Capability hearing

[Whatifyoufly22]

I’ve nc for this as it’s fairly outing.
I have been asked to attend a capability hearing regarding my sickness. It’s in line with the sickness policy, so I can’t dispute that work are not following protocol.
I triggered sickness monitoring as I had a period of absence of over 5 days, then had a period of absence due to work related stress and burnout within the timeframe of the monitoring agreement.
As I don’t have an underlying health condition the policy is the next step of a capability hearing.
I’ve been sent the relevant documentation and have been told that I can submit relevant documents also.
During the absence with stress, I had a meeting with HR during which HR staff typed notes. I have been informed that the staff member who took these notes is unable to find them.
Can the hearing go ahead given the absence of the meeting notes?
During the meeting I discussed the lead up to me going off sick.
I will submit a document regarding this.
I plan to contact my union and/or ACAS tomorrow but wanted to ask advice on here.

As I understand it a capability meeting is to see if you are capable of doing your job. I can’t see how the missing notes are needed for that as it was about the time off then. I would expect the meeting tomorrow to cover how you plan to do your job going forward if you’re saying you were off due to work stress.
They might agree to some adjustments to help, giving you some time to improve etc

@fashionqueen0123 work have been really supportive since I returned to work.
My view is the notes would have been a formal documentation of the reasons for the stress as being the precursor to my going off sick.

I’m pretty embarrassed about this hearing. Been in the job over fifteen years and never had anything like this before.
I know it isn’t about my ability to do my job per se, more about the impact on service delivery.

You should definitely speak to your union. To be clear, you had one five-day absence which resulted in sickness monitoring, were then off with stress caused by work and they’re holding a capability meeting? That sounds like it’s escalated very quickly.

I am not a lawyer or in HR, just a manager, but a few thoughts.

Was the meeting while you were off sick just a keeping in touch meeting, or a formal sickness review? If it was the latter, check your workplace policy for if they should have sent you a copy of the meeting notes for you to agree or disagree. Also if it was the latter, did they inform you of your right to be accompanied by eg a union rep?

Your employer has a legal duty to protect you from preventable stress. You say they’ve been supportive, but have you been referred to occupational health and have you completed a stress risk assessment with your line manager? And did you have a formal return to work meeting? My HR would have kittens if I tried to hold a capability hearing without doing those basic things for someone who had been off with stress. And have you been informed of your right to be accompanied to this meeting? Read your policies very carefully and check if they’ve been followed.

I am struggling to understand why they are holding a capability meeting if there are no performance concerns and you’ve only had two periods of sickness.

As to the missing notes, I would be inclined to report that as a data breach - if someone does not know what they’ve done with notes about your health, which is special category data, that is not OK.

Please call your union asap.

PS have been assuming the period of stress was short-term sickness but realised you didn’t actually say. The only way this makes sense is if you were off for a very long period. Otherwise your employer is frankly not being that supportive!

Surely you should have been given a copy of the notes after the meeting? The notes should have been agreed. I'd definitely raise this as an issue. I assume you can have someone to accompany you, union rep if there's one.

How long were you off with stress for and how long off in total over what period? This is key info that’s missing.

as for the notes it doesn’t matter, you know why you were off and can repeat it.

So first absence was seven days. Anything over five triggers sickness monitoring. That was in October last year. Acute illness, not work related.
In the December I went off with work related stress. This absence was three months. I had GP appointments and was prescribed anti depressants to help manage the stress.
This absence was the cumulative of six months of high intensity work, feeling very unsupported, isolated really.
Thats why I feel the notes are important ti the meeting as things that demonstrate the lead up to me going off were discussed in the meeting that the team leader was not aware of.

The meeting while I was off sick was a keep in touch meeting. It was very supportive.

I’ve had occupational health appointments for both absences as per the policy.

As I have no underlying health conditions and because I broke the monitoring agreement that states if I had another period of absence within six months of the first absence then the next stage of the process would be triggered, they have invited me to the capability hearing.

Ex nhs senior manager….theyre just following what’s set out in the policy.
You say this is a first so your history is good.
They've lost documentation.
You have over 2 years service.
All this means you have nothing to worry about; they’re just ticking boxes.

Since you’ve come back - when you say another period of sickness within 6 months are we talking weeks off or just one day with a bug type thing- as that seems overkill in that case to have this meeting, but not if you had say gone off with stress again.

Why are they looking at it now if your last absence was in March? Did OH have the meeting notes to refer to when you spoke to them?

Ok, so what’s happened since march to now? Why are they suddenly having a capability hearing 6 months later? Have you had performance issues or further a absences since return?

No, no further absence and no performance issues.
I was informed end of May that this hearing would take place but only received a date last week after repeated e mails to my manger and HR. I think it’s really unfair that they have taken so long to organise it.
if it took me almost five months to organise a meeting I’d be in a lot of trouble, same should apply to HR.

It all seems rather pointless to me then? You’re back at work!

Ok so maybe just box ticking if you’ve been back at work 6 months with no further issues,

@fashionqueen0123 and @Venusunbroken yes I agree. But the company have to follow the sickness policy. Just want it over with tbh.