is this discrimination?

[UselessEmployee]

I've been off work sick for the past eight weeks, and had a meeting with my supervisor about it last week.

The upshot of it is that, unless I can "persuade" him by December 31th that I will take no more time off between now and the end of April 2013, I will be sacked. His rationale is that my performance is affection the funding chances of the whole department.

Is he allowed to specify this?

And given that, as a woman I am more likely to get pregnant than my male colleagues, and given that my disabilities mean that I am off sick more than my non-disabled colleagues, is this discrimination?

(Really, my chances of taking no further leave are nil. I'm in and out of hospital and if/when my health improves I want to TTC ASAP.)

Sorry, bit confused. What does pregnancy have to do with it? Does he mean you can't be off sick or go on maternity leave in that period?

Yes, that's right: I can't have any more sick leave or maternity leave. Sorry to confuse.

Yes, that's discrimination.

You can't tell a woman you'll sack her if she takes maternity leave.

It may also be discrimination based on disability, but that's slightly more complicated as you can legitimately take capability action if an employee has serious absence levels, there are just additional safeguards if that is because of a disability.

Do you have a union? You refer to funding, are you pulic sector?

You also can't tell someone they can't be sick for the next 2 or 3 years. Get legal advice!

Public sector but no union which covers my area (sorry to be cryptic). Thank you for that. I'm guessing my supervisor knew that because he kept talking about leave in the context of sickness, whilst the prospect of me getting pregnant hovered like an elephant in the corner.

So where do I go from here?

Ring ACAS to start with - they should be able to help or point you in the right direction.

Thanks. I'll try them tomorrow.

If it were me I would email him to say that you are still slightly confused about exactly what he requries of you and ask him to confirm it in an email.

Either he will write something discriminatory/ridiculous which will help you if the worst should happen. Or he will back off.

Good idea. Thanks...

OMFG. They have just sacked me.

Can they do that, Useless?

Well okay, I guess that is a pointless question, but it does go back oon everything said at the previous meeting, no?

I am calling them arseholes on your behalf, the arseholes.

what grounds did they sack you on? Have you had any kind of formal warning in the lead up to this or performance review.

I doubt very much, from what you have said, that they have acted legally.

If its the public sector then did they speak to HR? How long have you been employed there.

Yes they've utterly reneged on everything they said last week, even though they agreed to everything I put in writing about the December deadline (which was or course dodgy in itself)

I have sent a very aggressive letter inviting them either to follow the law or to face a claim for unfair dismissal.

Assholes. Fucking assholes.

I'm sacked on the grounds that I'm obviously too unwell to cope with the job. I guess they'd argue that they warned me that I needed to get my medical issues resolved.

But like, how? With a magic wand? Miraculous faith healing?

Did they really expect me to tell them exactly how ill I am?

The thing is unless we get more detail then its hard to tell if they have followed the law.

If your ill a lot them it is possible to sack someone on capability grounds. So lets start again.

How long have you been there.
How much time have you had off and over what periods.

It is perfectly possible to dismiss on capability grounds. However dismissing a disabled employee for illness that is caused or exacerbated by her disability, when she's only been off for 8 weeks and has had no prior warnings, wouldn't be legal at all in my view and is in fact stupid and reckless of the employer.

To dismiss someone for capability on the grounds of sickness absence takes longer than that and requires taking medical opinions, seeing if adjustments can be made to help the person back to work etc, until the employer is sure that in the near future there is no reasonable likelihood of the person being fit to work.

Doing that with a disabled employee would take even longer and require even more attempts to make reasonable adjustments.

If it's public sector I'd be astonished if they don't have a hefty capability policy and I would be equally astonished if it's been followed based on what you've said.

I'm sorry, but I just don't feel comfortable with providing more detail online here. But I have been there two years

But in terms of capability, I have won awards for exceptional performance, have exceeeded all performance targets an received numerous emails congratulating me on my high stardards and outstanding commitment.

The only evidence they have against me is

• that due to illness I failed to attend two important meeting - but in both case, I gave my apologies in advance and provided the relevant contribution via email
• that due to illness I missed one training course - but have agreed to take it as soon as it next runs
• that I rarely take part in social events - but most women with children there don't
• that I did not disclose illness/disability when applying - however, my current health problems only began after starting the job and my medical records would prove that

Is that any help?

Call working families legal helpline 0800 0130313 or NCT legal helpline 0300 3300770 opt 5 for advice.

You also need to get a copy of hte Sickness absence policy which will have the exact procedure and warnings they should have followed.

You have over yeas' service - they cannot dismiss unfairly.
What were their exact reasons stated in the letter?
You should also have the right of appeal.
You can rise a grievance too -and I would do that before your last day of employment.

ACS are excellent in these situations and their help line is open in the evenings and weekends.

'Capability' grounds in a situation of long-term sickness absence wouldn't mean 'not good at the job' but would mean 'not physically present to do the job and unlikely to be able to attend work for the foreseeable future.'

are you attending work at present and if not, how long have you been off and how long are you likely to remain off?

I don't know and have no idea when I'll be any better. But whereas allowing me to have until Decemeber seemed sort of fair, giving up on me now seems ridiculous. Or does it?

You mention emails of praise. If you still have access to these, gather all evidence so that you have it if needed for further dispute.

So sorry to read this unfolding.

You don't know how long you've been off? Or was that responding to a different question?

Sorry - I have been off 8 weeks. My contract allows for 3 months.