Pregnancy sickness worried

[Bythedowns2]

I am 6 weeks and feeling dreadful light headed shaking sickness! I work part time but at the moment I am dreading trying to work. 2nd dc and was very ill with first. I have just gone if a attendance procedure stage 2 as I was off for two months dec and jan whilst being diagnosed with intercysital cysititas and stress, this is now being treated as and classed as a chronic health condition.but basically have to not be sick for next 12 months or lose my job. My boss is less than helpful and I am terrified of being off sick whilst pregnant and moving to last stage before losing job. Anyone any advice on what to do how to protect myself, I am in a union thx

Pregnancy-related sickness can't be counted for the purposes of disciplinary warnings or similar so the best thing you can do to protect yourself is tell your boss you are pregnant.

I will do but I am still concerned union said I was treated very harshly after last illness but as a lot of disciplinary stages is managers discretion , I am still scared my manager will find any excuse !

Well if your manager uses pregnancy related illness as a reason to discipline you that is unlawful and you can take the appropriate action at that time, but in the meantime the only thing you can do to try and avoid that is to make sure your manager knows you are pregnant and knows when any sickness absence is pregnancy related.

When you tell your boss, take a union rep or someone from HR with you. Mention your history of pg sickness, and your recent sickness, but remind him that he can not use pg related sickness against use for disciplinary measures. Basically it's as if it didn't happen. Make sure he is aware of this, and union rep/HR are up to speed on the legislation.

I have had 2 very sick (hospitalised with hyperemisis) pregnancies, fortunately my boss was a mother of 2 and very sympathetic. It was just about the grimmest time of me life, both pg.

Fingers crossed the sickness doesn't get too bad and good luck with your boss.

Thanks i will do. Trouble is before when I was put on this procedure they counted up all my sick days since I started work including pregnancy and missed miscarriage related , lumped it all into one year by year. Then decided my absence was unsatisfactory and put me on stage 2. I was signed off from dec 14 till March 1 whilst undergoing my bladder operations and stress, my manager said in meeting he thought I could have come back to work earlier !!! His attitude is not supportive whilst I understand that being off is disruptive ESP part time there was no support from work

I would request that your sickness record to date is reviewed, to remove the inclusion of your previous pg sickness and the consequences. Definitely time to get your union involved!

Adding up all your pregnancy related illness as normal sick would be discriminatory. Not sure why your union allowed this. Get that amended and m them you are pregnant again & that you expect your lets illness not to be counted. Your union should know all this. If your employers don't do this, raise a grievance claiming pregnancy discrimination.

Hi the union did but nothing was done, because of repeated ruin infections my time off wasn't that great last year and I think they may have gone ahead with the course of action regardless if swim ?? Would it still be worth doing this?

If you need to take time off work for sickness, you should explain to your boss that your illness is pregnancy related. Pregnant employees have a "protected period" lasting from conception until the end of the statutory maternity leave period and an employer must not take into account any absence related to pregnancy or maternity that falls within the protected period for the purposes of sickness absence procedures/triggers.

Therefore if your boss invokes the formal procedure following your pregnancy related sickness, then at this point you should raise that by law this absence must not be taken into account, nor should your previous pregnancy related illness have been counted towards the sickness record.

If your boss ignores this and progresses with the procedure, then this would be unlawful and you would have grounds to bring a claim.

Thank you I informed my boss on Monday! Unfortunately I had to leave yesterday lunchtime as was sick all day! Haven't gone in today as feel awful, I am hoping to get in tomorrow! My boss isn't very helpful and implied my sickness should have gone my lunchtime( as his wife's did!!), he also told a colleague with kidney stones that because his scan was no clear he should be back at work! Despite colleague being in pain still! This is what I am up against! I have contacted the union again with regards to removing my other sick days from my record , thanks for your help all!!