Things just keep getting better not :-(

[sarah24]

Well i had my op on Wednesday last week (see other blog) and was enjoying my resting time at home, however on Saturday i received a letter from work saying they want a meeting on this coming Tuesday to discuss my ongoing sickness absence and that they are required to inform me one of the out comes of the meeting could be dismissal on the grounds of ill health to be honest the way i feel at the moment they can finish me on anything, my health is more important at the moment i need to get myself right first. i am going so they can see am am in no fit state to look after myself at the moment never mind anyone else ( i work has a senior health carer on a emi unit). i currently claim esa & have been placed in the support group, i was just wondering if anyone knew if work has to pay me anything if i get finished due to ill health example hoilday pay am due to etc ??? any advice would be greatly appreciated xxx

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

I suggest you get in contact with employment issue people like a union or Acas.

Sounds a bad place to be but I do not have the experience to advise, sorry.

Rod

[sarah24 in reply to helvella]

Thank you Rod xxx

[twinks in reply to sarah24]

Hi Sarah, yes get in touch with union, they don't know it all but can help. If u finish on ill health retirement, they also enhance pension contributions so its def worth it.

I was just dismissed from mine some yrs ago, il still ill so o should have been finished on ill health. But there u go I didn't know en

[debjs]

I was in this situation and have now been dismissed (worked as senior nurse for the NHS). I would advise as above to get your union involved and your employer should have a sickness policy which you are entitled to a copy of. I discovered I was entitled to pay for the holiday I had accrued during my sickness and i was advised by the union to allow them to dismiss me rather than resign as they then had to pay me in lieu of notice, in my case three months pay. I really feel for you having been through this. In my case my union rep attended the meetings for me as I was too ill to go.

[twinks in reply to debjs]

Debz I was just dismissed, worked for local authority, its not nice. The union said I was too you to be finished on ill health, she also was wrong but I didn't know at the time and too ill to argue or go to a meeting.

[debjs in reply to twinks]

I am sorry to hear you are in the same situation. It is so hard to deal with when you are so ill. I have been shocked to see how many people are in this situation since joining this site and how many people are so unwell and dibilitated by their symptoms.

[sarah24]

Thank you for your reply xxx

[evewood1]

If you have had thyroid trouble for a long time they may not be able to sack you as it may count as a long term disability.

Check with your union as above but this is the case for me as I declared Hypothyroidism on my application form for a job that I have been in for 13 years. Have been and am still technically in the NHS.

I have had some really bad episodes in the last few years and the occupational doc has come to the conclusion it would be illegal to sack me because of the disability laws so I remain employed. I am also fortunate to have really decent managers who appreciate that I work really hard when I am well.

Secondly I am not sure that they can insist that you go in to work if you are signed off sick so check this also.

Hope this helps.

[twinks in reply to evewood1]

It was yrs ago I was finished from work spinal problem I also had thyroid problems for 4 yrs b4 that, the DDA was on force 1995 I think. I finished in 2000 I rang solicitors as well, but said employers can do what they like. The system is unfair, I don't get enhanced pension, no fault of mine.

[sandi]

In a similar-ish situation I got the meeting rescheduled to my home. This was not ideal as it felt a bit of an invasion but at least I didn't risk my health trying to get to a meeting. Because people are sent home from hospital so quickly these days everyone seems to have forgotten that it takes time to recover before you can do normal activities - our bodies don't heal quicker we just have to do the healing at home!

Definitely get the union involved - I had meetings with and without. It may not change the outcome but I found that management were much more careful what they said and did with a union person there. Without a union person or when I just had a friend they added insult to injury!!

Good luck x

[ThyroidThora]

Oh dear, what a horrible situation to be in.

I'm in a similar position in that I have been off sick for nearly 3 months because I was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer and I'm finding it hard to get better, I'm now hypothyroid and have only started on Levothyroxine in the last few days.

My employers were fine when I was first diagnosed and said that I had a job to go back to. Two weeks after my operation they started nagging me to return to work and then 3 weeks after that when I telephoned to say I had another sick note and explained I was feeling worse than ever I was told that once my paid sick leave expires in a few weeks they would consider terminating my contract. I have only worked for my employers since 2nd July, 2012 and they are aware that I have Diabetes but this diagnosis of cancer has come out of the blue. I had been experiencing a pain in my left side and my G.P.'s put it down to Diabetic nerve pain. Anyway after much nagging I had an x-ray, ultrasound scan and finally the doctor at the hospital doing my ultrasound explained that the examinations were a waste of time because there was nothing wrong with my left side. I explained that I had told my GP that the pain felt like a lump and was near my left lung. I'd had pleurysi 4 years previously and it was a similar pain and I couldn't breath. He requested a CT scan and it found a calcified nodule on the right lobe of my Thyroid and a Goitre on the left side. Tests and examinations later found follicular variant papillary cancer.

I hope you are okay with the meeting and I suggest if you have a tape recorder tape the meeting as evidence for a possible unfair dismissal. My conversations were via telephone and I don't have a record of anything, so it becomes my word against theirs.

It just sucks!!!!!!!!!!

[Mumtoboy]

Just wanted to say that that's awful how mean they are being to you. Sorry I don't have any advice but it seems very unfair against you. You've just had a major operation too! Hope you are ok and try not to let it get you down x