sickness at work

[renaultchic]

Hi, can anyone give me some advice please, my son has been working for a well known supermarket for 5 years up until the past 12 months he has had a good timekeeping record but just lately he has had a lot of illnesses, last year he had an op and was off work for a month, odd days off because of ear infections then 2 months ago he was involved in a car accident and had whiplash and was off work 3weeks having physio and unable to lift anything . When he went back to work he was called in the office and told he had had 41 days sick in total (most covered by doctors note) and if he had anymore it would go to a disiplinary hes now been diagnosed with a hiatus hernia and needs another op but hes scared to take the time off in case he gets the sack which is adding to the stress of his illness what i need to know is can they sack him for going into hospital for an operation.

They can unfortunately dismiss him for his attendance even if that is due to genuine sickness. It is often a reasonable adjustment to discount disability related absences but your son's condition would not amount to a disability. Was the hernia caused by work? If so they might discount the absence as a workplace injury.

Does the employer have an attendance policy or would they just be relying on their sickness policy? Generally the attendance policies are far "harsher" in terms of the ability to dismiss.

Its very unlikely that the policy is drafted so that they will go straight to dismissal stage. If this is his first meeting he will probably be given a first stage warning.

Unfortunately he really needs to cut out the minor absences like the ear infections since it is often these that cause the problem and lead to the attendance figures being such that dismissal can result.

It's unlikely that'd they sack him as a first step but they could well discipline him. Managing absence isn't about saying that he's taking the mick, it's about making sure he's at work or appropriate steps are taken. His contract says he needs to be at work; if he can't be there (even for legitimate reasons), he's not fulfilling his contract.

Sometimes when people are disciplined for absence, their sick pay can be affected. Apart from that, if he can improve his attendance it shouldnt necessarily lead to him getting dismissed.

A large supermarket chain is likely to have fair and process driven absence policies so he should ask HR what steps are likely. Their aim is getting him back to work so are likely to work with him as much as poss. At the same time, they have to protect themselves from absence issues by managing them consistently. Given his op, I'd suggest they might discipline but if he can keep his nose clean thereafter, it should blow over. Especially if it's just one bigger absence for the op then he's back. More, shorter absences for unrelated issues are harder to manage than one big one - sounds, unfortunately, that he's had both.

He should definitely speak to HR.

thanks for the advice i'll get him to talk to HR

Make sure he's joined the union too.