work, sickness and appointments

MrDJ · 5. Mar 2012, 16:24

has anyone else had as much agro as ive had in the last year concerning appointments.

i work in a xray department for the nhs and ive given 31 years of loyal service.
over the last 2.5 years agenda for change was brought into practice across the whole of the public sector. in short it means all staff have to do 37.5 hours a week. before it came in i was doing a flat 35 hours. so 2.5 hours extra for no extra pay.
i dont like it like everyone else but i can live with it.

the main problem is since it came into force they are getting so strict about tea breaks,lunch breaks, sickness and appointments.

you are allowed 10 days maximum a year sickness before you are dragged into occy health and HR
if you are off sick on a friday then also saturday and sunday is counted as sick and you have to phone in every morning before your start time.(even though i dont work weekends).

now comes the best bit.
even though ive been having anti tnf treatment for 7 years ive never had a problem about being off work that day. until they took on another sub manager.
i was told that i had to take annual leave for my 6 weekly infusion even though its classed as a daycare patient.
also my 45 minute a week hydro session had to be taken as time owing or annual leave.
last year alone my blind eye had such a bad flare up that i ended up taking 17 days annual leave to go to either casualty eye or clinics at other hospitals.

i did threaten to bring the union in on the matter as they said i could sue as they were breaking the disability discrimination act but in the end i didnt go down that route as i would of most probably lost my job as working for someone you are trying to sue would be quite awkward.

its all gone back to normal now and i just go for my appointments and nobody says a thing.
why oh why do they try and make it so difficult for us.

anyone else had problems with sick leave or appointments.

scozzie · 5. Mar 2012, 17:41

Sorry to hear of your problems DJ.

I work in private industry and had a spate of appointments at the end of last year - a few of which were timed around shifts I was supposed to be working in November, of course the shifts didn't happen, so I had to take time in lieu off ... which is ok, I figure that gives them less to moan about.

Then I had a few more appointments in December, one of which is a six monthly check up for skin damage, and another was for a scan to rule out a personal type of cancer (which eventually came out negative). Two other appointments were for cortisone jabs for arthritis in my ankles. Towards the end of December I badly skinned my shin in an accident at work, requiring three days off, as a result of which I postponed one of the jabs and the scan.

Come early January and the postponed scan was reorganised, a routine blood test, a neurology appointment (to check out Neuro pain in my feet) and a podiatrist appointment. At this time I was told "you're having too many appointments and even though you're very good at making up the time (I was never any more than one hour behind the time owed, generally a few ahead) you'll need to either arrange your appointments in your own time or take time off without pay". To say I was flabbergasted would be an understatement!

What galls me most about it is one of my colleagues is late two to three times a week, especially if the big boss is off! Ok generally it's three to five minutes, at others it's 20! He rarely ever makes up that time, and doesn't get docked! When he does come in early it's only by a minute or two! And whether he's early or not he still makes a cuppa before he starts! Apart from pre-arranged appointments, I'm rarely late! I'm usually 20 minutes or more early.

So I know where you're coming from, it's bad having this damn disease without having to put up with all the other muck at work.

Good luck
Scozzie

work, sickness and appointments

Comments

Categories