IBS and Employer Disciplinary Action against Absences

[CrossStitchCrazy18]

Has anyone had experience with dealing with an employer who is using Bradford scoring against your IBS and discriminating against your condition to take disciplinary action? Towards the end of last year especially my IBS was at its most severe and I missed a lot of time off work. The first few days of a flare are the worst as I suffer with bowel incontinence and these are the days I don't go to work because I can barely leave the bathroom. When I can trust myself to return to work I do however with Bradford scoring this cripples you on the point system. I hit the first trigger for action in January and was told by my manager that they wouldn't action it because of the volume of medical evidence I provided and they sent me to Occupational Health. Occ Health basically supported me 100% but my manager doesn't appear to be taking note of any recommendations from them even though they sent me to them. Since then I've vastly reduced my stress (trigger for me) by moving to an affordable home (I lost my job the year before due to redundancy and lost 10K a year income) and paid off all our debt. My IBS had started to calm down as long as I avoided any food triggers. Then Covid happened and my husband was positive and seriously ill in hospital I had to isolate for 14 days and work have added the points from this onto my score and triggered another hearing. I've read up massively on Equalities Act etc and know what they're doing is discrimination especially when Occ health said i'm fit to work. I just wondered if anyone else had any experiences like this and what you had to go through and what your outcome was?

[xjrs]

Unfortunately I don't have experience of this. It is such bad timing with the COVID situation since you were doing everything in your power to get your IBS under control. Very sorry to hear about your husband getting ill. Have you contacted Citizens Advice to speak to their legal/HR specialists or are you a member of a union? If you can get some legal information from outside the organisation to back you up and present this to your employer, it is likely this will carry more weight, plus their advice will be free.

[CrossStitchCrazy18 in reply to xjrs]

Thanks I’ll have a look at CA. I’ve read through and highlighted the Equalities Act with the sections that cover me and the hearing has been cancelled to allow the manager to review what I provided. Hopefully it’ll be enough to put an end to it.

[xjrs in reply to CrossStitchCrazy18]

Hope so. Good luck.

[Linley]

I understand that the Bradford scoring is completely flexible from one company to another so suggest you contact the IBS network in Sheffield they should have the expertise to assist you. How is your husband?

[CrossStitchCrazy18 in reply to Linley]

Thank you I will. He’s doing ok thank you. He gets out of breath easily and tires quickly but he’s working on it

[Linley in reply to CrossStitchCrazy18]

God bless him and take care of yourself too

[Snoopydrop]

Hi, Sorry to hear you are having a tough time with the added worry of your husband being unwell.

I dont have experience of your situation but why not try Citizens Advice Bureau or Legal Aid.

Good luck.

[CrossStitchCrazy18 in reply to Snoopydrop]

Thank you I will

[Cinnamonan]

Hi

I’m a HR business partner and would recommend some of the following:

Asking your employer the grounds for which they are taking disciplinary action.

Asking your employer to clarify their view on any impact your illness might have on your performance to complete tasks and responsibilities.

Few questions from me:

Are you able to work remotely successfully?

What reasonable adjustments could work make to better support you at work (I.e flex working / remote working)

When did you declare your IBS and have occ health reported any recommendations?

My general advice would be that before any disciplinary action / sanction for illness your employer should demonstrate that they’ve put any reasonable adjustments in place for you to succeed in your work.

They also need to demonstrate they’ve supported your illness in the workplace.

They need to demonstrate the illness has had an impact in your work / performance.

Hope this helps!

[CrossStitchCrazy18 in reply to Cinnamonan]

Hi thanks for the info. They’ve stated several time that my work is good and haven’t had any complaints from them with that. Due to covid they’re now putting everyone on to laptops to assist with home working so that can be option but they said they didn’t want me to because of my training however the trainers aren’t here most of the time anyway and I’m now training 2 other people anyway. Occ health said I’m fit to work and that they should consider my condition before taking any action etc.

[Cinnamonan]

I think with the Covid situation seriously challenging presentism , they will have to come up with strong reasoning as to why you need to be physically there.

They would also need to have strong reasoning to not follow occ health advice and recommendations. Perhaps try and request another appointment and ask them to articulate the adjustments you’re looking for?

I would focus on performance and question why if your illness isn’t impacting performance, they are following it up with disciplinary action.

I’d also think about how you might be able to mitigate future sickness through reasonable adjustments and present to them your suggestions. Perhaps you can work remotely a few times a week? Maybe try flexi hours (so for instance if you typically get flares/symptoms in the mornings then work later).

Try that and see what the respond with.

Good luck!

[CrossStitchCrazy18 in reply to Cinnamonan]

My symptoms tend to be food/stress related. So when I reduced my stress significantly by moving house and clearing debt etc. I started to get better than I have been in years as I avoid known triggers as much as possible. I tried flexi hours but it messed with my fatigue/energy as I usually sleep at lunch time because I’m so tired.

The capability hearing was cancelled as I provided loads of evidence with how they were discriminating against a chronic medicinal condition. It’ll be re-scheduled once the manager reviews it all.

Then depending on their action with that depends on where we go from there.

[Cinnamonan]

Without my HR hat on- a question for you would be; is this organisation worth it?

There are some very flexible places out there - where they focus on output and you have the autonomy to work your way, able to influence your own schedule.

Sounds like this organisation is focusing on (in my opinion) the wrong thing.

Maybe not something to decide right now might be worth for longer term

[CrossStitchCrazy18 in reply to Cinnamonan]

At the moment wage wise they are as they’re the best payers for this role. They’re a hard company to get into but once you’re in it’s a job for life and progression is good. Just got to tackle this situation. But if it doesn’t work out I’ll have no choice but to look elsewhere.