Formal complaint made about me because I am housing a refugee who may or may not carry diseases

[Jynxed]

Please help me handle this as I am feeling very upset.

For a couple of years I have had occasional guests to stay under the Homes for Refugees scheme. This is where asylum seekers are awarded Right to Remain but the flip side of this is that they have to leave home office accommodation almost immediately, with no money and no support.

Last week I was asked to take in a young man who would be made homeless within 2 days and he arrived this weekend. He is a doctor and it came out in conversation that he had been exposed to TB through his work, had some bacteria markers, and was now receiving monitoring and treatment in the UK to treat this.

I have come across this before, but did a little research to check that there was no risk to my family. I was satisfied that latent TB is not a live disease, and treatment prevents it from developing, so in effect my guest did not have the disease, could not spread it, and was receiving treatment to ensure it could not develop.

I have a friend at work who helps me with translation and explaining strange British customs when needed, as she speaks a couple of languages common in the refugee community. I was telling her about my guest’s very early x/ray the next morning and about how to direct him.

Another colleague overheard and flipped her
lid. Lots of horrible comments about “these people coming over here and bringing their diseases “ and how I had put the whole office at risk without any consideration, and she was reporting me to the Director. I tried to explain that latent TB is not TB and of course I would not put my family at risk if there was any concern. She carried on shouting at me really aggressively, and made lots of remarks which I regard as pretty racist. She has submitted her complaint and I have been called to write a statement.

I felt really upset about it and would welcome any help to both support the fact that there is no risk, and that I have not broken any occupational health type rules. What do I say in my defence?!
Thanks for any help you can offer.

Seriously, I know you've acknowledged it, but it should never have even entered your head to share your guest's medical information. That is really unforgivable.

My retirement work is in the refugee sector, and it's made extremely clear to us that we must keep our service users' confidentiality at all times (outside of safeguarding). You must have been vetted and trained before being accepted into the project, so you really stuffed up. If your colleague reports this to Rooms for Refugees, I'd expect them to take action, just as we've had to do on occasion.

If you are on treatment for TB then you cannot pass it on. You can only pass it on the earlier stages. As long as he's got his strong medication , it can take year of treatment, but he won't infect anyone. TB is actually fairly common in the UK as the BCG vaccine is only effective for about five years.

As for your racist colleague. You must make a complaint against her as that type of comment is definitely not within reasonable banter territory.

No I have not had any training (but was vetted and home inspected). But I agree that it is basic not to discuss anyone else’s medical business. But to be fair all I said is that they have to go for an X ray, which is standard screening for all refugees, so not personal.

Organise a visiting medico to speak and hand out literature, answer questions etc at your work place.

It is a sensible worry. Measles and Whooping Cough are bad - not just TB. Are the refugees given a routine course of vaccinations once they arrive?

Just for your peace of mind, about latent TB. I had latent TB a good few years ago (even though I had been given the BCG vaccine when I was a baby and also when I was 14). No symptoms at all, but I'd got exposed to TB patients I was working with so I got tested, and it showed I had picked it up too. Latent TB is not infectious at all, I work for NHS and at they didn't tell me that I need to stop working at all. Actually it was emphasized that, since this is latent TB it is NOT contagious and I can keep working with my patients and live my life as normal. I was given the options of either doing nothing (with the risk that TB could become "active" at some point in the future) or take a 3 month treatment with antibiotics to get rid of the "bug". I chose the treatment, so for 3 months I had to take 2 pills every day if I remember well (the ones that make your urine very orange) and that was the end of it.

This.
Why the hell were you discussing this where every passer-by could hear you?

How old are they? People will remember the concept of ‘notifiable diseases’ and have a lurking memory that it needs to be taken seriously.

Library books used to warn about TB, scarlet fever, measles and something else. You weren’t to borrow or return books if they were in the household.

Between that and the lurking folk memory of Typhoid Mary being a carrier yet having no symptoms, people will be wary.

I’m sure with regular exposure we’ll all get better at knowing when to worry.

And what is the excuse for the racism? There is none!

Don't get too disheartened @Jynxed, I'm sure they need to follow the process.

I think that is a little harsh, especially as I have acknowledged my mistake. I wasn’t where anyone could hear me, I was in a private office, and I wasn’t discussing details, I was getting help translating directions to where the xray was to be taken, and no details beyond that an X-ray was required as part of TB monitoring, which is a standard process for all migrants, was shared. Even his name was not mentioned. The bigot was eaves dropping and incorrectly assumed my guest had live TB.

I think that you need to show that you are calm, normal and reasonable whist she is a lunatic.

So, I would do the health declaration even if you disagree (I suspect they are only asking for this because they want to have a way to come back to her if she says that you are lying about the tb being latent)

And I would go to the director meeting with an attitude of “Racism is against the values of this organisation and I found her outburst racist, aggressive and unacceptable”.

How did your colleague know that he was positive for TB then?

There isn’t really a way for a complaint to be pursued without management and HR continuing to engage with the complainant.

You say hauled up in front of director. They’ll almost certainly see it as a director demonstrating that they’re taking your complaint seriously and fully hearing your concerns directly.

"no details beyond that an X-ray was required as part of TB monitoring, which is a standard process for all migrants, was shared."

You're being dishonest. This is what you said at the beginning of this thread

...it came out in conversation that he had been exposed to TB through his work, had some bacteria markers, and was now receiving monitoring and treatment in the UK to treat this.

This!

Please do this.

It's not reasonable to be racist but it is entirely reasonable to be scared of diseases. When I moved to the UK I had to have a TB test before I was granted a work visa.

The conversation where it came out was him telling us, his host family, at home - not me talking at work. The office I work in has 4 people - myself and nice translator colleague sit next to each other, and bigot and neutral colleague sit next to each other on the other side of the office. I was talking quietly with translator at lunchtime. Neutral colleague heard nothing until bigot set up a tirade.

Make sure you say this in your statement. You mentioned a medical condition. However, this could even be relevant when needing to know directions. Yes it’s x-ray they’re going to but you could also have been asking to translate directions to the infectious disease clinic. Either way, the eavesdropper is the one in the wrong. You didn’t share identifiable information

I’m so annoyed about this situation on your behalf. Please update on the outcome!
sending you a big hug. Your kindness doesn’t deserve the wrath of racists. I hope they get what they deserve.

@Jynxed you are lovely and your colleague is ignorant.

Your colleague may not know this, but TB was - if not common - certainly not unusual in the UK a generation ago (A member of my family had it, I was in close contact & didn't even respond to the mantu test at the time). It does not spread like a virus spreads, and we still have good effective treatments (until antibiotic resistance makes that difficult).

Just write a version of what you've written in your OP.

Maybe bullet points of the timeline, then ask ChatGPT to turn it into a statement?

She doesn’t know it, she jumped to that conclusion. She knows that he needed directions to have an x-ray to check for TB, because she listened into a private conversation. I know he has suspected latent TB, which as a few people have said here, is not infectious, as he chose to tell me. I tried to explain to bigot that it is standard practice to screen migrants for TB and other diseases so technically new arrivals are safety to be around than the rest of us.

Any of us could have latent tb and not know about it unless we were screened. This is actually none of her business. It’s none of your workplaces business either , it is private health information about someone who doesn’t even work there. Could you get in touch with your local department of public health ? They normally do contact tracing for TB as far as I know and could give you some more information about latent tb.

I agree, no excuse for racism.

I was explaining to OP that her understanding of TB is not the same as that of older people who remember relatives disappearing to the outdoor hospitals for years. My aunt was one as a child. It left its mark on the family. My Dad hated it when we had a cough.

Of course things have changed, but many people will have no knowledge, just residual fear.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/contacts-phe-health-protection-teams Here is a link for public health/health protection dept contact details

It's not racist for the person to be concerned about a possible health risk (one which in fairness had been eradicated in this country before uncontrolled immigration became the norm).
I dare say Starmer's stasi will think differently and imprison them for daring to express a concern though.