Granted, I have not been the best employee. I've got surgical damage in my pelvis (very rare complication that almost killed me) and I prewarned them 4 months prior to starting and even signing contracts that I was very unwell, so there was an opportunity to pull out or deem me as unfit for post.
Instead, they ignored every single communication that didn't involve me making them money. When I postponed their contractual training programme due to pain for a few months, they said nothing. And waited until im near the end of my contract/probation period to inform me that it's impacted my contractual agreement for employment, months later. It's being used as a reason to not offer me any work (yey for zero hour contracts) for the next 10 months and instead send me on unpaid training for 3 months, and then bring me back in next year when I'm “healthy” and completed the training, where I'm basically tied to them for work to pay for my training. And they've also reduced the hours of my contract in 10 months time.
Every request to discuss my health has been ignored. My line manager even asked me if my surgery was a success after I'd sent him 3 emails prior to starting about almost dying. HR sent me on an hour long training course about setting up my work station and organising my desk instead of purchasing a $20 support cushion when I said I was struggling to sit down without pain or walk and wanted to work from home, they even kindly arranged a standing desk so I could stay after hours (unpaid.) My line manager bought one and then kept it in his office, ignoring any emails I sent to ask how I can collect it to actually use it. I booked off a hospital appointment 7 weeks in advance and got ignored and penalised for coming in half a day. I tripped over on my way to work due to the damage spreading into my sciatica nerve, and was late in due to limping on one foot. I got told I was unprofessional for coming in late.
Then, I found out my hospital appointment had been put through on the system as sickness, which despite being onsite, attending meetings, and filling in timesheets, continued to be marked as an ongoing abscene, so I lost a whole month of pay. I took off last week as sickness. I was reaching my limit and my fall had cost me a week of mobility. My line manager put through my absence to HR as 2 weeks instead of one, requesting I send in a new fitnote to replace my doctors original one which informs them they need to send me to occupational health, a request they'd be delaying from me for over a month to action.
When I informed them the dates were wrong, they wanted me to override my fitnote from my doctor by filling in my own sickness documentation, making the absence look like a sesperate issue that was unrelated to their lack of support to my health. I was informed I needed to attend a return to work meeting before I was allowed to come back, which never happened. So I didn't go in. As you can imagine they then changed their policy and stated the documentation wasn't required for my return to work or the meeting. My manager is now calling me, and requesting calls daily to arrange my return to work. I work for this place part-time. I have other jobs and commitments, and this dude wants me to call him outside my working hours they haven't even paid me properly for.
So yesterday I emailed to propose a suggestion, either I go through my union (they're already involved to an extent) or they correct my pay and allow me to leave with a good reference. I know it's not much, and as it's a long term condition that was declared I could ask for more. But i just want to be done with this, paid for my time and focus on my health. My recovery has been massively impacted because of this job, and I just CBA to go through corporate politics to fight some sort of discrimination payout. I just want to leave, and take the reference for when I'm better to find someone else who is better. It's the first time I've proposed something like this in my career, and I hope it pays off and they accept so I can celebrate!
Anyway, whoever stuck around for this long post, thanks for being here lol.