Losing redundancy payment

[Minus273]

DH is in his period of notice leading up to redundancy. He has been up all night with toothache, possible infection. He has called into work sick today as he feels so ill and needs the time to go for an emergency dental appointment.

Work have been hounding him with calls telling him he has let them down and they need him there to get the work done and implying gross misconduct ie no redundancy payment. He doesn't have a poor sickness record in fact in the last 5 years he has missed 1 morning thanks to spending it A&E after a car accident. He hobbled into work straight away instead of taking time off to recover and worked late that night and the next to make up for it. So he his not already on a warning or anywhere near hitting any 'triggers' as per absence policy. Can they do this?

TBH the state he was in this morning he wouldn't have been very efficient with the combination of lack of sleep and pain.

Anyone know?

No, they can't fire you for gross misconduct for being sick. I'd suggest he just keeps a record of the appointment in case they are aresholes and, if he's off any length of time, he'll need a doctor's note.

BTW, does he know he's legally entitled to time off for any interviews as well?

I thought that was the case but they had us worried. We are kind of relying on the redundancy package to fund job hunting as so far its not going well. He should be back tomorrow. He's started on antibiotics and managed some sleep this afternoon while his mouth was still numbed so although he is still in pain he is not in quite so bad a state. He has his dental receipt as proof he was there.