To think this can't be allowed.

[mrswhiskerson]

Dh has been on the sick for the past three days with a very bad stomach , his supervisor rang and left a voice message saying he did not beleive dh was Ill and implied dh is skiving until his holiday, he also threatens to ring hr and report dh for unauthorised absence and stop his pay for three weeks (sickness and holiday pay)

dh has a bad sickness record due to recurring depression and ongoing health problems but he has never skived for the sake of it . His employers know his health problems but onamy occasions have accused him of being a liar.
Am I right in thinking this is not allowed ?
The current situation is not helping his depression at all and I am really worried about him.

No, the employer is not allowed to call your dh a liar.

It does sound like harassment. Is your DH part of a union?
If so it might be worth seeking advice from them.

Re the refusal to work Sundays. Your DH has to bend a little...
When he requested not to work on Sunday's he could have instead offered to work say every Saturday...or extra hours in the evenings...to show willing!

I'm wondering if he is fit for purpose here. I can understand the employers side though ....every time he's sick or needs the loo it costs them time. I wouldn't be an employer the way employment law stands at the moment (what with paying sickness absences, maternity leave (often repeated), etc).

I wouldn't be surprised if his employer demands a complete health assessment to assess whether he really is fit for the job.

Perhaps your DH should start considering other options.

I meant to add.......unless his contract states that he doesn't work Sundays, his employer are perfectly within their rights to expect him to work it.

If there is a long history of sickness, the firm, even with a sickness policy, can resort to paying him purely Statutory Sick Pay, which is not full pay. If he has been ill a lot over 6 months, they can implement non performance proceedures.

However, depression is an illness now considered a disability and your husband could claim vicimisation and harrassment under the disability discrimination act.

MrsW there has been some quite tough comments on here about your husband which you might have found hurtful. Nevertheless, there has been some really great advice as well. What have you started to put in motion in order to help your DH? When are you going on holiday, can he return to work prior to this to show that it is not related to his holiday?

Ok as I explained in a earlier post when my dh was first interviewed the asked him if there were any days he could not work hr said he did not like to work Sundays due to his religious beliefs they said that was fine and it was put into his contract when he got the job , they then over six years have continued to pressure him into working Sundays and have questioned his faith over and over again.

As for people on here who say he can't be that religious if he doesn't go to church every Sunday , that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard , since when did you have to go to church every Sunday in order to be classed as having religous beliefs? Is there a set amount of hours you should pray too? I really don't care if other Christians work Sundays that is their choice , if they all jumped off bridges on a Sunday would dh have to too ?

Sorry, you're talking utter nonsense. Going to mass is a central part of Catholicism. You cannot claim to be so devout as to not work Sundays if you can't get your backside to church on the one day a week that's required. My aunt goes to mass three or four times a week and she owned a shop which, you guessed it, opened Sundays.

The short answer is yes, to consider yourself a practising Catholic, you have to go to mass every Sunday. It's quite simple.

I suspect that people probably assume that those who are devout go to church every Sunday and, in being devout, have stronger beliefs (such as not working on a Sunday). I am not sure as I wasn't one of those that made those comments. I also think some were outlining that many Roman Catholics do work on a Sunday which may be why his co-workers or managers are questioning him.

If it is in his contract then it is in his contract and they cannot go against this. But, if he feels he is being harassed I recommend he keeps evidence to back this up in case you end up in legal wrangling.

What are going to be your next steps Mrs W on some of the advice given?

I think the issue is that you said he was a Roman Catholic - if he was devout he would be in Mass every Sunday (I think some parishes have a Saturday evening service you can attend if you are unavailable on Sunday)

It sounds like he's taking the piss IMO.

I also think that there may be a feeling of resentment at your DH's work. Whether it comes from the manager or colleagues (hence the tannoy etc.) From their perspective (and please don't think I am accusing this of your DH or trying to be hurtful), your DH won't work Sundays, is off sick all the time, when he is at work he's always popping off to the toilet. You have said that people say he is friendly and gets commended for his job when he is there, but from his colleagues point of view they have to work more shifts, or work harder on a shift due to his absence, because he has been away a lot. They end up having to work more Sundays because he won't. In the end, people lose their sympathy. His boss might be tired of having to reshuffle the rota etc. Also if you have disclosed his toilet visiting problems he (the manager) is bound to keep health issues private and confidential so maybe his colleagues don't even know he has a medical problem?

Again, I encourage you to look over some of the very helpful posts and come up with a plan to deal with his work. It must be distressing for you both that he is dealing with mental health issues and all this.

PCatholics were required to attend mass and to take communion EVERY SUNDAY. This was relaxed and Catholics are now allowed to take the Eucharist on a Saturday evening if they can't do so on Sunday. This is the absolute least you can spend in church to call yourself a practicing Catholic.

Your husband may have deeply held beliefs, but it seems to me that he can hold them at work on a Sunday as easily as he does at home. The only excuse he can give for not working Sundays is to attend church, and, frankly, there are enough masses during the day that he could almost certainly find one to fit around work. I know people who will take an early lunch on Sunday, and spend it at mass.

I'm afraid you're are making your dh look like a chancer, hypocrite and lazy bugger, on this one.

I have just read this whole thread and I am disgusted at some peoples attitudes to mental health problems , I thought we were all a little more educated on the issue these days but apparently not .If the only thing you have to say to say to me regarding a very stressful situation is abuse of my dh then don't bother I am looking for advice off grownups.
My dh is not a workshy chancer who use religion to skive off Sundays , having Sundays off was agreed to quite happily by his employers and put into his contract. Can I ask the people who question the frequency of the church going, if you were contracted to having say a wedenesday of so you could take dc to nursery , if they did not go that day would you feel the need to justify it to anyone? What of you have to stay at home one Sunday be ause your wides pnd is so bad she cannot bear you to leave the house? Should he still go in order to prove his religion?

He is not going to the loo ten times a day I should have maybe been more clear on that , when he goes he can be a little while, he is undergoing tests to see what the problem could be . He also has sicknotes for every abscence and has been undergoing counselling to battle the depression .
The harrasment at work contributes largely to the depression btw he has made complaints about how he has been treated and he has been passed from person to person no one has ever taken much notice.

I can see how the toilet breaks look and so can dh , he has been looking for another job but until he gets one he can't leave.

Re the bad sickness when he is off it is normally every six or so months he might get a bad bout of depression and be off for a few months or less .
The other health problems last a few days but not very often is it so bad he can't work.

It must be very embarrassing for him regarding the length of time going to the toilet. Not exactly something you want all your colleagues to know you are going through.

I do think that people have focused too much on his beliefs rather than aiding you with whether his boss is harassing you.

Please can I ask you to keep all records of his contact with your DH?

He was asked about working days, he said he didn't want to work Sundays and that was put in his contract. Therefore he is not chancing his arm re Sundays, he is sticking to his contract.

If he has to take a few months off every six months or so, is his job even viable?

So cancer trumps depression, sweden?

Perhaps if you had mentioned why he didn't get to church every Sunday, we might not have got the impression we did. The information you gave really did make it look like he was just using religion as an excuse "brought up to believe you do not work on a Sunday and also goes to church occasionally".

MrsW does have a point. The religion is a red herring. If you had agreed to work part time on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and it was written into your contract, then all of a sudden, work required you to come in regularly on Tuesdays, you would be pissed off. Your employer should not simply be allowed to unilaterally change your contract because they feel like it. If there is a business need for staff who never had to to work on Sundays, then a proper consultation should be done on that. If contracts need to be amended, then so be it, and if he is unable to and/or insists on not working Sundays, then they would be entitled to dismiss him for some other substantial reason. All this trying to put pressure on people to work days of the week they are not contracted to work holds no mustard with me, and I say this as an HR bod for whom a deathly knell would sound each time she entered a workplace.

They also have no right to be calling/texting him numerous times a day. It is harassment, pure and simple, regardless of whether or not they believe he is skiving. If they truly do believe that he is shirking work unnecessarily, then they should haul him in for a disciplinary. But they will not do this as they will have no absolute proof - for that reason alone, they should keep their doubts to themselves.

Miss Mary, you didn't say anything wrong at all. Your were talking about a relative with a illness having to be checked up on, which is a lot more like harrasment than being called by your employer to ask when you are likely to be back.

OP, you are spectacularly refusing to see what people are saying to you, and suggesting that they are not grown ups because they don't agree with you. But when lots of posters all reply with the same thing, they tend to be right. Even if you don't want them to be.

I'm sorry that your dh is ill and that you are obviously worried about him, but you need to try and understand things from his employers point of view. If he were an ideal employee, he would think that working as part of a team and backing up his colleagues was more important than having Sundays off just because he was wrongly led to believe that he shouldn't have to work Sundays. Especially after they have probably covered his workload because of so many episodes of illness.

The illness obviously isn't his fault, but the way he deals with it is well in his control, and he would be a much better employee with much better prospects if his employers could see that he was willing to give a little with regards to the Sunday thing, because he realises that they have had to deal with him being off for a large amount of time. Whether or not it's in his contract, he could choose to help out his colleagues and employer, and imo, he should do that because they have had to pick up the slack for him.

bubble you are wrong. Just because lots of people are of the same opinion does not make them all right. That is obviously wrong.

sounds as though they are trying to manage him out of the business,but not doing it very well. i have had staff like your dh and they are in the arse tbh.