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Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
Diabetes and sickness in the workplace
- Thread starter Padscot
- Start date
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Copepod
Much missed Moderator
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Welcome to the forum, Padscot.
For many employment issues, the best advice is from a union, so if you're a member, ask your rep.
Apart from that, it is probably important to know why the sick days occured, as if they are connected to a long term condition, the Equality Act offers some protection. There is also the issue of needing time off to attend regular monitoring appointments.
With a bit more information about your situation, members may be able to help more.
For many employment issues, the best advice is from a union, so if you're a member, ask your rep.
Apart from that, it is probably important to know why the sick days occured, as if they are connected to a long term condition, the Equality Act offers some protection. There is also the issue of needing time off to attend regular monitoring appointments.
With a bit more information about your situation, members may be able to help more.
Padscot
New Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
I believe the sickness is related to the Diabetes as when I catch a cold it turns into a virus infection, flu or vertigo or sinusitis I become completely whacked with no energy and invariably can't work for a week. I believe my immune system is weaker than an able bodied person and I am unable to take medications to speed up recovery.
Amigo
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
This is a tough one Padscot and I’ve been on both side of this as a manager having to (reluctantly at times) apply sickness monitoring and as an employee struggling with sickness. In terms of whether you would meet the qualifying criteria to be considered as ‘disabled’ under the terms of the Equality Act 2010, it’s not straightforward and each case is judged on its individual presentation and merit. Type 1, which is naturally insulin controlled, is usually found to satisify the definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010. Type 2’s have traditionally had a tougher battle and Employment Tribunals haven’t always found in their favour unless the individual case and management is quite complex. That’s my understanding of it but others may disagree.
There is a belief that diabetes carries with it some degree of immunocompromisation but again that’s a tough one to prove because you’d need to be able to demonstrate additional co-morbidities including demonstrable immune dysfunction which meant your body couldn’t fight infection normally (such as a reduced neutrophil level or impaired immunoglobulins). It’s not enough simply to say diabetes makes us ‘immune compromised’ even though we know that quite often illness may hit harder or linger longer. There’s so many fully functioning type 2 diabetics out there that employers just don’t buy it in my view.
If you are in a Union, seek their support and ask for a meeting to discuss your difficulties and how they can be managed. What I found and it’s brutal in the extreme, is that some employers simply take the view that they don’t have to continue offering employment if the terms of permitted absence are exceeded. It’s cruel and I hated managing it but you’d need to be able to demonstrate you qualify for ‘reasonable adjustments’ and that means having the protection of disability discrimination legislation behind you. Have they sent you to Occupational Health for an opinion Padscot?
Good luck. It’s not a good position to be in and despite what the GP thinks, the employers are paying the salary and they are allowed to set sickness standards as long as they are reasonable and applied consistently.
Padscot
New Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
No I've not been sent to O/H yet I think this will be the next step. Thanks for your comments although not what I wanted to hear I get it. I feel cheated in some ways the govt says I can work yet if I'd been born a couple of years sooner I would be retired now and none of this would be an issue.
Amigo
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
I’m sorry to have been blunt Padscot and I absolutely get what you are saying especially about the retirement issue. Sometimes it’s necessary to say it as it is to avoid false belief. For different reasons I’ve been there and it’s a painful process.
See what Occupational Health say and hopefully some strategies can be put in place to help you. Much depends on how reasonable your employer is to be honest.
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