Interesting Occupational Health Chat

searley · May 5, 2021

So, for a while now ive had a few run-ins with management at work..

In the HGV industry they expect a lot from you.. and we've had a few run-ins over flexibility and general expectations. to the point they referred me to a Occupational Health Specialist.. the OH read the letter to me that the company wrote.. and it seriously questioned my safety to do my job..

the issues...

1, i ask all the time to have advance notice of what im doing so that i can plan for it.. the trouble is they will tell me what im doing the following day.. and sometimes just as im about to leave work at the end of a 12 hour shift.. all of a sudden expect me to do more work.. and if i refuse they will argue like hell.

2, my job is class 1 bulk hgv driver.. so all my loads are fork lifted on and off the truck all i need do is strap it down.. easy to manage.. the trouble is from time to time that will expect me to transport loose items, all of which need manually moving on and off the truck there will be a 10 ton load, each item weighing 90kg so a lot of weight to move.. trouble is very difficult for me to manage my BG and remain legal/safe to drive.. agian they hate it if i argue

so anyway today had my chat with the OH specialist and they accept im totally safe and they totally agree with me.. its reasonable to want to plan and control my condition so to expect to know what im doing and not have unexpected extra's pushed on me is totally reasonable.

they also agree that the heavy manual lifting should be reassigned to another driver as they should not expect me todo it and remain safe..

so id like to see the look on their face when they get the recommendations

EllieM · May 5, 2021

searley said:
and sometimes just as im about to leave work at the end of a 12 hour shift.. all of a sudden expect me to do more work.. and if i refuse they will argue like hell.

Forget the diabetes, they should not be asking anyone to do this. Sounds like they are treating their workforce very badly. Is that even legal?

searley · May 5, 2021

EllieM said:
Forget the diabetes, they should not be asking anyone to do this. Sounds like they are treating their workforce very badly. Is that even legal?

Legally the maximum an hgv driver is allowed to work in a day is 15 hours

So it becomes expected that most drivers will do 60+ hours a week

And they don’t like it when you refuse.. so as I cited health issues as a reason not to do it.. they pushed me to OH thinking I’d get declared unfit.. when actually the sided with me and now the company will have to follow the recommendations

bmtest · May 7, 2021

Difficult one as work is work you never know what is round the cornet.

Lifting is nit such a problem even if its sporadic in nature. I used to lift remove and install fireplaces sometimes up many flights.

You have to calculate what to eat before or during this physical activity as adjusting dose is not possible.

chrisbug · May 7, 2021

bmtest said:
Difficult one as work is work you never know what is round the cornet.

Lifting is nit such a problem even if its sporadic in nature. I used to lift remove and install fireplaces sometimes up many flights.

You have to calculate what to eat before or during this physical activity as adjusting dose is not possible.

This applies to me also, I can never anticipate how my day will unfold.
So I take my dose for a fairly easy day, and adjust what I eat before any unforseen activity.
Its the best I can achieve, and more often than not, I end up taking correction doses or chasing hypos... Sometimes both!

NicoleC1971 · May 7, 2021

searley said:
So, for a while now ive had a few run-ins with management at work..

In the HGV industry they expect a lot from you.. and we've had a few run-ins over flexibility and general expectations. to the point they referred me to a Occupational Health Specialist.. the OH read the letter to me that the company wrote.. and it seriously questioned my safety to do my job..

the issues...

1, i ask all the time to have advance notice of what im doing so that i can plan for it.. the trouble is they will tell me what im doing the following day.. and sometimes just as im about to leave work at the end of a 12 hour shift.. all of a sudden expect me to do more work.. and if i refuse they will argue like hell.

2, my job is class 1 bulk hgv driver.. so all my loads are fork lifted on and off the truck all i need do is strap it down.. easy to manage.. the trouble is from time to time that will expect me to transport loose items, all of which need manually moving on and off the truck there will be a 10 ton load, each item weighing 90kg so a lot of weight to move.. trouble is very difficult for me to manage my BG and remain legal/safe to drive.. agian they hate it if i argue

so anyway today had my chat with the OH specialist and they accept im totally safe and they totally agree with me.. its reasonable to want to plan and control my condition so to expect to know what im doing and not have unexpected extra's pushed on me is totally reasonable.

they also agree that the heavy manual lifting should be reassigned to another driver as they should not expect me todo it and remain safe..

so id like to see the look on their face when they get the recommendations

Glad you got the right support from OH and I hope the Management can make changes for the benefit of you and your colleagues. They are hardly going to get the best out of anyone by operating in this way.
If the errant behaviour doesn't improve do you have a plan ? I am guessing you do want to keep working there? Ultimately failure to make reasonable changes to how your job is carried out could be seen as disability discrimination so may be worth chatting to the Diabetes UK helpline to know where you stand before any future conversations. Lots of difference between an HR or OH edict and what might happen 'on the ground'.

searley · Jul 7, 2023

NicoleC1971 said:
Glad you got the right support from OH and I hope the Management can make changes for the benefit of you and your colleagues. They are hardly going to get the best out of anyone by operating in this way.
If the errant behaviour doesn't improve do you have a plan ? I am guessing you do want to keep working there? Ultimately failure to make reasonable changes to how your job is carried out could be seen as disability discrimination so may be worth chatting to the Diabetes UK helpline to know where you stand before any future conversations. Lots of difference between an HR or OH edict and what might happen 'on the ground'.

Ok so sometime since my original post..

So local management didn’t really take much notice I took advice from diabetes uk and the equality act support service both confirming that it was discrimination

So I put in an official grievance with head office.. I included copies of communications with the support services along with guidance on the equality act

Local management said ‘it’s futile and won’t go anywhere’

However I won the process local management got a major telling off, and my reasonable changes were put in place..

I’ve not really had issues since. But if I did I’d keep notes of it and go through acas for tribunal

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