Company went against Occu Health, Got Doctor's note, what do?

[objectivebread]

I have had ongoing issues with my knee for 7 years, I have had an MRI confirm Osteoarthritis but my doctor wants me to take pressure off the knee, I have been referred to an orthopeadic surgeon. The pain renders me unable to walk very far. For context, when it's bad I use crutches and have to crawl upstairs. I have been at this job for 2 years, my old manager who was let go a few months ago let me work remote when my knee flared, I also was pregnant throughout 2022/23 and worked completely remote for that time.

I returned from mat leave and my new manager wants me in office 3 x a week, this is 2 hours of travel each way, my knee is in physical agony doing this commute, especially on the tube. I tried mediating and meeting in the middle, I put in my flexible working request to come in 1 day a week.

Yhe company's occupational health recommended 1-day max in office and allow ad hoc working from home when I flare. They still said no you need to be in 3 days a week. I was assessed by my doctor yesterday and he gave me a fit note that said I should now work from home for 2 months (knee is unstable). I will also note, I do my best work from home, the office is open-planned and ridiculously noisy, I asked for a quiet area and they said they cannot accommodate, meeting rooms are in too high a demand.

I have a meeting with HR soon, If they push back on my doctor's orders, is this grounds for legal action? I cannot leave this post due to a hefty 6 month clawback policy, so even if I wanted to get a remote job I am bound to this position for 6 months. I am so scared I will get let go, or they'll find some reason to get rid of me at this rate. The company are hellbent on having everyone in the office.

I work perfectly fine from home, my job is usually done remotely in most businesses.

Are you in a union? If so please speak to them and if not, ACAS.

@drspouse I am planning to join Unite, thanks for the advice

You can’t join a Union once you need it - it’s like insurance, you have to pay upfront and then speak to them if u need them.

@objectivebread if your union is anything like mine, they need a minimum of 3 months membership before they can provide any kind of support/legal help. Join them today and in the meantime, follow all internal complaints processes.

Yes all unions do this - protects those of us who’ve paid our dues all our lives from subsidising those who only join when they need them.

What reasons have they given for refusing the Occ Health report and Drs recommendation? Under the Equality Act, you are entitled to reasonably adjustments and a company must explain why they do not consider the proposed adjustments to be reasonable.

Is your sickness policy good enough that you would be financially comfortable if your GP signed you off?

@ThreeB I get 10 days paid, then SSP which is not livable

@ThreeB Their reasoning is I need to be in office because I need to 'raise my profile within the business'
I work on proposals and the sales team just don't get a lot of them, it's not my responsibility to generate these, it's the sales team

Their own occupational health has recommended one day only a week in the office. And they are ignoring their own oh???
Send hr an email attach that oh recoommendation and tell them that to comply with THEIR medical advice you will be working from home from now on
Ask them which day suits them best for you to come in each week?
Don't go on sick leave.
Sign up with a union.
Work from home-and if they threaten you (which they will probably :come in or we will discipline you)
Just keep emailing them back saying this is employer medical advice-you have to follow it -otherwise you are breaching health and safety law.
Don't go on sick leave. Wfh in accordance with your medical advice and their medical advice.

@feileacan They went against it on the basis that I need to be more well known in the business, I suggested we could do a webinar, we could host a lunch over teams, we could send out training on what I do, mass company wide email.. there are many options. The absolute joke is Hr went to me "You can work 2 x days in office and then if business requirements change after 6 weeks we will review this" Yeah, not gonna happen is it. I will join a union today, thank you, I feel like I'm walking a bit of a tightrope here

How long exactly have you been there? Sounds like they are trying to manage you out to me

@PickledPurplePickle 2 years nearly, I can't leave though, as I owe them all of my mat pay back and they know it

I have worked in OH in past.
You're issue here is the employer sees you can physically manage the trip one day a week, therefore they feel you can manage it more.
You now have a Fit note from your Dr which says you have to work from home as you must stay off your feet and cannot manage the trip.

Make sure you focus on this and THIS ALONE at the meeting. Do Not mention you work better at home etc as they're not interested in that. Go on your crutches and keep repeating "My Dr says my knee is unstable and I must keep off my feet" And repeat. Every reason they bring up for you being in office repeat this and ask them for solutions. The obvious one is WFH but they may be prepared to get you a taxi door to door.

Ultimately if they cannot accommodate this, and they will need to have good business reasons that would stand up to legal challenge, then you will have to go off sick

@Photio unlikely as a taxi from where I am to where I work would be over £150 each way, 3 x a week lol
Ty for your advice, I hope they just make me redundant I guess, then at least I can interview elsewhere

The above advice is good except if hr meeting is soon explain that you need it to be zoom/webex as you are experiencing a flare.- their oh has recommended you wfh during a flare yes?
If you turn up on crutches they may say see you are able to get here. (This is awful but possible)
And more importantly
Do not go on sick leave!!
The purpose of the meeting as you see it (and state this politely) is to explore how employer is going to comply with their legal health and safety obligations to recognise their own oh advice while you can do the best job possible.
Make suggestions as to how you can raise your profile while working remotely. Like you have done already.
Just document everything.

On the clawback
What is in your contract if they remove you from the role? Most contracts are about stopping you from leaving. And provision where they let you go and clawback money wilĺ be often too trickey to enforce as they are deemed unfair because it is their choice to bar you from specific performance of the contract.

either way you dont want it to feel that you have to leave the job because they wont make adjustments.

On the HR meeting .
Before it I would make sure to have a paper copy of the HR policy on diability, illness and remote working plus any of the reports that they have eg the OH report.
If not ask for them before the meeting
And ask for HR copy of ^these anyway (up to date) plus of anything else they want to cover ( so you are asking for a written "agenda" of what may come up)
HR has a problem in that they are not medical people and they have to "prove" that the reasonable adjustments recommended to them by their expert is wrong.

It may be that HR are trying to build up a report to prove to senior management that you are the exception to the rule.

You need to try establish if they classify you as having a disability or not and the reasons for that decision. (If it goes legla you have evidence to help you.)
In order to let you go within the legal famework they have to prove that your disability is so great that they cant keep the current reasonable adjustment which is a high bar to meet if the sole aim is a policy of office based work only and not quantity or quality of output.

Be prepared to do a lot more listening than speaking. You aim is not that you justify why you get to WFH but for them to justify why they are within their right to not allow this. So go with "I dont understand that point and the companys reasonable adjustment poilcy" or "can you expand on that a little more" rather than "your are wrong because..."

Would you be in the financial position to take a compensation package rather than fighting? If you think that long term you would be better off not working there i would start with working out a walk away number (your living costs if unemployed for a time, rhe clawback and the cost of good legal advice).

Depending on the tone of the meeting, if you feel they are not going to allow the adjustment I would be blunt and say you see two ( or three) paths
a) reasonable adjustments are made as you have a proven track record of doing the job and the only reason (if true) that you are ending going out sick is because they are not following their expert report
b) constructive dismissal by ignoring your disability and it going legal because you still can do the job and want to keep working there. (In that case if you win you get money and they have to provide the adjustment anyway)
c) they pay you to go away and if you bring this up dont bring in what you want to be paid.

As above check with a union and AcAS plus if you have any insurance policy offering free legal.

@AnSolas you can’t just use a Union for advice if you’re not a member!

"Can you explain which members of the sales team has not been trained on how the proposals are created?
If the sales team are having problems working out who is tasked with doing up the proposals can you organise IT to setup a salesteamproposals@ email which comes directly into my inbox?"

"Thanks for the career advise but I am currently very happy in my current role and was not planning on applying for a new role anytime soon"

Agreed

I missed that she is only joining one now

@AnSolas I have an inbox for proposals, I just don't think there is the volume coming into the business

When you took this job, before you got pregnant, what was your working pattern? Was that job advertised as WFH? I honestly think you’re probably on a sticky wicket here. I’m afraid a Union won’t help you in this matter as you’re not yet in one, and if the GP has stated that you should WFH if you have a flare up, your employer only has to show that they are unable to accommodate this as it’s detrimental to the business so you could be out in your ear.

@Soontobe60 I was hired into a team that no longer exist, the business unit was not profitable, I was the only person kept due to being pregnant I think. The job was advertised as hybrid, I asked my manager at the time if I could be 1 day a week and he was very chill with it, I think you are correct, however in their letter they sent me they agree that if I flare they will allow WFH, so that must give me some amount of protection here. It's in writing as something they will do. They haven't said no yet to the doctors note, just wanted general advice on where I stand here. Acas said if they dismiss me it could hold up legally that its discrimination as they have made it clear that the job is possible to do from home and that is a reasonable accom

What you are doing is telling HR to politely FRO with "raising your profile" as a career planning . HR is saying that the business is promoting on a who you know not what you know or what you did well basis.

PS you cant be made redundant it the role remains only dismissed for cause (eg disabilty can not be accomadated) or unfairly dismissed

Mini Rant
If the sales team dont know where to use your skills/ your role that is because management have failed to train or more likely failed to create a bonus structure which rewards sucessful proposals.
Proposals are team based as the demonstrate how the business relationship will benefit the client. It is based on the sales team working with the deliverable teams to build out capacity in the real world. And its never a personality test of how good the sales team are at pitching as proposals are screened and benchmarked against each other before the sales team even have a chance to get in front of a decision maker. Proposals as a sales pitch is not very compatable with "raising your profile" competition based workplaces.
End/

If you want to raise your professional profile propose it would help to get a internal page on the sales team space.
List the proposals and a summary of who and what the pitch was for (generic industry if sensitive information) and at the top name and thank the contributions by author (you), sale person, manager and team input.
That passes to the head of sales to explain the low volume of proposals so it could be a dangerous move.

@AnSolas I totally agree, bid management is just not baked into the bonus or commission structure at all, makes zero sense! I am a very experienced bid manager and am familiar with how much it can impact sales teams. The way this firm runs it just baffles me. Thanks I will think about how to propose internal ways of raising my profile without me sitting at my desk staring at a screen in an office, when I do the same thing at home. rolls eyes There is little business justification for not focusing on how to improve bid management as a function. /rantover

@AnSolas There technically isn't a head of sales though as it's a recruitment firm, no one person is directly in charge of proposals, I am the only bid manager employed and they put in a team completely unrelated to sales, makes no business sense.