Diabetes and breaks for hypos

The equality act provides for reasonable adjustments to be made for employees with disabilities. Type 1 diabetes is a disability under the equality act.

It might be reasonable to say a necessary 30 min break to treat a hypo is 30 mins unpaid.

But 5 mins unpaid for every blood sugar test, when in reality a blood sugar test takes 20-30 seconds, doesn't seem reasonable to me. Do they make you clock off to go for a wee?

Who has made these decisions about your paid time? Has the decision been made by someone aware of their responsibilities under the equality act? Has it been through McDonald's HR?

That's outrageous. My first reaction is you should get a couple of mates to pin the bad manager down and inject him with a full pen and see how he likes them apples.

But you'll probably end up in jail if you do that, so instead, I'd raise it with your HR department. McDonalds is a multinational company and must surely have a policy on dealing with T1 staff.

It sounds to me like the bad manager is a tube who isn't aware of company policy and needs to be told about it.

Before you do that, get clued up a bit by phoning the Equality Advisory and Support helpline, link here:
https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/contact-us

T1 is covered by the Equality Act 2010 and I'm pretty sure those guys will have dealt with these sort of issues before.

I would wish that the nasty manager is just stupid and ignorant but to be honest I think they are just a nasty peice of work. I would escalate this to HR discretely. As scottc said this is a big multinational who wants to project a very inclusive image. Very senior management I am sure would not be happy.

Tulip01 said:

One of the managers clocks me off on their system I just think it's unfair that people get smoking breaks paid for I can't get blood sugar breaks paid for

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If this is the case, then the manager doing it is breaking the Equality Act, as it's a form of discrimination. If you can evidence this, and take it to McDonald's HR in a constructive way to find out what their policy is, you should be able to get it resolved fairly easily.

I would wager that, like most companies, McDonald's doesn't have a T1 policy.

I bet that Manager smokes!?

yes you are being treated unfairly as far as docking pay for 'T1D breaks' - I suggest you speak to your branch manager (assuming its not the same guy).

I would say in jest, so you don't get pay deducted take up smoking then perhaps you can multitask by smoking and testing at the same time................

That is awful. Absolutely not correct. The deduction should have been explained to you before you got your payslip if that was the decision taken and as a once off I feel it should have been paid and then supported to check your blood sugar more regularly.
It is terrible. I would write to HR. This is discrimination. Even outside of equality acts, if they don't dock pay for toilet or cigarette breaks then they cannot say it is reasonable to do so for blood sugar checks.
I would liken this to constructive dismissal as it is making is difficult to stay working in this job and penalising your financially for being diabetic.
If nothing else your employer has a duty of care and a responsibility to ensure you are safe in work. If they make it difficult for you to test your blood sugar by docking pay then they are not acknowledging the seriousness of the condition which is totally wrong.
I am outraged on your behalf. Hope you get it sorted! Be strong!

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Tulip01 said:

so at work today I had a hypo and at first was told I wasn't allowed to go test my blood sugar by the manager and couldn't it wait a bit to which another manager explained that no it can't wait and of course I can go test I was at 1.7 so had to treat it and wait till it rose it didn't rise at first after Gluco tabs so the nice manager went to get my orange juice as I work at McDonald's but the other manager told him I'd have to pay for it if I wanted it and it was explained I needed it now so the nice manager just took it and gave it to me after it was all sorted within 20 mins I went back to work I got home and checked my clocks to find out it had been marked as an unpaid half hour break is that allowed?? I was also told that every time I test my blood sugar would be 5 mins minimum taken off my pay even if it took less time to test than that is that fair??

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I thought of you today - I was shopping at aldi and the checkout lady (who was of a certain age) said she was having one of her hot dos was sorry and had to go to the back to get some wet towel. I said that's fine and no one else batted an eye lid - I Dunno if she had been 'authorised' to do that but I wouldn't want to see another human being suffer when they just needed a bit of time.

Tulip01 said:

One of the managers clocks me off on their system I just think it's unfair that people get smoking breaks paid for I can't get blood sugar breaks paid for

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Isn't smoking in your Bill of Rights though? Pretty sure it's in ours.

I would put in an official complaint and state what happens if a T1 goes hypo, due to not measuring their BG. Send a copy to HO and say that this managers attitude and stopping 30 mins pay, and not allowing you to leave to do a blood test is dangerous to you and those around you, when it takes far less time than either a smoke or wee, average to do the whole test is around 3 minutes, to wash hands, get Machine & return, do test etc. and state you are complying with H&S regs re your condition if low, and he is causing you severe stress that is causing your health condition to get worse. You are being responsible, so as to serve your customers safely, cook safely etc and give the correct image to customers, name and shame in local newspaper they jump on little jobsworth stories like this. .

Remember that a lot of "McDonalds" are not owned or operated by McDonalds, the branding etc is licenced to a different company in each town to operate them. Hence there may not be a HR person etc.

ringi said:

Remember that a lot of "McDonalds" are not owned or operated by McDonalds, the branding etc is licenced to a different company in each town to operate them. Hence there may not be a HR person etc.

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A franchise with fries..!?! http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/People/Franchising.html/franchising-explained.html