which may save him developing complications of his diabetes at a later date is not too much to ask IMHO

ladybabe

Madjock wrote: »

diabetes isn't a disability so i dont think it's covered by the dda is it?

as removing any medication would have mean that you would have a substancial effect on your everyday life then yes it is covered under the dda and equality act

kingfisherblue

Why do people resurrect a thread that is over three years old? Presumably any issues or queries have been sorted out by now.

DCFC79

kingfisherblue wrote: »

Why do people resurrect a thread that is over three years old? Presumably any issues or queries have been sorted out by now.

well thats the answer i have been looking for some time, maybe someone can tell us why they do it

ladybabe

this might help its taken from the EHRC website

If you are a disabled person and your employer treats time off taken by you which relates to your disability in exactly the same way as they treat sickness absence taken by a worker who is not disabled, this may result in your being treated worse than another worker because of something connected to your disability.
For example:

A worker who is a disabled person requires a day off every month for physiotherapy related to their condition. The employer records these days off as sickness absence. When the employer is deciding which staff to pay an annual bonus to, one of the tests is having had fewer than five days’ sickness absence in the year. The disabled person is therefore not eligible for the bonus. They have been treated worse than other employees for a reason arising from their disability (the need to take time off for physiotherapy). To avoid this being unlawful, the employer must be able to objectively justify it.
and to make sure that you have complied with the duty to make reasonable adjustments your employer should:

• Record your disability-related time off separately from general sick leave. This will mean that they are not calculating bonuses or making other pay or employment decisions in a way that may unlawfully discriminate against you.
• Stay in touch if you are absent for a long period to find out how you are and to tell you what’s happening at work (though they should make it clear they don’t expect you to come back to work before you are ready).
• Think about a plan for your return to work, for example, arranging for you to start work again gradually or to do some work at home before you come into the office, if this is possible in your job.
• Consider reasonable adjustments with you and, , if necessary, use expert advice to work out what reasonable adjustments can be made for when you are ready to return to work. If a change is reasonable, your employer must make it.

Your employer does not have to pay sick pay beyond what they normally pay just because your time off is disability-related. But it may be a reasonable adjustment to:

• extend your sick pay
• offer unpaid ‘disability leave’, or
• allow you to take the extra time off as annual leave.

If the reason you are absent is because of a delay by your employer in implementing a reasonable adjustment that would enable you to return to the workplace, maintaining full pay would almost certainly be a reasonable adjustment for your employer to make.

kingfisherblue

DCFC79 wrote: »

well thats the answer i have been looking for some time, maybe someone can tell us why they do it

I wish they would!

dseventy

If its part of on-going medical care he is entitled to the time off, but its down to the employers policies and/or contracts whether he gets paid for it.

D70

Oldernotwiser

This thread is nearly 4 years old!

Googlewhacker

well done ladybabe...brilliant!