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Original poster

Work and pregnancy related illness

10 replies

Trinpy · 05/12/2013 21:57

I'm 23 weeks pregnant and last week was recently told I have spd by a private physio.

I work full time for the NHS. My job involves being on my feet constantly doing hard physical work over a mix of 8 and 12 hr shifts.

I've been signed off by my gp for 2 weeks but I can't afford to be signed off for much longer. Starting mat leave early isn't an option because I'm only entitled to maternity allowance. I've been relying on my wage to save the money to take mat leave in the first place.

I've spoken to someone in occupational health who didn't think I should be returning to be current job but wants me to speak to one of their physios. Their physio is not responding to her emails. I am seeing a different NHS physio who is connected to women's health rather than occ health (so I am seeing her as a patient rather than as an employee) at the end of next week and due to be back in work the following week.

From what I've understood, they need to do a second risk assessment taking into account my spd and either change my current job role to remove the risk (don't think this is possible), deploy me to a safer job role (would be great but also unlikely), or suspend me on full pay (probably not what they want to do).

Is this right? If they offer Shock a new role but there are only part-time hours available, will they be able to pay me less for it? Is there anything I can do to speed things up and get them to at least do the risk assessment and start looking for work I can do? I really need the to get something sorted by next week.

I'm getting really stressed and worried about this so any advice on my situation would be very welcome.

OP posts:
Original poster
Trinpy · 05/12/2013 21:58

Sorry it's so long!!!

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Parliamo · 05/12/2013 22:04

www.gov.uk/working-when-pregnant-your-rights

You have understood it correctly, and it's not about what they want to do/ are happy about, it's about your health and safety. You should not lose any pay if they cannot offer you appropriate work.

You need to request a meeting in which you review your risk assessment. Print off the you gov info and go from there. Ask if occupational health can get involved, and if they are still unhelpful, do you belong to a union? Know someone who could advocate for you ?

missingmumxox · 06/12/2013 01:03

you are NHS and admittedly I am 6 years out of OH there, but back then if they couldn't redeploy you, but could offer part time, they would offer part time pay, we used to advise getting the union rep involved and refusing the part time pay as it was a temp condition pregnancy induced blah blah, outcome where employee refusing to go off work... So medically suspended, or alternative work found.
Unfortunately not all employers are the same and the last I worked for would refuse pay after sick leave was up.
If you go off early, your Mat leave will start early nothing you can do about that.
I sympathis I had SPD and I was in agony, hospitalised for 6 weeks and my dts where a month early, fortunititly for me I went into hospital the week before my SPD, for a known condition set off again after 7 years due to my pregnancy, so my reason was not pregnancy on my 16 weeks sick but pre existing so my mat leave kicked in at 36 weeks as I had requested, dts where born at 36+6

FloweryTaleofNewYork · 06/12/2013 06:25

There is a difference between health and safety issues and sickness.

If it's a health and safety issue and you are fit to work but there is an aspect of your job that puts your health and safety at risk, they must make necessary adjustments, without impacting your pay, and if no adjustments are possible, place you on fully paid leave.

If it's a sickness issue, and you are not fit enough to work unless on reduced hours/duties that's not quite the same. Often women want/need reduced hours towards the end of pregnancy and they are not entitled to continue to be paid full pay for reduced hours in those circumstances.

I think clearly establishing whether it's a health and safety or fitness for work issue is important in terms of your entitlements, and that's something you can ask the OH practitioner.

In terms of speeding things up, all you can do is keep chasing people up, but I think you need to prepare yourself that a new role and the terms of that may not be all sorted for you by next week.

Original poster
Trinpy · 06/12/2013 12:02

I'm not really sure whether it is a health &safety or a sickness thing. I could probably work in an office job if I was sitting down most of the day, but if I tried to do the manual handling, etc involved in my job I would hurt myself. Thats why I don't think they would suggest keeping me in the same role on reduced hours because it's the nature of the work that is unsafe rather than the amount of it I do.

Afaik, whatever happens, my mat leave doesn't kick in until I want it to or automatically at 36 weeks if I'm signed off.

Thank you for all the info on this, it's all really helpful. Not part of any union unfortunately. Nice to know I can challenge it if I'm offered alternative work on part-time hours. I'm happy to do whatever work they send my way but I need to earn enough to pay the bills. OH is supposed to be calling me today but they've been saying they will call me back 'tomorrow' everyday this week so I'm not too hopeful. If they don't get back to me this afternoon I will demand to make an appointment with them next week.

I really honestly can't afford to keep taking sick leave. I could maybe manage one more week after these 2 weeks are up then I would have no other option but to go back to work, regardless of whether it's safe or not. So I really do need to push this!

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FloweryTaleofNewYork · 06/12/2013 20:35

"Nice to know I can challenge it if I'm offered alternative work on part-time hours."

Not sure what you mean by "challenge it". If it's a health and safety issue, then you can't be penalised for that and should continue to be paid as normal regardless of whether they find you enough work to fill your normal hours.

If your doctor/OH thinks you are not fit to work full time and you are offered something on reduced hours, you are only entitled to be paid for those hours.

Original poster
Trinpy · 07/12/2013 14:21

No, what I meant flowery was if the only alternative role that was safe for me to do was available for part-time hours only, iyswim. So if they said 'the only role we have which we think is safe for you to do is this admin job. But you would only be needed for 16hrs a week' then that would be a problem or me because I would be earning significantly less than in my current role and could not afford to live on it.

As I said in my last post, it is the nature of my job rather than the number of hours which is a problem, and so far everyone - gp, manager and OH has agreed with this.

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Original poster
Trinpy · 07/12/2013 14:24

And thank you for explaining that I will still be paid the same amount in this case. That's what I was worrying about but obviously not explaining myself very well!

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Original poster
Trinpy · 08/12/2013 11:17

thanks marie

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