How can she get away with so much sickness?

[laughcheese]

Work at a supermarket. There's a colleague who has probably worked 8-10 months in the past 2 years. She has worked for the company for over 30 years and the current store is her 3rd. Her sickness has been ok prior to this, She had 8 weeks off for "reaction to a covid vaccine". She said she was unable to move her arm. Funny how another colleague, spotted her playing with her grandchildren in a local park, lifting her youngest GC into a baby swing, using BOTH arms. Then she had another 8 weeks off  sick at the start of Diwali (she is Hindu). She rang in sick as she wasn't able to book off the week. Plus other 'sicknesses' lasting several weeks.

 

She has been off since the 2nd half of Feb due to stress caused by staff shortages. Colleagues have left - sacked, retirement, getting a job suiting them better etc but not being replaced. She said to myself and a few other colleagues, the last day I saw her, that tomorrow she is going to her GP to get herself signed off for three months due to staff shortages. When myself and other colleagues had time off for stress, our GPs gave us 2-4 weeks. Then in late May, her husband came into work with another sick note. Then last month, her children (in their 30s) handed in another sick note. She is causing so many problems as we are still short staffed - she is adding fuel to the fire. We are getting rather annoyed with her. We are stressed out as it is. None of us had time off for stress since she started it. She started to act like this 3.5 years ago, cannot point out why that is. Before then, she hardly made a mistake and got on with whatever a manager or supervisor tells her to do.

 

When she  worked during the last 8-10 months of the past 2 years, she was useless. Whines all the time, makes so many mistakes, talks to us in a demanding tone and turns up late without making up the time.  She is not a team player. A few examples I can think of is she turns up 15 mins late and then comes to the kiosk to get the free lucky dip on her lottery ticket. Why couldn't she go to one of the shops within 5 mins walk of where she lives and do that in her own time? There are 3 shops with lottery terminals.  Then a mistake she did was to stable the free lucky dip the lottery terminal printed and gave the old ticket back to the customer. Customer puts ticket back in purse. Only to discover it was the old ticket the day after the draw the lucky dip was printed for. Another one was weighing cucumber as courgettes. She thinks she demands special treatment for working that length of time. There are other colleagues worked longer than her and they don't act like this.

 

None of us want her back due to her persistent "sickies", her attitude etc. So how can she get away still being on the books for the supermarket? She was on a final written warning for her attendance, but unsure when it runs out. I was told by a manager re recruitment for new staff. He said they can only recruit if they have X hours short each week. Dismissing this awful colleague will bring the the total hours to X hours plus abut 10 more..

 

Another question a colleague asked is about sick pay. Due to her length in service, she gets the full amount - 26 weeks full pay. Does that full sick pay start again after a year?

 

Some colleagues are thinking that my employer is scared to dismiss her due to her race.  If a white colleague acted in a similar way, we would be dismissed ages ago.

 

If she does return back to work, which none of us wants, what can we do? We don't mention her to the management as we get told off about it.  

 

 

[unclebulgaria67]

I should imagine that the managers are currently going through a confidential disciplinary process with her, that will see her employment ended. But unless you are the manager concerned, you should not know about this.

 

I think most workplaces have a colleague that has decided that they prefer not to be working  for whatever reasons. They may have some genuine health issues, but then ask Doctors for a fit note for months at a time.  Eventually the outcome after a long delay, is that in most case employment is ended.

 

No I don't think sick pay starts again after a year.  Once it has run out, then the member of staff would have to be back working for a relevant period to qualify for sick pay again.

[Bazooka Boo]

Workplace bullying springs to mind.

[The GodMother]

This post seems familiar. A similar post a few months ago. 

 

Advise was nothing could be done without management stepping in.