Escalating sickness policy at work

[iheartmycat]

We have a sickness policy at work that triggers if you have 3 or more absences in a 12 month period. Due to cardiac issues (covered under dda ) and gallstones (awaiting surgery) I have had 5 absences in the past year, (total of 15 days), 2 absences were cardiac reasons and two were gallbladder related. I'm due to have my gallbladder removed in the next 8 weeks. Oh report states that its reasonable to expect further absences due to gallbladder pain until its removed. Line manager has now stated she is taking me to a final stage absence review. I believe this is unfair due to the fact that the absences will stop after the surgery and that she is just doing this as there are other issues between us. The stress of this is making me ill, I'm having palpitations, I can't sleep, or relax, it's horrendous. Where do I stand on this?

It is hopefully just standard procedure that has to be applied as per the work sickness policy regardless of the reason for the sickness. You will surely have sick notes relating to your surgery and cardiac issues, which cover those, and presumably the other sickness was not related to the two issues you mentioned.

I had a stage 1 interview after having two lots of 3 weeks off when I had surgery on my legs, but no further action was taken, it was jsut recorded. I was sent a snotty letter about it, which was the same letter sent to those being off sick with headache, tummy bugs and the like who were off for similar times.