Occupational Health..

[mrsjw17]

Hello

I suffer from POTS & Fibromyalgia.

I have recently been signed off work for 5 weeks now after catching a chest infection from someone at work which has knocked me for six & due to this my medical conditions have worsened.

I made my employers know about my medical conditions when I started working for them as I needed to ask about disabled bays.

I had a call from my manager yesterday stating they will get into contact with occupational health as apparently I never made them aware of my medical conditions (even though I have emails also as proof).
They're going to look into how my medical conditions will effect my job roll, if I need anything that will make working easier or if I'm liking to always have bouts of absence like this, if that's the case they will speak with HR & then the legal team to terminate my contract as they want someone who will be an asset to the company. Even though they've stated that my performance at work is outstanding.

Is this discrimination?

Do I need to get some legal advice?

Are they allowed to do this?
I understand absence isn't a good thing but with something that I have no control over it seems slightly unfair.

Worse this is I work for a pharmaceutical company!!!

I have also offered to work from home during these times & they haven't followed up with that?

If anyone could shed some light I'd be really grateful!

@Aprilx

I just asked a question that's all.

It just seemed a little out of order for you to assume that one month return to work was a little excessive but I don't think you can comment when you don't know the extent of my medical conditions.

I'm sorry if my answer come across in the way you think, I was just asking why you were asking in that way.
Maybe if you had stated 'XYZ' I would have understood.

I just felt like I was under interrogation.

I'm under a great deal of stress at the moment with all of this & with being admitted to hospital just last week due to stress I feel very vulnerable at the moment.

I agree occupational health provide recommendations and the organisation decide whether they are reasonable to apply.

I would generally only do a phased return for an extended period off, but may suggest using annual leave for days to help if you didn't feel up to full weeks of work,

I would expect time for medical appointments to be made up.

Pandemic aside working from hone wasn't generally a full time option for staff in my organisation. A day here of there to facilitate a visit from an engineer at home or to focus on a specific one off task that required quiet. I'd probably be more reticent to allow for staff that felt like they needed more supervision and mgmt attention.

If you had significant time off sick during probation I probably wouldn't have moved to permanent employment. Although the extended time for your probation does seem unusual unless there were reported issues earlier in your employment.

None of the above would be personal, I care about my staff as individuals. However companies need employees to be able to deliver the tasks within their responsibilities and can't afford to fund staff who are unable to deliver for an extended period. I know that feels harsh to individuals affected but fir example we can't fail to deliver because a member of staff is persistently unavailable to work.

I hope you feel better soon and find a role that fits well with your condition

OP I sympathise. A lot of people on this board are HR folk who are in favour of the employer and very ignorant of disability. Many posters are anti disability (but deny this - of course they would). I've had to point many posters who say "you can't ask for that" in the direction of case law which says actually - you can.

I have multiple disabilities. I have worked in the disability field for 25 years. I am a trade union rep. I have several relevant qualifications - an LLM in law, PgD in employment law, a CIPD level 7 in HRM and I have a Masters in Disability Studies. I have other relevant qualifications and work experience that would be much more outing.

The PP @Aprilx is probably not a lawyer, just an HR person who did a bit of employment law as part of her qualification. I also doubt she has any lived experience of disability.

Chin up OP. You don't give a lot of details but what you have said sounds like a good case but don't do the tribunal on your own. Get advice from a union or a lawyer. Don't rely on Mumsnet.

Because I am trying to establish facts in order to use my CIPD L7 / Masters degree in employment law to try and help you.

This explains a lot, it people with those quals spout such nonsense.

OP sorry to hear about your job, as you say you have the emails from during the recruitment process, then how they can claim that you didn't inform them is mind boggling. They probably hoped you would just accept it, but good on your for not, although it's a hard and draining fight often, thank you. Although it's sad, everyone who does stand up to this kind of behaviour from employers all helps.

Good luck with your case - sounds like a strong one. I’d be very surprised if they don’t try to settle once they’ve had legal advice

OP, this is not an accusation in any way but a number of comments you posted doesn't seem to make a lot of sense as you've shared them.

You say that you'd been employed for 18 months, put on furlough for 3 weeks and then started your probation period again. Surely your probation period would have been over by then, if 6 months it less. Do you mean it was extended?

You say that you had stated your conditions in an email. Did you however state them on the OH form when you were offered the job? If not (and you already had the conditions then), they could use this against you.

I also don't understand how they could have made such threats of letting you go due to sickness leave if you'd only had one episode of sickness in 18 months.