Can anyone give me some advice on working with CoPD and being disciplined for being absent?

What a surprise, most employers are more understanding. I had a very understanding boss, I was an accountant and certain times of the month, I had deadlines, so there were times when I went to work when I should have stayed home (I'm retired now).

You may start with going to your Human Resource Dept. You don't want to upset or step on your boss's toes, but approach HR as asking questions about time off, and chronic illnesses. Are you able to get your work done and meet deadlines with having the time off? Would you be putting your workload on someone else when you are absent?

Here in the states there are laws that prevent employers firing due to chronic illnesses.

By working with your boss and HR, there could be solutions.

Good luck, Beth

Disability Discimina. They HAVE to be seen to have tried. tion law stops you being fired for ill health unless the company have tried to accommodate you and it does not work for the business They HAVE to be seen to have tried. Look at this..give ACAS a call for advice acas.org.uk/index.aspx?arti...

I’m going through this problem at the moment. I have asthma and copd and have taken 26 days off sick, 24 of the 26 have been due to chest infections in the past 3 years. Since October I have taken 13 days off with chest infection , one time was 11 days, the 2nd was 2 days (these are included on the 26 days over 3 years.) My employer employed me knowing I had asthma but I have only just been given the additional diagnosis of copd.

I now have a written warning for my sickness record and am not allowed sickness for 6 months.

As my job is a very busy manual job I couldn’t possibly work with a low peak flow not to mention the cough, also I work with vulnerable adults (elderly with Dementia,) I feel that be going into work I would be spreading my infection to such vulnerable people.

How did you handle it. What was your outcome?

Feel for you so much...same happened to me NHS employee for 30 yrs plus children ..One of my children had special needs...given no help or assistance when he had a build up of his frustrations....refused any help to leave ward ...Having give my handover I was destroyed...Then after this stress refused time off to care for him ....Finally I was on shift listening to report for new day ..Collapsed with a pain and difficult breathing pattern finally they decided to confirm so A and E I had been diagnosed with a kidney stone ..many stones later...and pulmonary fibrosis causing increased levels of oxygen levels...dropping I was short of Oxygen and so I was deemed unfit.,,,

Spoke with occupational health today and they have said that as the company I work for knowing I had a disability they should of expected the disability to get worse with time, and may in time mean I will have intermittent sickness connected to my disability. That with out my medication my illness is life threatening and it therefore makes me disabled and covered under the Equal Opportunities Act 2010. At the moment I am able to do my job but in future they may have to make reasonable allowances for my illness. They also told them that it is a legal matter rather than a medical one, and only they can decide if my condition is tolerable or extreme.