Periods of absence and disciplinary's

[TheBooMonster]

My work has a policy by which if you have two periods of sickness in 6 months you have a 'cause for concern' meeting you are asked a series of questions about whether your periods of sickness are due to problems at work, whether you understand the impact your sickness has on the work place, whether you understand the sickness policy and whether you are likely to continue to have periods of sickness, it's a standardised set of questions and your responses are minuted. When you have a third there is a disciplinary though I'm not sure what this entails or whether they would / would be able to dismiss a person at this disciplinary.

I had a period of sickness, (I think it was a single Sunday) due to a migraine, I have a history if migraines and they're always worse when I'm pregnant, I hadn't realised at the time but I was 4 weeks pregnant. I got tablets I said I would avoid it happening again. I then was off again for a single Sunday due to my Hyperemesis, I'd dragged myself through work on the Saturday, and didn't consume any solids because I knew I wouldn't be able to keep them down, I'd made myself very unwell and quite dehydrated as a result and my husband had called me in sick stating 'sickness and a migraine' the migraine being due to the dehydration, but because he didn't state it was morning sickness they didn't record it as a pregnancy related illness, and despite me correcting them when I went back to work it stayed as a standard period of sickness rather than pregnancy related sickness. They gave me a 'cause for concern' meeting for it, and I made sure to include in my answer to every question either that I was pregnant or that I was suffering from Hyperemesis, they still completed with the entire meeting as standard and as as far as I'm aware it's recorded on my file.

I was wondering if anyone with more awareness of procedures of this type would know if a third period of sickness relating in a disciplinary could result in them actually being able to dismiss me, and if time off for dependants could be used as a third period of absence trigger?

Periods of pregnancy related sickness can't be counted towards disciplinaries so you need to write in to them, stating that the migraines and hyperemesis are both pregnancy related sicknesses, and must not be counted towards a disciplinary.

www.equalityhumanrights.com/private-and-public-sector-guidance/guidance-for-all/pre-equality-act-guidance/guidance-for-employers-pre-october-10/guidance-on-managing-new-and-expectant-parents/managing-pregnant-women/sickness-before-during-and-after-maternity-leave

And no, time off for dependants is a right but it is to sort out emergencies only like finding someone to mind a child if your childminder is ill. Parental leave is for longer period of a week at a time [usually] and is unpaid.

Get to grips with all the links on that page I linked above, it gives you all the info you should need.