Being summoned to disicplinary hearing.

[saltire]

What can I expect?

Are you in a union? At any rate, take a friend or someone into the meeting with you (you are entitled to do this) to take notes/support you. Also encourages the boss to keep behaviour professional if there's a witness.

Worth looking up the ACAS and Dept for Business websites for the law on this - think Dept for Business stuff used to be on www.tiger.co.uk. Just check they are allowed to do what they are doing AND are following the statutory procedures - if they fuck up it's you'd be very likely to be successful at a tribunal (but you need to work there for a year, I think, before you can claim unfair dismissal, sadly).

Nothing illegal about a sickness absence management policy that involves disciplinary action. If you had been there longer and they were to dismiss you because of such a small amount of absence, then you'd potentially have a case for unfair dismissal on the grounds that this response was disproportionately harsh. But you haven't been there long enough.

Even if they don't follow the procedure properly, your options are very limited - you would not be able to take them to a tribunal unless you felt there was some kind of discrimination, which it doesn't sound as though there is. Technically they do have to follow the statutory disciplinary procedure but in reality if they don't there's not an awful lot you can do about it at all.

Do take someone with you, a colleague or a union rep usually - they won't usually allow anyone else.

You mention about hoping DSs are not sick while you are there. I think the issue is if they are sick, for goodness sake don't phone in sick and use your sickness absence entitlement if this is going to be their response! It's certainly not going to make them any more sympathetic, as they might (should) be if all your absences were for you being ill. You shouldn't be off 'sick' if you are perfectly well.

If you hvae to take emergency time off to care for DSs for a day or two, you are entitled to do this, on an unpaid basis, see here. If you needed to do that for a day or two, they couldn't discipline you for it.

But I never phoned in when Ds2 was ill and said I was sick. I said that Ds2 had been up all night with D&V, and I had to stay home and look after him because he couldn't go to school. However they have it down on my "unauthorised absences" sheet as being one of my sicknesses.

Well in that case that's something you should raise at your hearing. If you had no intention of claiming this as sickness absence for yourself, make that clear. As per the link I gave you, you have a right to (unpaid) time off for emergencies like this, so just make it clear that was what you intended that absence to be, which therefore should not be taken into account. Assuming you followed all the required procedures in terms of notification, this wasn't 'unauthorised'.

If it's a big company I would expect them to have information about how absence is handled, sickness absence, compassionate leave and everything else, so do make sure you've checked your handbook, contract and any other policy documents there are before you go to the meeting.

The company I work for has a very similar absence policy...employees are allowed 3% absence in any 26 week period before an attendance review meeting is triggered. For me, because i am part time, that equates to 1 day in 6 months. I have been there 14 years and have so far had one attendance review because I had flu one Xmas and had 2 days off work. They had my complete attendance record out and some was incorrect...they had me absent when I wasn't. Because I had had so few days off in total...less than 10 in 14 years...they took no further action but these policies do seem to penalise the genuinely ill. We regularly have staff in, serving on deli counter etc. clearly unwell ( would you want someone with a streaming cold serving you on a deli counter?) but are too frightened to take the day off. There are certain illnesses where I'm sure staff handling food have to be symptom free for 48 hours before they return to work ....can't see that happening with absence policies like these tbh, but I'm pretty sure thats a h&s regulation.
Then they have a whole policy for what they class as 'planned absence'. I was recently in hospital for a planned operation which happened to fall on a day I should have been at work. Nothing I could do about it as I can't dictate which day the surgeon operates can I? I had to make the time up before my op so I could have the day off and then use some of my annual leave for recouperation (sp) time. Apparantly an operation isn't classsed as illness!!!! even though I was unfit for work.

I am going to go and look out the employee handbook and my contract and see what they say

should be, that's bizarre... do you have a union? Worth checking out whether they can arbitrarily decide surgery isn't counted as justifiable sick leave!

Edam yes I'm an USDAW member....spoke to the rep who said this was right. I was shocked too, couldn't believe my ears when I told my team leader I was going to be off and she asked me if I wanted to make the time up or take it unpaid! I work for a big supermarket and to be honest the union just seem to agree with what ever they decide...seem pretty ineffective to me.

I don't know if there is a union.
I'm really sick of the way they treat staff anyway, like most big companies they are profit driven.Only yesterday I was speaking to teh HR woman about my wages. I was told when i wnet over to permanent that i woudln't get paid until the end of May, and then for 4 months would be paid at the end of the month then after that it would change to the 20th of the month. however I was paid on the 20th April, covering a period from 14th -30th April. So if they paid me on 20th of April then the payemnt thing is obviously set up, so it follows that I should be paid on 20th May, but no HR woman said it will b end of month.
Team mananger is speaking to store manager today to see what "options" they have with regard to my poor attendance. I also don't like the fact that it recorded as unauthorised absence, and not illness.

Jeez, your employer sounds like a real jerk. Couldn't you get a job as a temp nanny for a while until your registration comes through again to be a childminder?

You have a legal right to time off work to care for a sick child. You got slapped cheek. That isn't likely to happen again... is it?

Now, about these migraines, boy oh boy do I feel your pain. Migraines are terrible. And, I'm no doctor, but can I ask why you are duffering through them? Have tried triptans? I get migraines and they are absolutely fab. But, if there is some reason triptans are not good for you, have you explore other prevenative treatments?

"I get migraines and they are absolutely fab. "

I obviously meant the triptans and not the migraines.