Can I defend myself with the disability act?

[Moohound70]

Re: Can I defend myself with the disability act?

I will print this off as well as show it to the union rep who I am meeting tomorrow at noon, she was very impressed with the mitigating circumstances that I sent her, so thanks once again for doing that for me Mariefab.

I am really fed up with this whole thing and I feel my life is 'on hold' this is compounded by the fact the one of the other senior members of staff is on long term (several months) sick with stress, and another has been off for 3 weeks with a chest infection and I feel like I have been left to do all the organising of lists, staff, students, cancellations and equipment with this hanging over me at the same time.

[mariefab]

Re: Can I defend myself with the disability act?

OMG, I hadn't realised that you'd had a load of extra work piled on whilst this was happening. They've got some nerve putting you through this in the circumstances.

You know after reading the Policy I still don't understand how you were escalated to Stage 2.
The only possible explanation I can imagine is that, within 8 weeks of the Stage 1 letter, you had 1 day off sick with a migraine and 1.5 days off when you suffered a bereavement. But you didn't inform them of the bereavement instead you called in sick for those 1.5 days. Is this correct?

[Moohound70]

Re: Can I defend myself with the disability act?

Because I was off twice with asthma when I was first diagnosed, I came back to work for 1 and a half days then had massive bronchospasm in the theatre( at lunch time so we didn't have a patient thankfully) and ended up on a trolley in recovery having IV steroids, oxygen and Ventolin nebulisers given by one of the consultant anaesthetists, I was so bad he thought I had a pneumothorax but thankfully I didn't but I was off for another 4 weeks on oral steroids, so the 8 weeks I had off when I was first diagnosed was 4 + 4 so I escalated to stage 2 then and was unable to get off the policy since then.

I did think I was OK to return but I was mistaken, if I had taken it as one continuous period I wouldn't be in this position.

This also happened to a colleague who broke his ribs and thought he was OK to come back and only lasted a day and ended up on stage 2 as well. You can't move patients with broken ribs he nearly passed out with pain, but everyone feels under pressure to come back to work.

This never seems to be taken into consideration and you are penalised for trying to come back to work.

I had one day off with a urine infection the day after my Nana went on to the end of life pathway, I kind of forgot to eat or drink that day and ended up with an infection because of that and I felt very run down, its not something I normally get.

The half day I had off sick was the day after her funeral I cried so much my left eye swelled shut and I had an infected tear duct, I went to work in the morning but my eye was really painful and I went to see the GP at 11:00 and she gave me some antibiotics and some ointment, I would have gone straight back to work but she told me not to as it was an infection risk, I didn't have a list that afternoon anyway, I also offered to take it as holiday or to make the time up another day but I was told no.

She died on a Saturday so I was not at work that day.

I took a days holiday for the funeral itself.

[mariefab]

Re: Can I defend myself with the disability act?

I've made some mistaken assumptions. I was misled about the 1 and .5 days sick leave by the HR person saying that it should have been compassionate leave too. I didn't know you were also sick on those days.
Although you would surely have been entitled to take those same days off as compassionate leave if you hadn't been sick.


Did you get the Stage 1 letter on the day you returned after the first 4 weeks?
If not, when?
Stage 2 letter on return after the second 4 weeks?

Can you provide rough dates for all of the absences?

[Moohound70]

Re: Can I defend myself with the disability act?

Migraine Feb - 1 day
urine infection late June 1 day
eye problem after funeral early July half day
exacerbation of asthma late September 2 days

The union lady said it should have been compassionate leave as it was due to my Nana's deteriorating condition and her funeral.

[mariefab]

Re: Can I defend myself with the disability act?

I agree. Exhaustion and loss of appetite are common physical symptoms of grief and the eye problem is self-explanatory.

One last tip in case they try repeating their claim that they haven't contravened the Equality Act.
Say, "Show me where and when you complied with it."

Show me the documents that record whether to exclude the 8 week period on the grounds that it qualified as disability leave was considered and the reasons why it was rejected.
Show me the documents that prove that the Trust actually complied with their duty to make reasonable adjustments.
Show me any evidence that throughout the process the Trust takes steps to avoid indirectly discriminating against employees with a disability. (Writing the words in the Policy doesn't count.)

They could have included this information in the information packs that they sent to you. After all they sent 10 years of sickness records so they weren't exactly trying to conserve paper. If they just forgot, perhaps they could provide it at the hearing.

Good luck.

[Moohound70]

Re: Can I defend myself with the disability act?

I have been trying to guess at the number of hours that have been spent on sending me to panel, it is 30 hours for me and my manager at least, not including the time she took to write her report then there is 1 hour with the Occ Health nurse, 3 hours with the councillor, and the union rep, plus 3 senior managers time plus HR on top, it is much more than the time I lost due to sickness over the last year.

I feel very unhappy that all my 'private and confidential' letters have been read by everyone. My morale and goodwill is rock bottom.

I feel very unhappy that I have had to spend my weekends researching law and compiling mitigating circumstances instead of with my family.

The service buisness manager was nearly having a nervous breakdown on Friday afternoon as we have a 52 week wait patient and not enough staff with the proper skills on Monday when the panel is, this has been covered in terms of numbers, but the surgeon may still 'flip out' when he sees too many unfamiliar faces for an 8 hour complex multistage case and he may (quite rightly) refuse to do it, if so the trust will be fined.

I imagine my boss will be very unhappy as there is an infection control inspection on Monday as well by the CQC and she won't be there, she doesn't know about it as she was on leave last week.

So overall I think HR have done an awesome job, well done to them.

[Moohound70]

Re: Can I defend myself with the disability act?

Well, that was the shortest panel meeting in history I think. It was a weird experience.

I was in there for less than 5 mins, They immediately referred me to OH again and said they would help me with the provisions I suggested and said they had no intention of dismissing me but would consider giving me a different role ( like nurse educator or something as I have my teaching certificate) if it would improve my health. I wish someone could have said that this was what was going to happen 7 weeks ago.

The HR advisor said it would take all morning and then they would read everything in the file then adjourn and make a decision and then call me back in to let me know and it was nothing like that.

I had brought sandwiches for goodness sake.

I really think it was the mitigating circumstances letter I wrote (that actually Mariefab wrote and I changed a few bits) that did it.

My boss the HR advisor and the union lady didn't even have to go in.

[mariefab]

Re: Can I defend myself with the disability act?

Wow! What a great result. I'm really pleased for you.

[Moohound70]

Re: Can I defend myself with the disability act?

Hi all, hope everyone had a good Christmas and New year, since the panel meeting I have been back to see the Occ. Health Doctor and he said I should never have been referred to panel in the first place, and that it was a waste of NHS resources and time as well as the human cost of the stress and anxiety it caused me, he also said who ever from HR had done this should be 'brought to task' His words not mine. I feel I have been through a lot of stress for no good reason.

I want to complain about what has happened to me and if anyone could help put it into words I would be very grateful.

[mariefab]

Re: Can I defend myself with the disability act?

Great, after OH saying while all this was going on that they couldn't influence the panel; now that you've dealt with this successfully alone they have an opinion on what should happen next.
I bet that they're not suggesting that OH should be involved in any way in having HR 'brought to task'.
(Sorry, needed to get that off my chest.)

Out of nosiness, has the union done anything since the panel 'hearing'?
I recall that they felt that the policy's application was inherently discriminatory. Are they doing, or planning to do, anything about that as far as you know?

A formal grievance about the disability discrimination would be the next step.
Most of the information you'd need is already on this thread and would therefore be included in the bundle of paperwork that you had ready for the panel hearing. So, it may turn out that you just need to create a grievance letter listing the different types of discrimination and their references.
I'd be happy to help with that.

[mariefab]

Re: Can I defend myself with the disability act?

What steps have been taken by your employer since the panel hearing date?
For example;
Have you been provided with a suitable mask?
Has HR agreed with you altered trigger points in the absence policy?