Warning for sickness when covered under disabilities act

[soontobemrsmckeown]

I've had 8 days off 4 relating to a chest infection made worse my asthma. Can they give me warning for sickness that I'm covered under the disability act for? I've put a appeal in but have to wait 2 weeks for a decision on it. Any advice?

[OllyBJolly]

Yes, you can get a warning for excessive absence even if covered by Equality Act.

The company has to make reasonable adjustments to acknowledge your disability. That might be changing the triggers (e.g. 3 absences or 10 days) to take into consideration you might have more or longer absences due to your asthma.

How many absences have you had in the 12 month period and what is your absence policy?

[soontobemrsmckeown]

I've had 10 days in the last 12 months and 6 have been for asthma. The others were migrane for 2 days and 2 when I collapsed at home and was receiving medical treatment.

[Thisjustinno]

As PP says, yes you can still be warned for taking too much sick (and indeed sacked if went through all those processes).

[lougle]

Yes, the Equalities Act gives you the right to reasonable adjustment, but it doesn't give you complete exemption from absence disciplinary measures. However, what is 'reasonable' will be a matter of interpretation and one company may choose to ignore all disability related absence, while another may choose to extend the threshold for action from, say, three absences in a year to 5 absences in a year, or may choose to disregard the first 2 disability related absences before they start counting absences or some other adjustment. The only real test of whether it is a fair adjustment is when an employee is dismissed due to absence and then takes their employer to tribunal.