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Time off and sick leave

chard

Active Member
Messages
31
I DONT WRITE A THREAD IN AGES AND THEN 2 COME ALONG AT ONCE!!

I am registered disabled at work and I was wondering how this actually benefits me as a diabetic
We have a sick policy called the Bradford factor and I have no idea how it works but if you have 100 points then HR will be on your back. Due to a couple of operations my score is now 186 but I have avoided a formal warning because I took annual leave as well as sick leave at the time to show a bit of give and take.
I also use annual leave to go to the eye clinic a. diabetic clinic and any other medical appointments and over the last 2 years I have lost a lot of holiday entitlement due to poor health and fear of using sick.
I have never used diabetes as an excuse to have a few sneaky days off ( I think most people with diabetes have a point to prove that we are as capable as the next person!)
Normally this isn't an issue but for some reason I have had a run of health issues (cancer scare, wisdom tooth.operations and now an eye bleed)
After all that waffle my question is,. What is the duty of the employer in relation to diabetics if they were aware of the condition when offering the job initially do we have protection?
 
Yes, you have protection. Your employer must allow time off for regular appts and screenings. They don't have to pay you however, although many do. Where there is a very grey area is if you have lots of time off due to complications arrising from your own poor control. This could eventually lead to disciplinary proceedings and there is very little protection from The Equality Act.

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
And to round up Mo's post, if your health issues are not diabetes related they may be viewed in the general policy. So, your cancer scare and wisdom tooth issues may be viewed differently to conditions relating to your diabetes (ignoring any judgement on the quality of your self management).

Is this raising it's head with your line management now, or HR, or,are you becoming concerned that it might be a problem in the future?
 
 
thanks for the info.
I haven't had any formal warnings as yet and until recently my sick record has been ok (just had a bad run of things lately ) but as large companies are pressured to employ a percentage of people with disabilities I wondered how much protection we are given and what allowances are made.
it seems that any health problem can in some way be linked to diabetes you only have to read the ''people with a higher risk of getting it'' section of the condition and also the recovery times of operations or the flu for instance can take longer if you have diabetes...that and a good lawyer might help anyone if it ever came to an industrial tribunal and I guess it wouldn't be good PR to sack someone registered disabled
 
Your employer has to make "reasonable adjustment" for your condition. As an example, an employer may have a "trigger" for a talk from management after 8 sick days a year, in your case, after discussion, you both may agree to make this 10. That's just an example. I sort of disagree that any health problem can be related to diabetes. If I am off sick with flu or a twisted ankle, my boss won't accept that is diabetes related. As for taking longer to get over things, again, I'm not convinced . I agree if I cut my foot it will take longer to heal, I also agree that flu etc may impact my BG levels but I've never read that I would actually take longer to recover from an illness ? Anyway, yes, diabetes is classed as a Disability and you have a degree of protection under The Equality Act but ultimately, it doesn't guarantee protection from dismissal if time off or performance became unacceptable.
 
Thanks again for your info its good to know where we all stand if complications set in,in the future and we cant perform to the satisfaction of the employer.In my company I know that they have helped another diabetic ,who sadly lost most of his sjght over time and has since had an amputation, by finding him another position.
With regard to the health issue thing my comment had an element of tongue in cheek as it seems that anything I have ever read on the internet concerning a condition always seems to say that diabetics have a greater chance of getting it!!! (I admit I never typed in sprained ankle although after playing footie for years, this diabetic was prone to a few )
Id like to think that after discussions with my boss that he realises that I MAY take a bit longer to recover from illness due to higher BG (In other words illness plus higher bloods can make a diabetic feel worse for longer or healing time for,say, an operation has a higher chance of infection especially if control isn't that good)
Anyway I really appreciate the help ive had today with a couple of issues. Regards Chard Type 1 since 1976
 
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