Employer putting pressure on me

Good evening everyone

 

My first post so please bear with!! I have been off sick on and off since January 2017 after a Cancer Diagnosis and various operations. My last operation to remove lymph nodes in my groin, which have now turned out to be Cancerous was at the end of March this year. I’m now waiting for Chemo/Radiotherapy to start in June. 

 

My employer (a major UK airline) have been relatively understanding up until now but I feel they are starting to lose patience with my ongoing health problems and absences. They have a pretty robust absence management process in place and I had a telephone meeting with my manager last week and during this conversation she mentioned my contract being terminated if after being off sick for 5 months I couldn’t give them an estimated time scale for returning to work. This is now really adding to the stress I’m currently going through. I haven’t even started Chemo/Radiotherapy yet and I’m having to think when I “might” be ok to go back to work (I don’t work on the ground for said airline!!). I guess my question is....can I lose my job for being off sick with Cancer? I have spoken to occupational health and they have assured me I am covered by the Equality Act but covered in what sense? That they can’t termiante my contract? 

 

Many thanks for any advice anyone can give. 

 

Much love. X

Parents
  • Welcome to Cancer Chat Claire although I'm sorry for the reason you find yourself posting.

    We have a section dedicated to coping practically on our website which I hope will prove useful as it covers money matters as well as the disability discrimination act that Rileyroo mentioned above. It may also be worth getting in touch with Macmillan about this as they have financial advisors you can chat to, so do give them a call when you can and see what they say.

    The discussion that Chriss was referring to is just here if you'd like to have a look and one of our members [@davek]‍ is fairly knowledgeable in this area too so I'm just tagging him in this post to let him know his words of wisdom are needed. Once he's notified I'm sure he'll pop by when he can to chat.

    I hope this helps Claire and that you're able to get the information and advice you're seeking at this time.

    Kind regards, 

    Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator

Reply
  • Welcome to Cancer Chat Claire although I'm sorry for the reason you find yourself posting.

    We have a section dedicated to coping practically on our website which I hope will prove useful as it covers money matters as well as the disability discrimination act that Rileyroo mentioned above. It may also be worth getting in touch with Macmillan about this as they have financial advisors you can chat to, so do give them a call when you can and see what they say.

    The discussion that Chriss was referring to is just here if you'd like to have a look and one of our members [@davek]‍ is fairly knowledgeable in this area too so I'm just tagging him in this post to let him know his words of wisdom are needed. Once he's notified I'm sure he'll pop by when he can to chat.

    I hope this helps Claire and that you're able to get the information and advice you're seeking at this time.

    Kind regards, 

    Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator

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