written warning after accident

[darlingdebo]

I have been given a written warning for missing 8 shifts, I was off for two weeks after falling on the ice and hurting my elbow, I was given a sick note by my GP. I went to A&E directly following the accident, and my GP a week later when it wasn't getting any better.

 

I have appealed but any advice would be useful. I do suffer from mental health issues and I have been on medication for almost two years which allows me to cope okay. I think I have been given the warning because of time off for underlying ill health rather than the accident.

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I think we're going to need more information to be able to advise you.

 

Is your employer aware of your mental health problem? And can you tell us a bit more about the written warning please? Was it for missing the eight shifts when you were injured, or are you hinting that you think it was provoked by your other problem or maybe overall sick leave record? Was your employer aware that you were unable to work and did they have your sick note?

 

My best, HB

[SarEl]

I suspect that you have already answered your own question here - the most likely scenario is that you have been given a warning for an underlying sickness record under a managing sickness absence policy, which many employers now commonly use.

 

The primary purpose of managing sickness absence policies is to reduce the number of days off sick which are taken by individual employees. They are not about skiving or anything else, so the fact that the sickness is "genuine", that the doctor has signed you off, why the accident happened, etc - these things are not in any way relevant to their application. In order to use such a policy, your employer obviously has to have such a policy, so you should have been given a copy. If you have not been, you need to ask for one (it may have been "given" to you in a staff handbook or intranet rather than physically given to you). Whilst part of such polices is "supportive" (depending on your definition of "supportive"!) to look at whether the employer can do anything to reduce sickness, they are intended to be applied with relative objectivity, because if they are not, the employer takes risks with the law. By this, what I mean is that if you have more than XX days off and/or more than XX occasions off sick in any period, you pass a threshold and the employer issues a "warning" - and in general terms there are no if's and no but's about this happening. And employer may - and that is may not must - allow some leeway for people with disabilities provided that the illness is directly related to the disability. In your case, even if the employer does this, your sickness had nothing to do with any mental health issues - you fell on ice and hurt yourself, and that has nothing to do with mental health. For most of such policies that I see, a period of two weeks sickness would either qualify in itself, or with only one or two other days added - so it does sound "right".

 

So you are correct, I suspect, that your have been given a warning for an underlying pattern of sickness absence (not for your underlying health issues, if by that you mean your disability) - provided of course, as I said, that the employer has a policy on this. I know that many people think such policies are unfair because people cannot help being off sick, but they are quite definitely fair in law, and the only way to get this off your record is to reduce your sickness absence in the future.

[darlingdebo]

the previous sickness has been discounted as due to underlying ill health (supposedly) so theoretically should not be counted. The warning has been given for the 8 shifts missed following the accident even though it has been accepted as genuine.

SarEL - appreciate what you are saying but I still cannot get my head round how a genuine absence accompanied by a GP fit note can be defined as unacceptable.

 

I'd be more than happy to have a discussion on how to improve my attendance but I think the warning is unreasonable in that it was given for an injury following an accident.The procedural errors that were made were shocking.

 

 

 

 

 

thanks for the comments.

Edited January 22, 2011 by darlingdebo
privacy

[SarEl]

I cannot comment on procedural errors because you haven't mentioned a procedure or errors! But I can certainly assure you that sickness when certified by a GP is definitely counted - any sickness is. It has nothing to do with being genuine, as I said - it is solely to do with the amount of sickness absence. If the levl of sickness you have had meets the thresgold then the warning is fair in law and not unreasonable.