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.

OP I suggest you make a claim for UC - do this as a priority i.e. tomorrow. The Help To Claim (HTC) advisers at Citizens Advice can help you do this - here's a link to the relevant info: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/claiming/contact-us-about-universal-credit/
It takes 5 weeks for the first UC payment to be made from when you first claim, but once your claim has been accepted (typically around 3 weeks) you can then request a budgeting advance which would give you some money over Christmas (this advance is a loan, of course, and would need to be paid back out of your subsequent UC payments).
Good luck!

Ah yes, sorry, I see what you mean now. They were referring to recent changes to encompass all employees, not just disabled people.

She is married. It's in a previous post in a different thread.

She also took 'several months' off sick in her last role so this is not her first rodeo!

Several months 🤦‍♀️

Sorry, but 6 days off is a ridiculously high percentage.

I’ve had 3 days off in total in 8.5 years!!

A contract is NOT a legal requirement in the UK. Presumably you got a letter detailing holiday allowance etc etc., which is a requirement.

@Amiunemployable the significant issues I see are as follows:

You didn't declare your disability
High sickness absence (and whether 6 or 11 days, it's high)
You said you were sick when your child was ill - did you not think to tell the truth and ask for unpaid or annual leave?
You have less than two years' service and no employment rights
You have been there for less than 12 weeks so no need to give you a contract.

You should have had rtw meetings
You should have been guven objectives including attendance and punctuality
There should have been clearer gyidance around expectations.

You could very politely tell all this to your line manager's manager or head of department. It's a pawn to negotiate a good reference.

IMO, your manager's been sloppy and theor manager/HR have brought this rather brutally to a close before you accrue any contractual rights.

Make sure you get your accrued annual leave paid out if there's any due.

I am sorry you find yourself in this situation.

It would be a fair point if op had said that she has a husband.
It is unfair to assume. In an ideal world the father should take equal responsibility for their child but op hasn’t indicated that anyone is around to share the load.

I’m not saying that op is right, I’m pointing out that the pp about the father assumes that he’s about and sharing that responsibility.

The thing is no matter how supportive an employer is ,they still need you in work and doing your job.There comes a point where they cant sustain your absence any longer, no matter how genuine your reason.

It is not the law that you have to, as an employer, ask, after one sickness which was given as a migraine due to lighting, is there a disability we should know about?
It just isnt.
If its not declared, then no law regarding disability applies.
Which you should know, considering the work you say you do.

I guarantee you, as an employer, i know exactly what i can and cannot do, I know exactly what i have to allow for and what i can and cannot act on. And this employee here would be gone, and Id be well within my rights.
As a person, Id also be thinking,, wtf, shes flakey and unreliable, and id be right.

Hi OP, that's so shit I'm so sorry. Others will have better legal advice but I just wanted to send you a hug 💐

OP, I'm really sorry you lost your job. Theres probably nothing you can do about it now. Next time around, if DC are ill try and get that as unpaid parental leave. But D&V is definitely not something to go to work with, nor is a migraine.

I get that if youre usually not having these absences in other jobs then you wouldn't know about illnesses spanning weekends, etc. Can you check with employer what they've included & ask them if they'd consider adding 3 months on to your probation period. Give them anything in writing you had from GP or DC nursery to show you werent just skiing off? Clutching at straws really, as they are likely to refuse but it might be worth an ask.

It's shit timing, is it too near Christmas for you to find seasonal temporary work I guess? Though restaurants, delivery companies and retailers might still be worth a shot.

I’m not suggesting that employers should investigate without any indication of disability, no. But the law states that if it’s reasonable to suspect that an undeclared disability is the root cause of a problem, they have a duty to investigate it. This gives the employee an opportunity to declare it, so that reasonable adjustment can be attempted before dismissal is considered. I don’t think any of this is relevant to OP because it’s become clear that her absences aren’t disability related, but had they been, the employer could have run into trouble for moving to dismissal as the first option.

Disabled people don’t declare disability for many reasons - especially if their condition is ‘hidden’. It doesn’t mean a nanny state has been created for them - the law around discrimination ensures that they are given every opportunity to be treated fairly in what may, for many, be difficult circumstances.

I think you're fucked OP, nothing you can do

I just wanted to say that I'm so sorry this has happened to you. X

You are right in terms of this case. But to be fair there is case law which states that you should take steps to find out what’s going on if the circumstances suggest that there might be an underlying condition or disability (I’m not suggesting it applies here).

Like you can’t just plead ignorance if an employee is struggling with a repeated issue, for example.

If an employee repeatedly went off sick with migraines you’d be well advised to seek advice from OH. And I’d be asking for OH’s view on whether they’d consider it met the disability criteria (and it’s not a particularly high bar, under EqA)

OP - your post makes it sound as though if you had known there was a probation period, you would have made more of an effort to get into work!

Absolutely. But thats a total different scenario to one call to say a migraine due to lighting.

I didn’t say after one absence, I said if there is reasonable suspicion that a disabilty or health condition could be the root cause of a problem. The law around declaring disability is a grey area, as I said upthread. It depends on whether it can be shown that an employer should reasonably have suspected a health problem or disability and the reasons for this are many and varied, but it’s taken into account by the tribunal service when deciding if a disabled employee has grounds to take a claim for unfair dismissal forward. In OP’s case it appears that the employer didn’t intervene or instigate any kind of back to work interview, but simply waited it out until she could be sacked. I doubt OP’s absences could be attributed to disability from what she’s said, but had that been the case the employer would have to explain why dismissal was the first option.

I didn't read it in relation to disability. I read it as anyone who works.

Thanks for clarifying what you meant. While I think it is one way for employers to go, I really just don't think it needs to be done.

Think if you start a new job you need to put your best foot forward. Especially in the first 3 months. If you get ill you can't help it but 11 days is too much.

They could argue that they did intervene the first time as the lights were to blame and so the lights were changed and the problem solved. That could presumably be deemed to be a reasonable adjustment?

So then there are only 2 absences to consider, 1 of which was not related to her own health. So, only 1 illness they didn't intervene on - a stomach bug. If companies worried that there was a disability every time someone had a stomach bug, there'd be daily interventions in every sizeable company!

I think it's unfair to say they haven't bothered as they clearly have when the lights were changed specifically for her. I think we are all agreeing that she has no case though!

Yeah I know. But you said “If it’s not declared, then no law regarding disability applies”. I was just saying this is actually not strictly true

She is married and the father is still around.

OP has a disability though !!

OP didn’t say she reported the problem with the lights though - she said she sourced her own solution, so there’s no evidence the employer knew anything about it. I agree that OP has no case, because the absences don’t appear to be disability related, but I do find it odd that she was allowed eleven days before there was any mention of the absences being a problem, and then the employer went straight to dismissal - no PIP process or opportunity to improve, especially since the OP was on probation.

All these posters suggesting the employer was at fault for not 'intervening' to establish if there was a problem or underlying disability - if all employers did that after sickness absence there would be hundreds of outraged threads on here from posters saying their private life was being invaded