Hi there
I have recurring bladder cancer so have had a few TURBT ops - I have had to take time off for blood tests, CT scans, pre op assessments prior to having the surgeries and my boss has said I need to use my annual leave for this. At this rate I will have no holiday left is this correct?
Thank you
#Colopy
Hi Colopy
Thank you for your query.
As an employee living in England, Scotland or Wales you have protection under the Equality Act 2010 (Disability Discrimination Act 1995 in Northern Ireland) . This means that as an employee with a cancer diagnosis you are classed as having a disability and your employer has a duty to provide reasonable adjustments for you at work. Here is link to our booklet which gives some general information about this:
Your Rights at Work 2023.pdf
It is ‘reasonable’ for an employer to give you time off to attend hospital appointments – but not necessarily to be paid for it. When you check your work contract or your terms and conditions does it say anything about giving you any paid days off from work to attend medical appointments? If you have a trade union representative, they may have further information about this? If no days off are given or if you have used your allocation of days, you would have the choice of either taking this as leave (as you say) or unpaid leave or sick leave. Sometimes employees request to take leave from the following year but then you would have less leave next year and with the same on-going situation.
However, it always worth asking your employer if (given your on-going need for treatment for your disability) they might use their discretion and give you some paid days off for this. If there is an HR department you might wish to submit a formal request.
If you need to take your days off for treatment as sick leave and you trigger any sickness absence monitoring procedures, it would be a moment when you could ask your employer if (as a reasonable adjustment) they might look more favourably on any absence taken due to your treatment for your cancer (disability).
I hope that you have found the above information useful, if you would like to contact us further about this, you can you reply to this message. Alternatively, if you would like to speak with our advisers, we will be happy to help. The telephone contact number is given at the bottom of this message using the extensions of 1,2 and 3..
Work Support Adviser
Remember, you can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am – 8pm) or by email.
