I got fired today!!

I don’t think you do have a leg to stand on, but I may be wrong!

It's permissible. An illness that lasts 4 days is just as serious, and indicates the same level of concern, whether the illness happened to strike on a Monday or on a Friday. It wouldn't be reasonable to treat an employee who happened to go down with the same bug less favourably just because they happened to fall sick on Monday rather than on Friday.

Despite you having all this knowledge of employment law, do you have evidence of requesting any of this?

What do mean when you say you sourced your own lighting? Did others have to sit with the lights off? I suspect your behaviours may be behind this rather than the time off

Sorry that this happened @Amiunemployable but treat it as a learning experience for next time. Next time you are able to start a new job you will know:

• whether you have a written contract doesn't change your access to employment rights
• always assume that there's a probation period. Even if the official one is only a month or 3 months, any employer can sack you for any (non-discriminatory) reason in the first 2 years (the gov't intend to reduce this to 6 months but haven't yet) so always act as if you are on probation at first
• Anything more than a 2-3% absence rate is going to be a cause of concern for any employer. Across 90 days zero days off is best, one or two might be OK. 6 will not often be considered reasonable. 11 would be unacceptable. (It's possible that if any of your absences included a Friday to Monday that might be counted as a 4 day illness? That might explain the discrepancy?)
• You only get protection from disability discrimination if you declare your disability right from the start and discuss any reasonable adjustments that you might need in order to do the job (which might include avoiding certain types of lighting). You need to be able to be confident that your disability will not stop you from achieving the whole job in full with such adjustments in place - if you would be likely to still have regular absences then your reasonable adjustments need to include a flexible schedule so that you can reduce your working on bad days without it counting as a sick day
• You are never entitled to use sick days for looking after a sick child. You are entitled to unpaid leave in an emergency for caring for dependents, but this is not supposed to be covering the full duration of a child's illness, just the initial emergency while you make arrangements for other carers to come and take over. As above, if your caring responsibilities wouldn't allow this and you have no way of arranging alternate cover, your hours and flexibility arrangements need to be set to allow for occasional child illnesses within your expected work pattern.

Pretty

Really? That’s astounding. Is that permissible or considered poor practice?

It’s worth giving the Migraine Trust helpline a call. I have been called to meetings about migraine absence in the past, but not fired - it is a disability and in my case has been over 30 years. This does not seem like a good company to work for.

Honestly op. It's a general rule of thumb that anyone would more than a day or two off in their probation period isn't going to be kept on.
The consensus is that if you're off this much when you're in probation, you'd be off far more when you're permanent.

What rights do you have to take months off work after a bereavement?

I absolutely get everything that you have said, but surely, and personally I would declare once id started because of the reasons you'vestayed, its more difficult to prove they didnt fire you because you are disabled. In the Ops case, they said she was good at the job, it was the sickness element. Had she declared disability shed have a chance at unfair dismissal.

I feel for you OP. The world of work is not set up or welcoming for people with disabilities.
If it was, there’d have been ample opportunity for you to disclose your disability and accessibility requirements during the application process.
There would be some opportunity to record your sickness as disability related and support from your employer to find ways to manage new or existing disability related issues, especially if exacerbated by your new job.
it’s incredibly sad and can be isolating and scary putting yourself out there with people who don’t know or understand your situation.
definitely consider agency work for the interim and get onto UC and GP to see if you can be legitimately signed off for a period whilst you’re jobsearching and planning your next steps.
if you want to consider the legal route try a as as suggested and if you’re already claiming UC you can leave a message on your journal asking for an appointment with with the disability employment adviser from the DWP to discuss options and any support or advice they can offer.

look for ‘disability confident employers’ when jobsearching and as far as humanly possible heck out the flexibility of the employer prior to accepting any jobs, will they make reasonable adjustments and get everything in writing including your contract.

good luck with whatever happens next

This is absolutely not true! We have employed someone who has been off for months due to a bereavement during probation. They have a lot more rights due to this than anyone else say the HR advisors. They are a vital role for our organisation and them not being functional is actually extremely hazardous for us financially right now.
They have come back to work but are not performing up to standard. It’s a bloody nightmare.

Really sorry you're in this position, OP, it sounds really stressful.

Regarding the absences - can you ask them to give you the dates they say you were absent and you can check them with your own records? Dispute them if you feel the need to, though if they are firm on dismissing you, it may not be worth the stress.

I do hope you are able to find another job soon. In the meantime, can you at least claim Universal Credit as you are out of work? Not much but it's something.

No, of course it’s not, as I said.

Sorry to say I agree with a PP that the OP is looking g for a bit of compo

What a vile and baseless post, @TwistedWonder. Showing HR in an appalling light, surprising no one.

Again, what is the point of giving someone the chance to “improve” their sickness absence levels?
The implication that it was all avoidable is clear, and that itself would probably have people screaming discrimination.
Op has had several months off in a previous position, and struggled to gain employment afterwards.
She knew 11 days in 12 weeks was too much.

Yep, and look at who she works for...!

I was thinking the exact same thing myself. And I had considered the HSE angle, because even without the disability protection afforded by the Equality Act, the employer would have had to comply with health and safety at work, so it’s odd if she didn’t report it.

I didn’t say it was the case here - in fact I’ve stated several times that it’s clearly not, because the OP’s absences were not related to her disability. But I do find it strange that the OP was allowed eleven days off sick on a probation period without anyone drawing it to her attention before they moved to fire her. No back to work interviews, or PIP procedures to give an opportunity to improve before dismissal is necessary ? No clear indication of what was expected of her during the probation period, or even a warning that she wasn’t meeting expectations.

A company would know if lights were changed as there are all sorts of legals around HSE and electrical testing etc. Surely she must have asked permission to change the lights and explained why.

Agree but there's a lot of inconsistencies in this story, it would be interesting to hear the employer's view on actions taken...

Every new job has a probation period. Strange you didn't get a contract. They are within their rights. 6 or 11 days still a lot in less than 3 months.

I’ve experienced many tribunal judges who would beg to differ. No one is suggesting it should be the case for every single employee, but if an employee is given leave to sue for unfair dismissal and there is evidence that the employer should reasonably have suspected a health condition as the root cause of absence or performance issues, then moving straight to dismissal before considering any other option, would need to be explained

But that is not the case here?
Or are you arguing that the law for a totally different scenario exists?
Everyone knows that.
Employee A: calls 3 times with migraines, yes id be worried and asking can we help etc.
Employee B: calls 3 times, 3 different excuses. No i wouldnt be asking, i dont have to.
There is a HUGE difference.

Exactly this. Unless OP’s absences are directly related to that disability, they are irrelevant to the protected characteristic conferred by it.