Work refused to let me take medication

[27holly]

I have arthritis in my spine and I take medication for it but on the particular day the pain was bad and therefore I needed to take medication but it gets worse and work point-blank refused me and told me its not dinner time yet but all I wanted to do was take the medication with food. I've been there 4 and a half years and I've never in the situation before anyways after 10 minutes I went for dinner because I couldn't handle the pain anymore nd now there disciplinary me for it. And to top it off they know about my arthritis.

[ostell]

Have you already started this under a different user I'd?

[27holly]

Yes sorry I'm abit clueless about how these forums work.

[ostell]

So why not look under your orig9nal thread

[27holly]

Because I was a guest and hadn't created a login until today

[ostell]

But you can still find the original

[ULA]

Don't worry I will delete the duplicate thread and we can use this one going forward.

[ULA]

What are the allegations as set out in the letter inviting you to the disciplinary hearing?
What are they providing you as evidence to support the allegations?
Have they stated what the outcome may be if disciplinary action where to be taken.
I presume they have also advised that you have the right to be accompanied.

[27holly]

So the letter didn’t have the sentence finished where it states what the outcome might be, because of this I will be able to get the meeting rearranged and the letter redone... my partner and I think it should say a warning as we don’t believe the bits they have noted as being violated from the handbook are cause for dismissal due to the nature of the situation.

The allegations are failure to do work as told by the manager and abuse of breaks. What happened was I asked for the break, to take my medication and they refused and told me I had to do a job first. I told them about people skiving and asked them to look into it. I took the paperwork and started the task, no one came to stop people skiving so I got frustrated and went for the break anyway to take my medication. Technically I have abused breaks, but I didn’t refuse to do the work as I took the work and started it; someone else did middle bit and I finished it off.

The evidence they have provided me with are two manager statements, the one who gave me the work and then his boss who had a chat with me after the fact, the code of conduct and handbook, both sections they say I didn’t follow.

Yes they have told me I can have someone in with me but I am not part of a union, my girlfriend wants to come in with me-will she be allowed?

[ULA]

The letter inviting you to the meeting should give an indication of the outcome so they need to inform you of that before the meeting is held.

Does your personnel record have the fact that you suffer from arthritis and that you have the need to take medication for the pain which must be taken with food? If not then i would suggest that as part of this process you get that information added to your records. I presume that if needed you can get a letter from your GP to confirm this requirement which can be placed on your records.

Does your girlfriend work for the company? If not then it is unlikely she will be allowed as it should be a union rep or work colleague.

[27holly]

That’s what we thought, I am off at the moment but when back I will be making it clear to them the sentence was unfinished and I need a new letter, meeting and preferably 48 hours notice as I have dyslexia so it takes some time to prepare.

The doctor told me to take with food but I don’t have a letter from them or this noted on the box. It isn’t in my personnel file as to be honest they haven’t bothered asking me much about it all.

My personnel file states that I have arthritis but this is only from information what I said and an occupational health report stating what my problem is which they asked me to do. In the report it states they recommend my workplace to give me posture breaks, the machine I use means by back is twisted for most of the day so the break is to relieve this pressure and it says that the timing of the break is more important than the length. This combined with needing to take pain medication was why I asked for the break in the first place.
if I asked the doctor to put in writing about taking medication with food would they do this? And also would this not become an issue or look to my work place in a dodgy way as this is after the fact?

My girlfriend works elsewhere, thank you for clarifying who I can take in with me.

[seduraed]

Have you looked at the datasheet that comes with the meds? That might show a recommendation that it is taken with food.

[27holly]

Yes I looked at that as soon as you mentioned above as I thought it might be in there but it isn’t unfortunately. I would have thought it might have.
would it be wise getting a doctors note to say it now or tell them again that the doctor told me to do this if they ask?

[ULA]

Depending on the timing of the disciplinary, if you can get the note from the Dr you can then use this as supporting evidence in your defence. If you cannot get it in time then at the meeting you can say that your Dr told you to take the medication with food but if they require confirmation of this then you can get it from your Dr as a follow-up to the meeting.

[27holly]

Thank you, I will try to get this letter beforehand.

is there anything I can do though, with them knowing I’m on medication and what for, is this discrimination in any form?