Diasaplinary hearing due to being off work with sick dd, your opinions pls

[2littlemonkeys]

Sorry to post this here. But i need some help, or if any of you have been in a similar situation.
Bascily my dd has chicken pox and nursery refuse to allow her for 2 weeks from when the spots came out, so the monday of last week i had a days holiday as it was dd1 4th birthday so it didnt cause a problem, but wed i had no one to look after her, so i had already told work and asked if i could one of my 5 weeks holiday to be told no all the holidays have been taken for that day and i had to have it unpayed even thought i was off anyway, apparently its unfair on people who have already been refused???: (how would they no) anyway explained that i could not afford to be off unpayed and still pay nursery for 2 children, they wasnt intrested.
So my husband then tells me he is working in his home town for a few days the following week and he may have to take megan with him and mil can watch her, so told work this and said if all is well i will be in work monday etc but then my mum offered to have her but only until 2 each day and we both thought this would be better then sending her to mil 120 miles away.
So cut an already long story short i went to work yest after droping dd2 at my mums and after about 2 hours of being ignored by my manager, i was asked in to my back to work interview following my absence last week, went through it all filled in the forms etc then at the end told i would be invited to a disaplinary hearing due to the amount of times i have been off in the last 12 months which they tell me includeing last wed is 6, 1 of which was for me last august when i was suffering from panic attacks but the other 5 where for dd2, and then my manager wanted to no why we didnt send her to mil so i could work a afull day. i was fuming when i came out, for one last wed on of my other colleages got sent home because her ds?s had chicken pox and they told her she wasent aloud in the office in case she passed it round, so really if i had of been in they would of sent me home anyway, and they pushed to do it yest because if they had waited till next week they wouldnt of been able to do as my sick day last year was 24th feb.

So what do you think do i have a leg to stand as i was off careing for dd or do i just get a new job lol

thanks for reading sorry its long and i hope it makes sense

can you take it as sick pay, if you are not sick yourself..?

my mil is in wales 120miles away so i dont think she can help its just my husband was working there at the time, next time i will put her on a train and hope she gets there!

I have been working there 5 years and yes one day was for me being sick the rest dd x

IMHO this is a misuse of the disciplinary procedure. Get a copy of it, get in contact with HR and look into it. You are legally entitled to unpaid time off.

I am confused about the paid/unpaid aspect. But it seems as though you did as much as you could and if you haven't abused the right to unpaid absence, then a meeting with your line manager to talk this through should be sufficient. It is his/her job to make sure you are clear of the rules.

IME as a former HR person, the threat of a disciplinary procedure should not be made lightly, however it is often banded about willy-nilly. If you are dismissed as a result, and have been denied reasonable leave of absence for you dependents you may have grounds to take them to Industrial Tribunal.

They may be using this as bullying tactic so as to you use as an example and avoid setting a precedent with your colleagues. Its all very well them shouting about it, but it may just be alot of hot air. If its not, they need to be careful.

If there is a real threat talk to your CAB.

no you can't nailpolish, sorry wasn't clear, was posting that in response to filly's concern about OP not getting sick pay when she was off sick herself.

also because i only work 2 days i would have to be off mon, wed of week one and then mon of week 2 for the sick pay to kick in on the wed of week 2 its not worth it, ive never been ill for that long touch wood!

there isn't a limit, to the unpaid days though naily. As long as the emergencies are genuine, there is no limit. There is no right to paid leave anyway.

from the tiger website (this is the goverment's official line, btw)

"There's no limit to the number of times you can take time off, provided it's for real emergencies. If your employer feels that you are taking more time off than they can cope with, they should warn you of this."

The OP does not seem to have been warned-I suppose that this could be the function of the hearing though? An official warning?

the only thing is, when the law came out it seemed to be the likely that you would only allowed time to ARRANGE care, not provide it. Which obviously causes problems, say in a 2-working parent household. I can't find reference to that on the tiger site so am hoping that that idea has been abandoned.

It does seem a bit bizarre to me that they won't allow paid leave - if I were the employer I would be inclined to allow the use of A/L in an emergency if needed as otherwise the employee will be away from the workplace even more as they will still have AL to use up. I suppose I am lucky, I get the choice in an emergency as to whether I take unpaid leave or AL. I generally go for AL but if dd was ill for more than a day or two I would go for unpaid leave so as not to use up all my holidays.

It isn't just parents that have family emergencies that require them to be absent from work suddenly. In my pre-dh/dd days I had a lot of time off work when my Mum was suddenly seriously ill. I think most (reasonable) colleagues would recongnise the difference between a family emergency of whatever nature and someone just fancying a day off with no notice.

The key words here are "call" and "centre".

These places are a law unto themselves. They take no notice of employment law, health and safety etc. Ds worked in one and was a manager for a while. He got out because he was so shocked at the way employees were treated - however, many of the employees were in the uk on visas that did not allow them to work, and the whole situation was dire. They sacked people with no warning, and sometimes just didn't pay wages, pay cheques bounced etc.

I understand it is really hard to get part time work that fits in with dcs though.

my experience was also a call centre

I'm off work today due to ds being unwell. I have 2 kids and so can be off a lot what with one or the other being unwell. I know its unpaid, I don't expect the company to pay me even though I certainly can't afford to lose the £'s. I've got absolutely no family help and know my job is on a shaky peg due to me being off with sick kids so much.

maybe thats why my last post was quite blunt, I think the op isn't being realistic about her position.

If you only had one day off sick in 5 years and 6 days this year as carers leave, I really don't think that is unreasonable. However, I would probably have said I was ill just to make it less complicated. I think you can self-certify for 5 days of sickness - need a doctor's certificate after that.

I work in the NHS and it is common for staff to request emergency annual leave or carers leave, however I know it is different in the private sector.

Hi just thought i would let you all no, my work has decided they are not going a head with the disaplinary procedure, but i have to attend a meeting next monday to discuss the time off thanks for all your help x

Liking flowerybeanb's advice on this thread which is correct.

The bigger problem is finding a solution. In some big city firms they provide emergency childcare for professional staff because if someone is off who will earn the company £2k a day then it pays to make sure the person is in work. Now for different types of workers there is not the same economic necessity I suppose so employers do not usually provide for that.

Is there work you could do at home? I must say we just sent ours in to school with the chicken pox on the basis it's better if other children catch it and who is to know they have it.. once they were getting better.

Other options - my sister who works for herself hires an emergency temporary nanny for the day. That will cost more than you earn however I expect but for her she cannot let down her own clients so even if she worked at a loss for a day that's worth it long term. So it may be worth you paying someone just to keep a job as they aren't that easy to find.

Other options - advertise for a local student who has free time, like my older children, and want casual work child minding for a day in your house possibly. The basic legal point is your children are your and your husband's responsibility and that in some cases sacking someone for time off for sickness if fair and justified if it's done properly.

This may be a little off-topic, but for the nursery to tell you 2 weeks from when the spots come out sounds a bit much? The Health protection agency recommend 5 days from the onset of the rash.

HPA

Hi, am in the process of decideing on weather just to hand in my notice and work for my dh who is a se gas engineer i can do the books and invoices etc, then i will always be home, my dd1 starts school in sept aswell, so would help in the holidays.
I had it out with the nursery but they say its there rules so nothing i can do on that, just be skint for a while lol