Disciplinary for sickness absence - what to expect?

[RenegadeKeeblerElf]

DH has been very unlucky with his health for the last few years and so has triggered his workplace's sickness threshold for a disciplinary. He is terrified that he is going to lose his job, and naturally I am worried as well. They've suggested that he could cut his hours if working full time is too much for him, or they could offer ill health retirement, but he really wants to continue working full time (mainly for financial reasons - after years of struggling we are finally comfortable and he doesn't want to go backwards). When he's well he is more than capable of this, but he does tend to get ill more often than average (he had covid 5 times for instance) and has also been unlucky with injuries (and is waiting for an operation to repair one of them).

Does anyone have experience of these kind of meetings and what might happen if he turns down those offers? For context, he has worked for them for over 30 years, they are a large company with an excellent reputation for looking after their staff, but he has had a previous final warning for sickness (several years ago so now expired).

9-10 weeks as others have said is a lot. If I'm honest the company could potentially enforce ill health retirement and not pose it as an option or even dismissal

I really feel for you and your DH and I imagine it is a stressful time. Hope things go well in the meeting

It’s good they are trying to help him but it does sound like full time is too much. Is part time an option? Sounds like he needs to take some time to recover as he’s got in to a cycle of going back to work when he’s not better with his immune system compromised and then he’s picking more illness up.

What’s his diet like? Stress, sleep, exercise?

As a manager this would make running my department extremely challenging. This meeting is step one but I think it's fair to assume that the employer is going to struggle to manage it long term so will be looking for a solution.

Has he had covid jabs? A full week off for covid seems quite a lot.

What does his work entail? A knee injury wouldn't normally stop someone doing a desk job, for instance.

He works in a supermarket, so very active. And yes, he's had all his jabs, but when he gets ill it floors him and he is ill for quite some time.

Healthy diet, cycles 2 miles to work, healthy weight. Agree he does tend to go back too early but he also suffers from depression so his mental health suffers if he is off too long as he worries about consequences at work. It's a vicious cycle.

Honestly, given all his health issues I don't think he's in the right job for him.

I also think they've been exceptionally tolerant to only bring it up after 9-10 weeks of absence.

Update - he's been given a first warning, needs to try and not have any sickness between now and April or it will trigger further meetings. Any absence for his knee isn't being counted as it is a long term condition. Very relieved DH who can now relax and enjoy Christmas without worrying about losing his job! Fingers crossed he can stay healthy for a while 🤞🤞

And thanks everyone for your comments, it really helped to be able to chat about it as I was feeling quite anxious too.

That sounds positive. I do think the run up to Christmas can be the worst for illnesses. As others suggested he could focus on strengthening his immune system. So is he taking vitamin D? Lots of gut healthy food such as kefir, kombucha etc. Variety of veg/fruits.

Hopefully he’s just been unlucky and is through the worst of it now.

Glad to hear it went well, fingers crossed he stays healthy

Glad for a good result. I’d suggest joining a union if he isn’t a member as they won’t represent if the issue has already started. (DH may need to check before joining.)

This is a really positive result, considering, and I bet you are both relieved. I think the workplace is being really reasonable.

Going forward, honestly, as someone who's been through this due to disability, and had far, far less time off work than your DH, and my work were nowhere near as reasonable, your DH does need to be careful and make some effort to find solutions, as it won't be able to continue as is.

If the workplace are putting in reasonable adjustments as recommended by OH, then in future, they can dismiss him on health grounds. The process of dismissal after a warning can move surprisingly fast if the workplace want it to, so it's really important he takes this seriously going forward.

When I say this, I mean, he really needs to be doing some medical investigation into his health issues (more along the lines of the immune system issues), and, really consider reducing his hours, even on an agreed temporary basis, if he is off sick again between now and April. If, as an employee, you can show some reasonableness in your own managing health/sickness, it generally looks better, not just for the workplace, but should the worst happen in future.

I'd echo joining a union if possible. That being said, there is only so much they can do, and if he continues to have high levels of sickness, workplace can and do take action. I'd also agree that the process should be on capability grounds, however, it doesn't mean workplaces do everything they should, even very 'professional' workplaces.

He has my sympathies as someone with a disability and trying to stay in work, its really difficult. His work sound really good to be fair.

His best defence would be to say he is disabled and needs reasonable adjustments to enable him to undertake the job and reduce absences.

And in case anyone disagrees, I do a job where I tell people the definition all the time - its a legal definition not medical, so they should not be asking for proof before making adjustments for you, only a court or tribunal can say you definitely meet that defintion. I doubt they'd want to take you to court.

The definition says "a person is disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment and that impairment has a substantial or long term adverse effect on their ability to do normal day to day activities."

Long term in the equality act isi something that has lasted 12 months, likely to last 12 months, or rest of your life if under 12 months.

Fluctuating conditions like back pain comes under this, and you say his back pain has lasted for 15 years? As for the knee injury, that may be under 12 month but the effects could be rest of his life and fluctuating symptoms?

Physical or mental impairment - a back injury can meet this criteria, its not just wheelchair users, even things like IBS, diabetes, asthma can be covered.

Normal day to day activities - well being at work is a normal day to day activity he's finding difficult.

So tell him to say he considers himself disabled and requires reasonable adjustments and see what happens. With any luck they will be supportive and work with him to reduce these absences and make adjustments.