"Excessive Sickness" Advice please.

Former Member

I was ushered into a meeting today at work, without any prior warning which annoyed and caught me off guard, One of the things mentioned at work was our Personnel system has "noted me as having excessive time off due to illness" I was prepared for this and I knew exactly how much time off I have had, however nothing is being acted upon with regards to this in the way of disciplinary but it is upon my record, so I must ask

Is 8.25 days (that is 8days, 2hours) within the last 365 days classed as excessive, the CBI says the industry average is 6.4 last year, yes, I admit mine is higher than "average" but excessive, I think not.

I wish to fight this with employers as I do not want this on my record (which is it) and considering by there figures, from what ever scale they used (the did not explain to me) the average employee % regarding sickness is 12% and mine is 200%

Evidently it is impossible for it to be "time off" how this is calculated I do not know, but I do know I have not taken 16times more time off than the average employee,

I've Written a letter to my boss which I am contemplating posting or not, but advice would be much sought over in this matter.

Former Member

It depends on how they measure the absence. My employer, like many, has a policy where if you have three period of absence in any six month period you have a meeting to discuss your sickness record. That doesn't change if you have three separate days off, or three periods of two months, it's done on periods of absence.

I think it sucks donkey balls, but that's the way things are. I was pissed off when I had the meeting and was told I had to provide GP letters for further absence, but there's not much that can be done. The policy is lawful.

As for it being "noted", I think you need to ask them what that means. If it means it's a formal warning it needs to be documented as such, otherwise it's probably nothing to worry about. I've had it documented a couple of times on my sickness record because I'll stay at home if I have a heavy cold, especially as my colleague was pregnant.

Former Member

thanks AR, I might drop it then.. I don't know..

it does suck donkey balls, I agree there. It isn't a formal/informal or verbal warning, they just noted that failure to improve will result in further action.