to show up at work however ill I am?

[FireCracker2]

I work 30 hours a week in a job with vulnerable people. We all are salaried and paid sick and often do extra unpaid hours .
My company has started a new sickness monitoring procedure and disciplining people if they are off more than twice in the leave year.I was lucky as I got away with because although I had been off 12 days it was split over only 2 absences.
In future though I am going to come to work however sick I am and infect all the other staff and vulnerable clients.

Friend of mine works in a shop which sounds similar

Its per absence period not amount of days

So take 4 days off over 6 months and you are in trouble

Take 3 weeks off over the same period and its no problem

Blacktea - i have virtually no immune system so yes! Add to that an emergency spinal surgery and a few bouts of tonsillitis (with no voice, can't do my job) and it adds up

blacktea How much is "this much"?

It doesn't mean people are off for weeks on end. Two of my absences were one day illnesses. I can be subject to absence management for a min of 3 days in a twelve month period.

I've been off for 7 working days at the moment though!!

Plexie - 4 occasions of sick in a rolling 12 months (occasions so could be just 4 individual days) = 12 months monitoring. You must have no sickness in that monitoring or you go to stage 2. And so on. At stage 4 you get sacked

I'd like to see them try if you are signed off sick by a Dr?

I'd like to see them try if you are signed off sick by a Dr?

doesn't matter...

"An employee who is off sick for a prolonged period of time can be fairly dismissed if they are unlikely to be well enough to return to work within a reasonable time."

"An employee who has frequent short term absences can be dismissed fairly even if no one absence would be long enough to justify dismissal on its own. Before an employer can dismiss for this reason the employee needs to be told what level of sickness absence is not acceptable and given the opportunity to improve their sickness absence levels."

It is all to do with the capability to do the job alongside warnings about expected levels of attendance. An employer does not have to keep your job open if you are not capable of doing it.

I worked 12 hr shifts, the sickness policy was based on 8 hr day. Each day I took was the equivalent of 1 1/4 days. If you took a set of 4 days off (bad cold/fever/cough) it quickly ramped up. Eventually people just don’t care, demoralizing.

I can't believe that many people are off for more than 1-2 days a rolling year so this shouldn't really be a problem.

If you have a specific illness like a low immune system I would think your employer would have occupational health involved.

Employers can't be expected to keep people in employment who are going sick all the time, no matter how genuine. How are they meant to run a business?

People aren't "going sick" all the time.

And I doubt it will even cross my bosses mind to get rid of me just because I've been ill for a few days.

Yes please don't do it. I have low immunity and It's not nice spending weeks recovering from something because some idiot has coughed all over me etc etc. Not that your an idiot btw, but I think there is a balance on going in with a cold and going in with a tummy bug.

Yet people with disabilities are being forced back to work probably to be sacked and go back on the modern equivalent of incapacity benefit.

Some people do have chronic diseases including myself! Can’t win either way - be on benefits and be a work shy scrounger or get a job and get sacked for being off sick too much

Blacktea - they did have them involved. OH suggested adjustments, none of which were done. I wasn't diagnosed for 8 years and my sickness in that time was high as I had constant infections. But I'm not classed as disabled and they refused adjustments so... screwed basically
But it's so easy to trigger, once you've triggered a stage 1, it only takes one day off sick in a year and you're on a stage 2 and so on

My manager called me in for a "back to work" interview and flagged that I've had 5 days off since I started in October. I'm usually hardly ill but caught every bug going this year. They usually 'allow' 3 days in a 12 month rolling period.
I've since had 3 more days off with v&d (which I'm fairly certain I caught from a resident at work) and am worried that it will affect them keeping me on after my probation period

Bradford system just encourages you to go in when you're sick and if you are off it encourages you to stay off longer

I understand you doing this. No one wants to lose their job for being ill.

polarbear Yes it is shit for people with chronic diseases

bratsandtwats It does not matter if you are signed off by a Dr. People are sacked for being genuinely ill. As long as there is a policy that is consistently applied, this is perfectly legal.

It's a vicious circle with a chronic disease. Stay off and get disciplined. But then people come in unwell and pass it around because they are already on a stage and don't want to lose their job

"I can't believe that many people are off for more than 1-2 days a rolling year so this shouldn't really be a problem."

The UK average is 4.3 days per worker:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39231497

Most of our jobs will be replaced with robots in the next 10/20 years - they don’t take sick days!

My colleague who is a rewal 'company woman' has been off 3 times one day each and now has a written warning.

As long as there is a policy that is consistently applied, this is perfectly legal.
I am not sure about this, I think the law would say that cases had to be considered on an individual basis.And I am pretty sure no tribunal would find some one who was at stage 3 and then sacked for being off once in 12 month reasonable.

I’m in the same position, very rarely off sick, but have had flu, I went back as soon as I was able, I think it was probably too soon as I now have tonsillitis, I saw my manager today, I am clearly ill and her attitude was absolutely you need to be at work or you’ll hit a trigger, and there are always conversations about how much strain staff sickness puts on the service - I understand that, but surely we are all putting vulnerable service users at risk coming to work when very unwell.

Until I was on a new drug, I used to get badly ill every winter and be off ill for a week. So really easy to end up being off 7 or 8 days ill.

Firecracker You are wrong. People are sacked legally when they have not had many incidents off sick, just too many for the policy.

If it's the Bradford points thing then once you get to capability territory they have to assess your reasons for being off and realistically look at how you can reduce time off sick, then reset your points and give you a target to adhere to.

Blackteadrinker77 it does happen that people have several periods off sick. I don’t have any health problems but I’ve had three periods off sick in the last 12 months, 2 days for a heavy cold (I don’t usually take time off for a cold but this was awful), 5 days signed off for bereavement and all of last week off thanks to some hideous bug.

I’m not sure if my company uses the Bradford Score but I know I’ll probably be spoken to if I’m ill again.