hypo at work - told to get back to work by boss

utters0

Newbie
Messages
4
I'm sure this sort of thing is covered in the Disability Discrimination Act. You say you work for a large company. If that's the case then your HR dept should be familiar with it or you may have some sort of compliance department that could help.
Failing that it's your union if you have one, if not the CAB or a solicitor specialising in employment law.

[sentence removed]
 

Knightwatch

Member
Messages
23
Well, I am a bit rusty on Health & Safety Regulations, however I beleive that "Duty of Care" comes into this one, especially if your employer knows you are Diabetic. Perhaps apart from anything else you may want to refer to cases handled by the Ambulance Service Emergency Biker TV Programme, the Paramedics often have to rush on Blues & Twos to Hypo cases, and often as not the patient is out of it and has to go to Hospital for full stablization, indeed a Hypo can make you so out of it, you don't know where you are, and temper can be raised due to the condition, this includes not knowing what is being said by all parties. In addition if your employer is in manufacturing in particular either the on site Nurse or First Aider should have details of your Health Condition, and a place to rest and take Medication or Check, if non of these are available Personnel at very least should have Emergency Details and what to do or who to contact if you take a Hypo. Regarding the swearing this is certainly gross missconduct, and can lead to your employment being terminated, however there would appear to be circumstances that made you react possibly out of the normal. As other have indicated Union should be able to support you along with any Medical information you or GP can provide, not forgetting CAB. The days of showing the door are not as easy as many employers think, although if Government have there way the want to make changes going back to those Black Days - Best of Luck no matter what you do
 

m1dpq

Active Member
Messages
37
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Not a great lot.. Jazz, People who think they are better than others..
I have read and re-read this from end to end and to think that a boss is employed with a major company in this case is actually appaling..

I suspect that none of this case has reached Corporate level, as by now both of these 2 bosses' would have been fired for "Gross Misconduct"!!!

For my sins I am a Health, Safety and Disaster Management Advisor, and continuously strive to ensure that any person who has a disability, whether it is physically seen or hidden is covered by the same rights and regulations for all members of staff (I am Type 2 diabetic).. but we do have Type 1 in the workforce (albeit all volunteers), same coverage..

Myself i would recommend, the CAB, but not only that the DDA was replaced by the Equality and Diversity Act 2010, and this gives more force for those who are being discriminated against.. It also allows for more range in being able to make not only Tribunals aware but it has teeth, and can be used against "Bullies"..

One thing that most people haven't covered in this with their advice, is that you can bring the Police into this matter.. Disability Hate Crime, is severly illegal and can bring not only fines but imprisonment..

Although the vulnerability of a victim is an aggravating factor leading to enhanced sentences in any event, where there is an extra factor of hostility based on disability, it is important that this is identified and the court invited to apply the provisions of s.146 so that the offence is properly dealt with for what it is - a hate crime.

In the absence of a precise legal definition of hostility, consideration should be given to ordinary dictionary definitions, which include ill-will, ill-feeling, spite, contempt, prejudice, unfriendliness, antagonism, resentment, and dislike.

There will be cases in which there is no other reasonable explanation, other than that the offender's hostility was based on disability. This is particularly so in cases of abuse, violence or other offensive conduct as these offences tend to carry inbuilt within them the demonstration of hostility. For that hostility to be based on disability is but a short evidential step in many cases.

The above statements are taken from the CPS's Disability Hate Crime pages.. It does make interesting reading.. Effectively your boss or bosses are guilty of some if not more than one of these incidents..

The First-Aider has a duty of care, this is written into his qualification to be a 1st aider.. If he or she is not compling with that care then they are not capable of being a 1st aider and it need reporting to the relevant organising body.. If they have taken a 1st aid course with St. John Ambulance then they are covered by St. John Ambulance regulations in the duty of care set by their course and their exam, and their insurance.. However if they are being seen or are reported as not with-holding the duties that a first aider (at work) or (responsible person) then they run the risk of being incapable of those duties, and can have their 1st aid qualification removed (legally), which in turn could effect their employment within a company..

I would love to get my hands on your 2 bosses, 1to repeatedly drum into them the unforseen conclusions of disabled persons in the workplace and what can happen if they don't take notice, and 2 to place them both in the position of a Type 1/2 diabetic suffering from a Hypo to see how they would react..

Please let us know how you get on..

regards

Peter
M1dpq
 

PHIL71

Newbie
Messages
1
Hi..The advice to contact your unions Regional Or head ofice is your way forward when you do ask for the legal Dept,(they should have one) They also should pay for any legal representation you may need.

You do not saywho the company is (perhaps wisely) if the recognize unions there is likely to be a disciplinary proceedure,which they should follow, which says how they should behave in a disciplinary. Some one said Misconduct is a dismissable offence,but it probably is not, if it was classed as Gross Misconduct it may be.
if your manager swore at you lodge a grievance against him or at least threaten to. was there a witness to either incident.

If all this advice fails and the worst happens you should contact a solicitor and sue for wrongful dismissal,this will get you compensation and highlight to employers that they cannot behave this way. Your Union should pay for this if not Try a solicitor called J Walter Thompson (find them on the internet) who specialice in employment law and are good ( when they win there should be know expense to you.

let us know what happens and good luck
 

TokSik

Member
Messages
20
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Not having sweet stuff to eat often enough !! But I make a lot of my own without sugars
Misconduct itself is only dismissable as a 3rd offence - i.e. after having committed the first misconduct, you get a "official" (notarised) verbal warning; the 2nd must be a further misconduct within a 6 month time frame following the 1st misconduct, and that must be dealt with by way of a written warning, and then a 3rd misconduct within a following 6 month time frame, becomes dismissable. However, gross misconduct is definitely an instantly suspendable offence followed by dismissal after an enquiry and a disciplinary hearing. Misconduct is not defined in law but tribunals have found the following to be fair reasons for dismissal:-

a) timekeeping and absenteeism
b) refusal to obey an instruction or refusing to cooperate, i.e. refusing to do different work or to wear particular clothing or uniform
c) insolence or rudeness, including use of bad language
d) carelessness
e) criminal activity at work or outside work, for example, theft
f) fighting and violence at work
g) drinking or using drugs during working hours
h) breach of safety rules.

The main difference between dismissal for gross misconduct and other forms of misconduct dismissal, is that the employer dismissing for gross misconduct does not need to give the employee notice of the dismissal. Otherwise, the rules about whether the reason for dismissing is a fair one and whether dismissing the employee in those circumstances was a reasonable thing to do are the same as for all other misconduct dismissals.

An investigatory meeting should be conducted by a management representative and should be confined to establishing the facts of the case. It is important that disciplinary action is not considered at an investigatory meeting. If it becomes apparent that formal disciplinary action may be needed then this should be dealt with at a formal meeting at which the employee will have the Statutory right to be accompanied.

There have been a number of cases that comment on the standard expected of the employer when investigating disciplinary matters. This is important as failures in any investigation may form the main argument that a dismissal is unfair. The Court of Appeal held that the 'range of reasonable responses test' applies to investigations as much as it does to other aspects of the fairness of the dismissal. This means that there is no set standard of investigation expected and that so long as the employer has acted in a way a reasonable employer could have done it will be accepted as fair by a tribunal.

The Court of Appeal emphasised that the purpose of an investigation in employment disciplinary proceedings is not to establish guilt in the same way as in a court. The purpose of the investigation is to establish whether there are reasonable grounds for the belief the employer has about the conduct in question. A reasonable investigation will require the employer to take account of explanations put forward by the employee and to try to establish whether they are likely explanations. If the explanation is unlikely, an employer may be acting reasonably in refusing to spend time and resources on further investigation.
 

squeeze321

Well-Known Member
Messages
68
Dislikes
Hypos
Hi,

Diabetes is covered by the DDA - The dissability discrimination act therefore all you have to do is threaten them with it. If any manager so much as even thought about treating me with the same contempt that they treated you whilst suffering from a diabetic emergency it would be HI HO HI HO it's off to court you go.
 

Paul_c

Well-Known Member
Messages
432
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
the DDA was superseded 2 years ago by the Equality Act of 2010...

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/equalities/equality-act/

What’s included in the Equality Act?

The act replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single act to make the law simpler and to remove inconsistencies. This makes the law easier for people to understand and comply with. The act also strengthened protection in some situations.

The act covers nine protected characteristics, which cannot be used as a reason to treat people unfairly. Every person has one or more of the protected characteristics, so the act protects everyone against unfair treatment. The protected characteristics are:

age
disability
gender reassignment
marriage and civil partnership
pregnancy and maternity
race
religion or belief
sex
sexual orientation
 

GraceK

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,835
Dislikes
Marzipan
Insincere people
Big cities
Vulgarity
Just a few months before I was diagnosed with Diabetes, I was working in a hospital as a temporary Medical Secretary. I had an asthma attack at my desk, not one of my colleagues asked if I was OK or if I needed help and I struggled to get myself out of the office to phone to take my medication and look for a supervisor.

Eventually I was gasping for breath so badly that I just left a message and took myself to the Walk In Centre where I was triaged within 10 minutes, placed in a wheelchair, put on oxygen, paramedics called, ambulance called and I was taken to A & E.

I had pneumonia as well as the asthma attack and was discharged only because they said they had no beds and they said that I'd probably 'catch something worse' if they admitted me. Hmmm. I went home with my antibiotics and I was really, really unwell. I emailed my supervisor and the employment agency I worked for to let them know the situation. I received a phone call a day later from the agency asking when I would be returning to work at the hospital. I explained that the antibiotics hadn't kicked in yet and she could hear my chest sounded like an old steam engine but she kept pressing me to give her a date. I said 'I'd guess this won't clear up for about a week'. She went off the phone, returned half an hour later and told me that the hospital I had been working for had decided they 'no longer needed me' and my work was being given to permanent staff. I questioned that because just two days before I became ill, my supervisor told me my work was excellent and that I was being kept on indefinitely - so how could they suddenly not need me?

You would think the NHS would be caring and honest employers wouldn't you? But they aren't. And I'm a fully qualified and experienced medical secretary who CHOSE to be a medical secretary but my skills and experience are going to waste while the NHS employs people who are NOT qualified Med Secs, have stumbled into the job not chosen it because it interested them, have little experience in medicine, and who really have little desire or the personal skills required to work in the field. And it's all about MONEY not people.
 

petrichor

Member
Messages
10
God Bless the Unions :D

This story is disgusting! My brother and I are both diabetic and I remeber when he was in school one of the teachers took his sweets off him in class and threw them in the bin. He flew for the teacher in a blind rage, and luckily his mates held him back and got the sweets out of the bin. They told the teacher in no uncertain terms he was diabetic and hypo. This was the early 90's and things changed massively by the time i was at school. I had to tell every new teacher I had, that I was diabetic, and I got out of class 5 mins early for lunch every day to check blood and do insulin :mrgreen:

I would stick with the unions on this one, and if you don't get much joy, I'd be going to the police with Disability hate crime - if that had been an asthmatic goin to get an inhaler, or someone with angine needing GTN spray, they wouldnt have stopped them?? or maybe they would! Either way, it'd be a manslaughter case rather than this :shock:

among the things you might want, are training and awareness to all employees about the equality act, diabetes and hypos and respect at work!

Hope it all goes well
 

pscarborough

Member
Messages
7
I also worked in large shop Tesco and I have been told to get back to sort of result.
First one I had been working I had feeling the on set of of a hypo it was near to lunch time but had minimum foods. working in supermarket has its choice of food to eat. I picked a cheap bottle of pop took it to the check out the check out operator was on a break. my eyes could not see the screen ( self service til) the security of ice ask me if was alight with answer was no I need to get some sugar down me as I am diabetic. I struggled again to pay for the pop. and told the guard I come back to pay for it.
I had lunch and recovered before my lunch was finished I was asked to go back to work I told the manger that I had to pay for some pop and do it later later got to 7am and I was still working 7.15 and the officer cam up and asked me to go the office where they accused me of shop lifting.
The union was no good as he could not understand the condition and was of no use as he concluded with the manger as he wanted to be promoted. The only thing I can say is that the company are not employing people any more but machines. machines will break down but they are to be used until they are of no use. then disposed of when totally no use.
 

colaguzzler

Member
Messages
11
this is a case of first class bullying.unfortunately with this goverment it has given rise to these kind of people
i now have neuropathy in both legs and cannot get around but when i was working i too was bullied.
in my case the least thing they could find wrong or even if it was'nt me i got carpeted for because they knew full
that i would'nt offer much resistance because apart from my diabetes and epilepsy i had/have a bad stutter and
when i get excited or pressure applied it made me stammer all the more.
and if i even tried to complain to someone more senior the person would make it 10 times worse.
sadly i do know what you are going thru .these people are'nt intrested in facts only what they think .i also have asthma and was off sick during the winter with a chest infection and and when i got back to work i was hauled upstairs.
and told that i was meant to have bragged that i could get a sick note any time from my g.p but at the same time was told not to
worry.
well i asked around and either no one had the courage to own up for lying or my line manager was lying
 

Osidge

Well-Known Member
Retired Moderator
Messages
1,272
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Bullies.
Blonagael

How is the case going?

Regards

Doug
 

alex621

Member
Messages
20
Organisations are trying to clamp down on people taking too many breaks or sick days, even if you have a disability that is protected under the DDA, but you have rights