Re: Sickness from work : Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:22 pm  

Mintball wrote:

As opposed to, say, the bloke who runs Iceland?

Whats Malcolm Walker go to do with this ?

Re: Sickness from work : Wed Feb 27, 2013 10:57 pm  

I've done more than my fair share of disciplinaries over the years and effectively handed out a few P45s as well within private industry (they all deserved it btw...).
However I'm struggling to think of how the proceeding events ended up with the line manager of an employee (who has a broken leg from a work place incident that also might well be her employer's fault) rings up to tell said employee that she is getting a formal warning for what is clearly an unreturnable injury.

Even with the flag for number of days absent there is no plausible scenario (that I can think of) that would even remotely allow this to happen given the facts (on the face of what Rover49 has stated)
Firstly don't worry, she has done nothing wrong and is not in any trouble whatsoever, it clearly looks like mismangement and the line manager is a plank for not questioning such if he has had an instruction to ring with a formal warning.
If you can remember take a note of the time of the call and write down who said what to the recipient at your end.
Wait to see what if anything comes through the post, in the meantime contact your union representive and have an informal chat about the events as they happened and let them do the work to find out why someone is ringing you up threatening your wife with a formal written warning.
Hopefully poop will hit the fan and profuse apologies to follow (choccies and flowers wouldn't go amiss)
If you get no joy from the union (unlikely) contact ACAS and/or Unison direct at head office, I think that is the union involved for the local authorities..
good luck and get well for t'other half..

Re: Sickness from work : Thu Feb 28, 2013 7:57 am  

any news rover49?

Re: Sickness from work : Thu Feb 28, 2013 2:30 pm  

cod'ead wrote:

If this is correct: "Her boss (local authority) rang her today to tell her that he is giving her a formal warning for her sick record"

Then what he did is beyond "silly", whether he was "following orders" or not is completely immaterial. The bloke's an imbecile

Union now taking it up, the local full time official was astounded at the call and is to investigate. Apparently, they can give formal warnings after 35 days (even if its an accident at work), but he said procedures have not been followed and the call, initially about her wellbeing should not have introduced any hint of disciplinary measures.

He also said that even though they can formally warn, in the case of an accident at work it is highly unlikely to end in losing her job and is a formality they have to follow, which he didn't explain, leaving my beloved in a state of worry.

I concur with your description.

Re: Sickness from work : Thu Feb 28, 2013 3:00 pm  

Good stuff.

Re: Sickness from work : Thu Feb 28, 2013 7:39 pm  

rover49 wrote:

Union now taking it up, the local full time official was astounded at the call and is to investigate. Apparently, they can give formal warnings after 35 days (even if its an accident at work), but he said procedures have not been followed and the call, initially about her wellbeing should not have introduced any hint of disciplinary measures.

He also said that even though they can formally warn, in the case of an accident at work it is highly unlikely to end in losing her job and is a formality they have to follow, which he didn't explain, leaving my beloved in a state of worry.

I concur with your description.

I don't understand how a union rep can say that at all, what exactly has your wife done aside from have the misfortune to have an accident at work? There is no way on this planet that I can see how she could lose her job, what a bell end I know he's the rep but that is as unforgiveable as the manager telling her over the phone she's getting a written warnijng, what's the matter with people FFS don't they have the brains they were born with..grrrrrr!
Whilst I know people want to cover their arses and union reps are well known for this but why say something like that when they should know full well how she would be feeling given the circumstances.
Tell her not to worry it's complete and utter b@ll@cks, I feel disgusted on your behalf.

it's just the tip of the iceberg I expect and there's little wonder local government all over the country is in the hole it is and staff so undermined and de-motivated..

Re: Sickness from work : Fri Mar 01, 2013 4:40 am  

knockersbumpMKII wrote:

I don't understand how a union rep can say that at all, what exactly has your wife done aside from have the misfortune to have an accident at work? There is no way on this planet that I can see how she could lose her job, what a bell end I know he's the rep but that is as unforgiveable as the manager telling her over the phone she's getting a written warnijng, what's the matter with people FFS don't they have the brains they were born with..grrrrrr!
Whilst I know people want to cover their arses and union reps are well known for this but why say something like that when they should know full well how she would be feeling given the circumstances.
Tell her not to worry it's complete and utter b@ll@cks, I feel disgusted on your behalf.

it's just the tip of the iceberg I expect and there's little wonder local government all over the country is in the hole it is and staff so undermined and de-motivated..

Her union rep's comment may have more to do with the announcement of 600 job losses than her personal case

Re: Sickness from work : Fri Mar 01, 2013 9:12 am  

knockersbumpMKII wrote:

... it's just the tip of the iceberg I expect and there's little wonder local government all over the country is in the hole it is and staff so undermined and de-motivated..

Nothing to do with cuts to pay and conditions; cuts to services and jobs; outsourcing to profiteering companies; a media that, by and large, demonises the public services as a whole.

Oh, no – nothing whatsoever to do with such unimportant little matters.

Re: Sickness from work : Fri Mar 01, 2013 11:51 am  

A precis of the situation in local government:

Pay has declined by 15% since 2010 and many councils have cut unsocial hours and overtime payments, hours of work, car allowances and redundancy pay.

Others have introduced unpaid annual leave, term-time only working, car parking charges for staff, and have cut pay and frozen annual increments.

At the same time, 260,000 posts have been deleted through redundancies and scrapping of vacant posts since the coalition took office, leaving existing staff to cover the extra work as they battle to keep essential services running.

Re: Sickness from work : Sat Mar 02, 2013 8:22 am  

Mintball wrote:

Nothing to do with cuts to pay and conditions; cuts to services and jobs; outsourcing to profiteering companies; a media that, by and large, demonises the public services as a whole.

Oh, no – nothing whatsoever to do with such unimportant little matters.

I don't get your point directed at me? You think I am having a pop at LGO's and their treatment, then you are poles apart to what I think. I understand how big organisations work from top to bottom, there's so much shat it's unbelieveable and the ones to pay the price are usually those at the coal face. I can see the effect people's working environment and pay/holidays affects them directly not just at work but at home too.
So please direct your point to those who are lambasting the public sector worker..