Advise on coming back to work.

[dereal2013]

Hi All,

just after some advice please for my partner.

She has worked for a company for 5 years now, her employment contract back then was 16 hours a week, nothing about what hours, flexi cleaner over 3 days,

Over the years she has increased from 3 days to 4 days, then 5 days, still flexi which works great as we have 2 children who have developed disabilities or an increase of care such as autism/adhd and she has some hidden mobility issues unknown at the time what.

so her employment has been brilliant. .

in 2017-18 she was working on avg of 20-24 hours per week over the 5 days,

since this year she has been on the sick, her conditon has got much worse.

she was on the sick for a month in JAN, then afew weeks in feb, and she returned and told them she would have to watch what she does,

she is a cleaner, but they ask her to do other stuff such as filing in the overtime part she has been doing,

however in May it got to much for her, and a bad day when one of her supervisors insisted that she does this fileing which requires more bending over, she spoke to her boss about her pain but just said
it needs doing!.

the next day she was complete upset and distressed and in pain, so her doctor signed her off for 2 months until 7th July.,

she has been to see a specialist she has been waiting for 8 months and she has been diagnosed with Fibromyalgie

with a more understanding of her condition and wanting to go back to work for her dignity,

she asked her boss for a meeting, and she said she wants to go back but at reduced hours, she took in info about her condition from the doctors, exam results of her fibro and asked her employs can she do, 3 days again, so after a busy day she can rest, this is advise by her specialist,

they wasn't happy with that and said they will have to have a meeting as they need someone for 5 days,

how does my wife stand on this if they come back negative? since her contract does state 16hours? over 3 days?

she is hoping to go back next week, before her sick note runs out, as she just wants to her best in her abilities,

thanks

[ULA]

Sorry to hear about the situation with regard to your wife.

Firstly if she is signed off sick and wants to return to work early my view would be that, if I was her employer, I would want to see a Fitness to Work (FtW) note that said she was fit to return to work earlier than her previous note. Unless they have this, there may be issues with the company's insurance if something did happen in the period between her returning to work and the date on her current (FtW) note.

Secondly if your wife does see her GP to get the FtW she could ask whether, given her diagnosis, the GP would make reference to her returning on her contractual hours - there is I believe a tick box that mentions altered hours. Explaining that her hours have gradually increased over time, which was not been an issue until her condition worsened and that she feels now she needs to go back to working those hours. If her GP supports this course of action then this would give her some medical support in her discussion to try and get her hours "reduced back" to her original contracted hours.

I would suggest seeing if the approach of returning to her contractual hours supported by her GP medical opinion brings the desired results for your wife in the first instance.