When you returned to work earlier this week after your sick absence you were given information in your welcome back interview regarding your ‘rolling total’ of sick absences that was incorrect. The correct position as of today is as follows:

You have now had 25 days absence in the rolling year, 15 of these days relate to ‘ordinary’ absences, and 10 days relate to absences resulting from your disability. Your trigger point for ‘ordinary’ absence is 8 days (as it is for all full-time staff) and 10 days for disability related absences.

This means that you have theoretically already reached the trigger point, both as regards ordinary absences and disability absences. However, 10 days of the ordinary absences (those relating to the surgical procedure you underwent in Sept 07) have previously been disregarded for formal action purposes, and as regards the disability trigger, guidance allows such absences to be counted against ordinary absences if you have already hit the’ disability trigger’ and still have ’spare’ trigger days relating to ordinary absence.

Please note that the disregard applied to the 10 days of absence in Sept is not guaranteed to remain in place until they roll out. Each time you are absent I need to re-refer your case to the Band E to check that the disregard can still be applied. The last referral was done after your absence in early June; I have yet to refer your case again following your return to work on 25.6.08

If the Band E advises that the disregard should continue to apply, then the result will be that if you have a further 3 days absence in the rolling year, your case would need to be sent to the decision maker for consideration of dismissal.

Happy to discuss if you are not clear.

Regards

Tim Dibb
Jobcentre Manager

ps dear Union rep

Is it me being paranoid or is this victimisation ?

What has he got against me, or is he like this against all people with disabilities or those that don’t fit into the norm of the things ?

Because its not the first I have heard of this. I overheard myself in the passageway when Babar and Trevor joined the staff that “We can’t have them all working on 1st floor, or it will be like Wacky Races”.

Sean,

I, like most people, want to be happy at work. Particularly as I spend most of my time here.

I would feel uncomfortable talking to a councillor within work. I know confidentiality is always emphasised but the councillors are still your peers and “people talk”. I would feel uncomfortable opening up and explaining what my issues are. As there is such a stigma attached to these problems I would be conscious that word could get around.

Many of my colleagues seem to have issues that must be affecting there health and from a business perspective must be seriously damaging their productivity.

As with most things it is often cheaper to keep using existing materials and resources. The same can be said for people. It is expensive to recruit and retrain new staff. Unhappy staff can also have a ‘domino effect’ and make other staff unhappy. Many people within my business are not working as productively as they can and very few are living up to their true potential. This is such a waste to the persons concerned and to the business.

Over coming years I believe there think there will be a growing need for these sort of services as businesses become more competitive and ever-changing.