I got fired today!!

[Amiunemployable]

I started a new job on 1st September.

I was given an offer of employment letter when I started but never received a contract.

Today I was fired. Apparently I've had too much time off and failed my probation.

They've said I've had eleven days off. By my tally it's six days. Not eleven. Two were caused by migraines with aura which I've never had before and my GP reckons it was highly likely to have been caused by my office lighting as the migraines only started after I got the job. And since i stopped using the overhead office lights, (i sourced my own alternative) I've been migraine free.

I know it's still a high amount to have had off but I recieved PIP for a disability that does unfortunately mean it's difficult for me sometimes to get to work. But I've done my best.

Have I got a leg to stand on here? I never received a contract. Was never informed of a probation period. To then be told I'd failed a probation period that I didn't know existed? I signed nothing that mentioned probation.

I wasn't offered an extension to the probation period or a improvement plan, etc. Just straight dismissal, with no prior warning, for failing a probation period I didn't know existed. And also told I've had 11 days off and I don't think it's been that many.

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.

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.

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

Pretty

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.

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

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

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.

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

Why didnt you declare your disability? It's a protected characteristic that could have stopped all this?

It’s about them being treated fairly and sensitivity apparently. I’m not saying I agree with it!

Or concept of what would have enabled you to “improve and keep your job”?
You claim they were happy with your work, when you were actually there.

Two were caused by migraines with aura which I've never had before and my GP reckons it was highly likely to have been caused by my office lighting as the migraines only started after I got the job. And since i stopped using the overhead office lights, (i sourced my own alternative) I've been migraine free.

Surely there should have been some discussion about OP getting migraines which appeared to be triggered by the office lighting? Doesn't the employer have some responsibility to follow up on that? And OP had provided alternative lights herself which shows motivation to avoid repeat issues.

Plus there should have been a brief chat about how to deal with time off due to a sick child - how that should be documented, ie not as sick days?

I think your HR Dept. need retraining if they think this is mandatory in the name of fairness and sensitivity.

I would get some new advisors…

The OP didn’t declare the disability.

Have you taken days off sick before and after a weekend ie Friday , then the Monday after ? In this case your employer may be counting the weekend as sick days.

Why did you continue to work there for 3 months without a contract. What was the plan /timeline for receiving your contract when you asked them back in September.

TBH if I hired someone who had a day off every fortnight, complained about the lighting, and had a disability they didn’t declare, I would probably want to offload them too.

The fact that youre already blaming it on the "office/lighting" a disability that you didn't declare blah blah is a big red flag. We would not have kept you on either. It doesn't bode well. Move on.

Where did you read that she asked them about her contract in September?

I am sad for you that you have lost your job. As an employer, if, in under 3 months of starting work, my employee had 6 days off sick - they would have proven to me that they are unreliable. There is no history to say otherwise. My business cannot afford to sustain unreliability, and so I would be letting you go too.

If, after letting you go, you came back at me with details you did not previously disclose … for what reason are you disclosing them after the fact? I would be thinking to myself that I am so glad I let you go, because you would have become a nightmare.

I truly hope you find something that is more suited to your personal circumstances, where you can negotiate time off for childcare, and you declare your protected characteristics so that reasonable adjustments can be put in place.

This all sounds odd.
if in an office role there’s always a 3-month probation even if not explicitly stated.
6 or 11 days off is a massive amount, so it’s no surprise.

Where are people getting this “there is always a probationary period” from?!

You can choose to put a probationary period into an employee’s contract but it’s really about managing expectations more than anything. It doesn’t give the employer more rights to dismiss you. It doesn’t actually mean anything at all in law. They can dismiss you at any point within the first two years with no process and no reason (unless that dismissal is because of a protected characteristic - there is no two-year qualifying period for discrimination claims).

Could you not have got your son’s other parent to look after him rather than take time off work? I’d do anything to avoid taking time off when I’d just started a new job as it doesn’t create a good impression about your reliability.