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Diabetes at Work

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robsonma

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi, I am looking for any help on the following subject,
My Work has a Company Absence Policy where if you are Absent 3 times in a year you are given a warning, then if you are off once again after your warning and in the same year its goodbye!,
Well I have 1 Diabetes which my work knows about, and i do not know when I am going hypo!
After falling ill which mucked up my blood shugars big style and was admitted to hospital for one week, when leaving hospital they increased my metformin dose and after a couple of days went back to work.
As my job is quite active "I am on my feet all day" I tested my blood before driving home and they where ok to drive, so drove home but they dropped low and I had a hypo while driving and was stopped by the police as a drunk driver. Police where very good once I came round. so I took another week of work to try and get things sorted.
Thats 2 weeks of work-both Diabetes related. My 3rd week was flue which again messed my blood levels so again took a week off work due to my bug and blood glucose levels.
Well I am now facing a warning for being off sick 3 times! Can they do this???
if I am off again then i will be sacked because of Diabetes!
 
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Under the DDA they have to make adjustments for you. Do you have a union rep if not try CAB
 
If you have a union rep please see them about this, it seems very unfair, they need to be fair to you and make allowances.....
 
Welcome to the forum.

My company was talking about bringing in the same rule - they haven't managed it yet.

I'd be going down the same Union/CAB route if it was me. Me understanding is that they are supposed to discuss with you what adjustments they could make and see if that changes the situation before terminating you. Once they have tried to make the adjustments, then yes you are at risk - but not before.
 
ACAS have a Disability Adviser and are extremely pro-active; in my experience the CAB are a tad hit and miss whereas ACAS are more on the ball where the Disability Discrimination Act is concerned.
 
Like everyone else has said are you a union member ? , if not you can join as soon as and they will start representing you straight away ,ive had a few problems at work and been behind me all the way 🙂
 
I am afraid my company have the same policy too - we still go along the monitor, back to work interviews each time off, disciplinary route and dismissal, but with the added proviso that managers can use their discretion.

I just wonder though what would happen if Managers discretion wasn't good and I was dismissed for having time off with diabetes!
 
Like Redrevis, I am also concerned about the road safety aspect of driving with lack of hypo awareness. As the Police have been involved in an incident, you will probably be charged with driving under the influence of drugs, resulting in a driving ban, and you will only get your licence back if you, supported by medical evidence, can convince DVLA that you are safe to drive.
If your job requires you to have a driving licence, then employment law doesn't give much pretection, although employers should offer alternative job if practical. If you can't get to work, then that's largely your issue to solve.
However, this is just thesort of situation where existing membership of a union can help, but they won't be able to help if you join after a problem has started. In that case, you'll need to seek help from CAB, law centre, solicitor etc.
 
Hi my understanding of reasonable adjustments is that these are adjustments that can be made that will help you control your diabetes and hence minimise your time off ill. These must be considered reasonable by the company - it is not clear cut what is considered reasonable. One company may consider it reasonable that you have more time off because of illnesses such as diabetes another may not. You should consider what adjustments you would like the company to make and then discuss these with them. Like the others I am extremely concerned that you had a hypo that bad whilst driving. Are the DVLA happy that you are fit to drive because if not this could affect your car insurance and the obvious safety risks associated with driving with a hypo. I am very sorry that you are having such a difficult time and hope that you get everything sorted out very soon with positive outcomes
 
As others have said you are NOT by law allowed to drive whilst hypo unaware.
I am shocked you are still driving after hypoing at the wheel. It is normally a 12 mths ban straight off. Licence only returned if you can prove you are hypo aware.

Being diabetic should not be in it's self be used as an excuse for having more illness's. There is no reason to have anymore infact.
This my sound harsh/mean etc, But it is my opinion and mine only. You need to sort yourself out diabetes wise educate yourself in how to manage your insulin and carb intake as well. ( If your medical team are no help transfer elsewhere)
There are plenty of members on the forum who live very active life styles and some of the jobs people do and then carry on as a hobby is 😱
Have a look at Copepod for an examble.
I guess what I am saying is the buck stops with you.
Hopefully some of the comments might save you from serious injury/death or even a jail sentence.

You state you are on Met no mention of insulin so not to sure after reading this now if you are type 2 on meds only and no insulin.
Either way if you have no idea what you are doing regarding hypos or no awareness then you are not safe to drive. Nore is any other road user safe with you behind the wheel of a car.
As to taking a week off work for sorting a hypo that beggars belief. At most it takes 45 mins from onset of a bad hypo to be up an functioning properly again is a bit tired.
The country would come to a stand still if every diabetic took a week off each time they went hypo.
 
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Thanks for your reply's.
Some are very helpfull.
As for Driving I now check bloods before driving as before but check they are above 8.0 Its been about 9 months now since the event and Driving wise everything is ok. DVLA are aware and so is my Consultant.
Yes I am on Insulin 5 times a day and Metformin. Ummmm. I have had Diabeties for 21 Years so telling me to Educate myself!!! "Thanks for That"!
 
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I think SUE was just a tad shocked because you are driving a vehicle after you had said "Well I have 1 Diabetes which my work knows about, and i do not know when I am going hypo! ". So if the DVLA knew you were hypo unaware your license would be revoked, however your circumstances may not be black and white.......

Dont be offended..........:D

On the day of the hypo, what was your pre driving blood glucose and what are your theories as to why you dropped suddenly?
 
I would guess that if your BG is around 5 then it is easy for you to drop low whilst driving although driving with a BG of 5 is legal. I tended to have something to eat if my BG was 6 or lower before driving good for avoiding hypos but not so good for keeping tight control. How do you deal with your hypo unawareness, I'm sure that would be interesting for other people who have this problem.
 
robsonma said:
Thanks for your reply's.
Some are very helpfull.
As for Driving I now check bloods before driving as before but check they are above 8.0 Its been about 9 months now since the event and Driving wise everything is ok. DVLA are aware and so is my Consultant.
Yes I am on Insulin 5 times a day and Metformin. Ummmm. I have had Diabeties for 21 Years so telling me to Educate myself!!! "Thanks for That"!
Click to expand...

Even after 46 years on insulin I still learn something new. 🙂
The fact that you State you are hypo unaware then you are knowingly driving illegally.
DVLA allows no one to drive with hypo unawareness.
So this means you have not told them you are hypo unaware. It is also your responsibility to inform them you had a hypo behind the wheel like that.
So yes please do go and educate yourself. :(
Perhaps a Dafne course would help?
As novorapidboi26 says yes I am shocked that you think it's ok to put Joe public in extreme danger by knowingly getting behind the wheel of a car.
I would also hazard a guess that your ins is non valid as well due to not being fit to drive or having what is infact a non valid driving licence.
 
Moving on if we can; I found a change of insulin - and of course you do have to run higher for a few months to enable this to happen - helped restore my hypo unawareness. And I slightly resent the inference about educating onself too; I was diabetic for about 35 years before I learned hardly anything of any use to a person who is having trouble; I deliberately didn't resort to the internet until all other avenues had been more than completely exhausted, I honestly thought up till then that medically trained people were the experts! - how wrong could I be? And you see so much garbage STILL on the internet about how diabetes can be cured.

I would like to believe the week you took off after the car hypo you weren't sitting at home pondering but were rather talking to your clinic and your GP and this and that and the other, to try and make pretty darn sure it never happened again - but in complete fairness that isn't what you actually said - so Sue has merely taken what you said and applied herself to that. OK a hypo that you quickly sort out only takes your brain 45 minutes to get over; but the aftermath of it can take a lot longer. With car accidents it's always the OMG what if's, isn't it?

Unfortunately over the years since the driving incidents, I've not been able to beat my A1c down again - I still live in terror of having more accidents like I had at that time and it's hard to quash that - so all in all, is one of the reasons I've now been awarded a pump.

Anyway, I too had trouble at work (not to do with that spate of hypos though, although I did have to change my job at that time since I couldn't drive for 12 months) and at the end of the day I can tell you it depends on how willing the employer is. If (in truth I mean, not what they say they are gonna do!) they only pay lip service to the legislation then you are most likely on a hiding to absolutely nothing. If they genuinely care about their staff then you have more chance.

Out of all the people it was my displeasure to need to involve in my employment case, ACAS were about the only ones who consistently did try to help and where everyone actually gave identical advice. But even they were wasting their time as my employer just wasn't interested in engaging with them or letting anyone else in to their little world. Despite all their graven in stone employment manual it appears it was only designed to work one way; employees had to do this that and the other and they pleased themselves how they did what. In the finish I had to throw in the towel.

Good luck.
 
Hi robsonma. Welcome 🙂

It may help if you could clarify about your hypo awareness. The wording is a little confusing and has clearly led to some advice you maybe weren't expecting.

Likewise, I've been injecting for about 33 years and only really came up to date in the last 12-18 months despite thinking I was on the ball. I was far from it and there's always something you can pick up if that's what you want.

I have no experience of work problems but was always aware that diabetes related illness could cause me to be targeted when redundancies came round.

Rob
 
Hi Robsonma

Welcome to the forum :D

I have only been diabetic for 8 years of which 2 of them I have been on insulin (Type 2)

I'm hypo aware and luckilly never had a hypo without warning and always been able to deal with it.

Despite changing Doctors twice and having 5 hospital appointments cancelled because the consultant wasn't avilable I still persist in trying to manage diabetes as best as I can.

I still don't really know what I am doing with insulin apart from getting myself clued up on here and the Internet. The advice I have been given is if my fasting level is above 7 in the morning then increase the glargine by 2 units every 3rd day.

I have also been told to test 2 hours after meals and again if above 7 to increase by a further 2 units (Lispro) prior to the next meal.

I asked my Doctor if I could be considered for the DAFNE course and was told it is for type 1 diabetics only. My last hbA1c was 8.5 which isn't brilliant but I am working on it.

Hopefully the guys on here should be able to offer lots of advice.

Take care

Andy
 
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