Facing disciplinary for sickness absence

[OutbackQueen]

I’ve worked for my employer for 12 years (NHS in admin). In the last couple of years I’ve had a lot of time off due to a severe anxiety disorder. In the last 6 months I’ve had 4 separate absences, each lasting 1 day only. This has triggered something and I’ve been advised that I’ll face disciplinary action the next time I’m off sick.

I do my best and do a great job and am a highly respected member of staff and am very disappointed that this is on the cards. I’m not well at all but am trying hard to manage my disorder and am on medication and under psychiatry/psychology. Do you know what rights I have please?

4 days off sick in 6 months?

Do they know that you are taking medication and seeing a specialist?

Have you spoken to your union rep?

Yes they do and we don’t have a union @PritiPatelsMaker

Have you seen occupational health? The first step is a health review and reasonable adjustments.

Sorry to hear you're having a rough time.

Can you access your Trust's absence policy? Are they following the procedure there?

Unfortunately, these things are done by a formula. Your length of service or reputation isn't a factor.

Is there more support work could be providing to stop you from needing to take so many days out? Or is there anything you can do in your private life to reduce triggers?

If you're too ill to work, you shouldn't work but this does have consequences in the workplace. It really is a difficult situation both for the person who is ill as well as the employer who has to apply their policy evenly and transparently to everyone and also has to find cover/reduce pressure on the team when they have someone taking a lot of days - perhaps even more tricky when it's one off days.

Good luck!

Have you spoken to occupational health at all? They can be great support. I’d suggest you do. The NHS doesn’t like individual days off rather than big chunks, I assume because they think you might be more likely to be pulling a pretend sicky🙄

Yes 4 days off in total but it’s the fact that I’ve been off on 4 occasions apparently.

Anyone in the nhs can join unison, unfortunately it’s now too late for this issue as they won’t cover anything that happens prior to membership

Speak to your union. If you aren't in a union - join one now. They will know exactly what rights you have, what the law is, and which way the wind is blowing currently in your particular workplace. Personally, I wouldn't go to a disciplinary without representation and of course a union will help with that too.

I would definitely ask for a referral to Occupational Health. Since I was referred to them I've had reasonable adjustments in place and my condition has been classed as a disability so I don't get sanctions if I'm off with a related Illness. Not that it happens very often.

Refer yourself to occupational health

Speak to your union rep if you’re in a union

Check your sickness/absence policy, it’s usually a sickness management procedure they would follow rather than disciplinary unless there are also other concerns.

Mind has some useful information about mental health illness and the equality act / discrimination

www.mind.org.uk/information-support/legal-rights/disability-discrimination/disability/

ACAS is also a good source of information

www.acas.org.uk/supporting-mental-health-workplace

As a fellow NHS admin, you do have unions, you can join GMB and Unison. Though not both at the same time.
Also your severe anxiety disorder is a long term condition which means you are protected under the Equality Act 2010.
You need to make your employer aware of the disorder and they have to make reasonable adjustments such as being more flexible when it comes to their sickness policy.

You've probably just hit a trigger in their absence management system, OP. Not necessarily anything to worry about, as you clearly have a diagnosed condition that would probably meet the criteria to be counted as a disability, and you are already doing what you can to manage it with medical care etc. I would expect maybe a referral to occupational health, which might make some suggestions about reasonable adjustments, and then perhaps a period of monitoring in which they will be expecting your attendance to improve.

I think the key is to be open and honest with them about the support that you're getting, and making it clear that you don't take time off lightly. Hopefully they will be reasonable and understanding of your situation.

Unlikely it will result in formal action; you've reached a trigger point and they are duty bound to investigate the cause. In this instance occupational health is your friend.

Like everything in the NHS, there will be a sickness policy.

Normally when you hit triggers, the first step is informal monitoring. This is not specifically "disciplinary", it's about having a discussion with you, looking at your return to work discussions for each episode and then looking at what adjustments should be in place / what you are doing to help yourself be in work. Are there triggers, would set periods of leave / annual leave days for rest help / temporary reduction in hours (although this also comes with a temp reduction in salary)

At informal monitoring, there will be an agreement of reasonable sickness levels over a monitoring period, this might be no sickness over E.g 8 weeks or 1 episode over e.g 16 weeks, it depends on you / your manager.

The next stage would be formal monitoring if sickness doesn't improve, or another informal monitoring period.

It's takes a lot to get to "disciplinary action". The whole point of the process is to support you to be at work to do the job you are paid to do, and what adjustments can be put in place. And look at triggers -E.g are all your days on the same week day / coincide with a specific meeting or even that happens on that day. Is there a similar pattern over previous years.

And it won't be lengthy periods of sickness that trigger - in fact is generally less of an issue to have one extended period of sickness (for treatment for example) than multiple random days across the year which is far more disruptive to a service.

She can speak to them and see what they can do but they are quite clear in their t&c’s that they can’t help with pre-existing issues. Otherwise they’d get everyone just joining when issues arise rather than paying in over the course of their employment and that’s not sustainable.

the trigger point for review in our trust is 2 absences in 6 months. There will be a policy OP, but if you’ve had 4 in the last 6 months and multiple in the last 2 years I think you would have exceeded the trigger point most places. It’s unclear at what stage you’re at though. The first stages should be supportive and look at adaptations and accommodations to reduce your absence. Have you been through that process yet?

why have you not joined a union before now. ?
do it asap.
good luck.

Thank you for all your replies. I do of course appreciate how disruptive my time off can be but management are fully aware of the nature of my condition and what I’m doing to try and manage it. I do sometimes wonder if I’m too ill to work but I can’t do without the income and love what I do.

Are they using the Bradford Factor calculator

www.naturalhr.com/2019/11/25/bradford-factor/

The Bradford Factor is calculated with the following formula:

B = S x S x D

B = Bradford Factor

S = Spells or number of occasions of unauthorised absence – in the formula this is squared (multiplied by itself)

D = Total number of days absent

Examples

Employee A
Over the last 12 months, Employee A has been absent from work on 6 occasions due to sickness. These 6 occasions account for 8 days of absence in total over the 12 month period.

Employee A’s Bradford Factor score is 288 which is calculated by:

S x S x D = Bradford Factor

6 x 6 x 8 = 288
Employee B
Over the last 12 months, Employee B has been absent from work on 2 occasions due to sickness. These 2 occasions account for 16 days of absence in total over the 12 month period.

Employee B’s Bradford Factor score is 64 which is calculated by:

S x S x D = Bradford Factor

2 x 2 x 16 = 64
It can be seen that although Employee A has taken less sickness absence in total over the same period, he/she has a higher Bradford Factor Score than Employee B due to there being more frequent spells of absence than with Employee B.

In my org your absence level would trigger the capability procedure, which sounds scary but in reality at this stage this would be more in depth investigation into what is happening and exploring what support can be put in place. Almost certainly a referral to occ health. And, as a pp said, it is likely that recurrent mental health issues may class as a disability under the Equality Act, which means your employer will have a duty to consider reasonable adjustments. The focus as this stage really should be supportive not punitive. I'd still encourage you to join the union- they may be limited in what support they can offer to an existing issue, but are likely to be able to provide some advice. Good luck!

Yes they use the Bradford Factor and was hoping the next step would be a capability procedure rather than disciplinary action.

But they were very supportive for me when I was named in a grievance. I wasn’t the subject of it so they couldn’t represent me but held my hand, gave me advice and a space to talk through. Also as pp have suggested, OH

I’d join Unison and get some advice. It will give HR pause that you are a member.

It does sound like an auto trigger though, and probably not much to worry about. Have you spoken to someone in HR and provided info from the doc?

We’re a a small organisation (GP practice) so don’t have HR as such. Will consider joking Unison though.

Im nhs
In my trust We use the bradford score as above. Over 90 triggers an informal sickness review, which is to discuss if theres anything the work place can do to support you etc, if something like an occ health referral would be helpful. Usually theres a review point of 6 weeks and if people have no more sickness in that period its closed

Check your local policy to see what the process is.