Seriously ill family member, threatening me with no pay

Queeg500 · Post by **Queeg500** » 27 Sep 2017, 13:14

My father is in hospital extremely sick, may not recover. I'm acting as his healthcare advocate, as well as looking after my mother who depended a lot on him before the illness struck, and babysitting for brother who need to visit. I'm extremely stressed out and obviously very upset and I genuinely am not mentally up to working, I'm not going to stand there in work breaking down in front of people, I would not be able to perform my duties even if I did turn in. I've been off for 3 days now and I am being threatened with having to take unpaid leave if i'm not back in on Monday, although in their infinite compassion I've been allowed to use annual leave for this week only.

Been with company 4 years, union member, have a very good sickness record other than a stage one for a broken bone earlier this year.

Any advice please? can they do this? I'm thinking GP visit and sick note are step one.

Thanks

Post by **burtons** » 27 Sep 2017, 14:53

hi there no they cant do this,have you contacted your unit rep?if that is not possible go on the cwu website postal,you will be able to log in with your membership number on your union card .you will find the area reps telephone number on there.speak to him and it will get sorted.try not to worry.i hope this will help you.

daveyeff · Post by **daveyeff** » 27 Sep 2017, 16:10

they can't stop you going sick with stress/depression, especially on a doctors note. and if they try to stop your pay after that get the union involved. go higher than your local rep if need be, area...branch..div. they are bang out of order and they know it.

telithowitis · Post by **telithowitis** » 27 Sep 2017, 17:14

Definitely go to your Doctor and get signed off with stress. It is very stressful even more so when you get attitudes like that from work. How would he feel if he was in that position?
Good luck to you and your family.

Queeg500 · Post by **Queeg500** » 27 Sep 2017, 17:31

The union rep was on leave but he called me earlier and advised that I should get a note from my GP and go off with stress as suggested above, so I'll be doing that, their approach to these situations only makes the stress worse.

Thanks for the good advice all.

Smir · Post by **Smir** » 27 Sep 2017, 18:17

royal mail have some of the worst managers around, they have zero people skills... does make me wonder how they got their jobs.

TheTrolleyMan · Post by **TheTrolleyMan** » 27 Sep 2017, 19:24

Get an harassment form

rubberbond · Post by **rubberbond** » 27 Sep 2017, 19:49

You don't need to go to the Dr's just yet,you can self certify for 7 days first,then see your GP. A lot of GP's hate Royal Mail ,because they try to overrule their professional judgement . Of course, as all Royal Mail managers are qualified medical doctors,so that is only right.

LouBarlow · Post by **LouBarlow** » 28 Sep 2017, 16:29

rubberbond wrote:You don't need to go to the Dr's just yet,you can self certify for 7 days first,then see your GP. A lot of GP's hate Royal Mail ,because they try to overrule their professional judgement . Of course, as all Royal Mail managers are qualified medical doctors,so that is only right.

Yes, your doctor will be on your side, especially if you explain to him/her that Royal Mail are being utter assholes. Make sure you go into details and your doc will sign you off for longer just to spite them. It's happened to me before.

clashcityrocker · Post by **clashcityrocker** » 28 Sep 2017, 16:50

TheTrolleyMan wrote:Get an harassment form

What for exactly?
In his original post the OPG makes no mention of being off sick.
If he is taking time off for dependents or domestic distress then the time off is,after 1 to 3 days at the managers discretion, unpaid.

DEPENDANTS LEAVE    Employees have the right to reasonable unpaid time off to deal with an emergency involving dependants. Although the statutory provision for time off to look after a dependant is unpaid, many of the circumstances may be covered by Special Leave provisions, which may be paid. Post Office Ltd may, in its discretion, give paid leave to deal with urgent domestic distress and bereavement. See Time off For Dependants Policy for further details.

Post by **rambo1** » 28 Sep 2017, 16:58

Get your annual leave back too, it isn't for situations like you're in. I feel for you, you need to put family first and go off sick with a doctor's note for stress,as you will undoubtedly be under. Atb.

poisonivy6 · Post by **poisonivy6** » 30 Sep 2017, 19:42

I had to go home from duty last week as my father in law was rushed to hospital and I had to look after the kids while my missus went to see him.
I had prepped in first wave of mech plus some flats before I had to leave , I told the manager what had happened and he just said " well you better go then, make sure you sign out ( it was around 7.45 am).
Anyway my father in law died in hospital the following morning and as you can imagine this last week has been stressful to say the least with everything that's happened.
So Thursday comes around when we get our payslip , I open it and they have stopped me a days pay , fair enough if that's their policy , but the thing that got me was that 1. not one manager asked me if everything was ok, and 2. Regardless of what the policy might be I thought the lino or dom might have asked me how I wanted to sort the day off out ie take a days holiday etc etc instead of just stopping a days pay without so much as a murmur to me .
Still I suppose that is the norm with Royal Mail these days , to hell with the workers just so long as the walks are covered somehow.

Post by **aiden01** » 30 Sep 2017, 21:37

poisonivy6 wrote:I had to go home from duty last week as my father in law was rushed to hospital and I had to look after the kids while my missus went to see him.
I had prepped in first wave of mech plus some flats before I had to leave , I told the manager what had happened and he just said " well you better go then, make sure you sign out ( it was around 7.45 am).
Anyway my father in law died in hospital the following morning and as you can imagine this last week has been stressful to say the least with everything that's happened.
So Thursday comes around when we get our payslip , I open it and they have stopped me a days pay , fair enough if that's their policy , but the thing that got me was that 1. not one manager asked me if everything was ok, and 2. Regardless of what the policy might be I thought the lino or dom might have asked me how I wanted to sort the day off out ie take a days holiday etc etc instead of just stopping a days pay without so much as a murmur to me .
Still I suppose that is the norm with Royal Mail these days , to hell with the workers just so long as the walks are covered somehow.

Sorry to hear that your father in law died. just to ask had you worked for more than an hour on your duty..if so it should be classed as a part day absence so no loss of pay all least that's how it works in our office.

Creditshampoo · Post by **Creditshampoo** » 30 Sep 2017, 22:22

It’s correct you have to be in work one hour for it to be classed as a part sickness absence.

Please go to your GP and get signed off.
First thing Monday phone your office and say you’re too stressed to come into work and will make an appointment with your GP.

They are powerless to override your doctor unless it goes to OHS which takes forever anyway.

Do this and it will relieve this pressure you’re facing good luck