Advice on working with Endometriosis

[Nikisha]

Hi All, I had stage 5 endometriosis and had surgery 2 and half years ago and have mainly been pain free for most of the time up until recently I am now experiencing symptoms. I have now been bought in for an informal stage 1 disciplinary for my sickness, I wanted to know whether long term conditions such as endometriosis are protected from you being penalised? Any advice would be great

[Razina]

Hi Nikisha

Sorry to hear you have gone through this. Please make sure you are with a Union to represent you. Due to endometriosis being a long term medical condition, it also falls under hidden disability. Usually a health review meeting takes place where your manager should refer you to a occupational health who would do an assessment on you and report back to the employer the reasonable adjustments they have made to support you at work. Make sure you fight for your rights!

[Nikisha in reply to Razina]

Hi Razina, thank you for your response I just joined the union unfortunately my manager didn’t do a referral and I self referred but they told me a manger would need to make the referral in order for them to make reasonable adjustment recommendations. So I am waiting on that at the moment

[Purplerain23]

Hi Nikisha, yes I agree with Razina. Due to my on going pain and discomfort of suffering with endometriosis and anaemia, I needed to work from home, which my doctor signed off initially for 3 months. Thereafter my company did an occupational health assessment on me with their healthcare provider which in turn supported my case and informed the company that during times when my condition flares I need to be working from home or maybe need a sick day due to how poorly I am. No way should you be penalised for your medical condition. Please talk to your GP but moreover ask them for an occupation health assessment. Keep us posted on how you get on.

[Nikisha in reply to Purplerain23]

Thanks Purplerain123 a good idea to talk to my GP I will make an appointment with them they are pretty good. I spoke to my manager today and she informed me as long as I’m sick no matter what my condition is I will still have to go through the disciplinary process as per the policy which i think is ridiculous!

[Cailleach]

Probably things have moved on a bit since you wrote, but anyway -

You could be classed as having a disability based on how much endometriosis affects you eg if it affects your everyday life. In any case if you have a medical condition you are entitled to ask for reasonable adjustments to your work set-up, such as shift patterns, type of work, having breaks etc, working from home, anything that will make it easier for you to work. But these need to be reasonable adjustments that are practical for the employer to offer without it having a negative effect on their business.

If you have a union rep they are probably familiar with your company’s policies on Sick Leave, Equalities ( includes disability). But it is worth having a look yourself.

You certainly should be pushing for an Occ Health referral as they can review your medical records ( with your consent) and make recommendations without you having to disclose medical info direct to your managers.

It is certainly worth making it clear to your manager that you are keen to keep working there and to do as much as you can to improve your attendance. It can help if you have a treatment plan - in your case maybe re referral to a specialist, so they can see there is a possibility of improvement (despite current waiting lists).

Sadly, in the end, employers have the right to dismiss you if you are unable, even due to a disability, to perform the duties of the job, and that would include frequent sickness absence. But they would need to show they had done their best to work with you to improve your attendance.

Hope things work out for you. This is a frequent issue for people with endo. I was given assistance by changing shifts ( as a nurse), and the pattern of days worked so I wasn’t too tired, as well as being offered an alternative role which was less demanding.

[me94 in reply to Cailleach]

Sorry to jump onto this post. You explained this very well. I'm a nurse and struggling would you mind if I could message you for advice? X

[Cailleach]

No problem