Please help

skeptik

Not sure if this should be here or in a work related forum so mods please feel free to move it. I'm 17 weeks gone and last Tuesday was my first day back at work since before Christmas because of severe morning sickness. I was off Wednesday because my back gave out Tuesday night and I could barely move. Today I've had to come home again. I got very dizzy and light headed at work so they called a taxi to bring me home because it wasn't safe for me to drive. I'd had my breakfast and never had trouble with my BP so I doubt it's that. I couldn't go to the doctor because she didn't open for another hour and they wanted me gone out of the building at work. I'm so tired of having a different thing wrong with me every few days and I'm getting stressed and worried about being off work (even though I know there's nothing they can do about it) because my immediate supervisor can make life difficult with regards to getting time off etc. He already put pressure on me last week to work 5 12 hour shifts this week and possibly a few hours Saturday and Sunday, even after me handing in a letter from my doctor at Christmas saying I was to do no more than 39 hours a week and the fact that I was only back 3 days. Originally when I said I couldn't work Saturday his attitude was "but sure you're just back", like I have to make up for the time I've missed. Management/HR/Health & Safety are a waste of time, they don't care as long as the work gets done. Does anyone have any ideas what options, if any, I have as I'm just getting very down? I should be enjoying this like nothing else on earth because I had 3 miscarriages before it but I'm misserable

caramel0

Hi,

I don't know where you work or what you are doing. However, I would advice you to consult this website and maybe even contact them directly. They cannot force you to work 12 h days, if you are pregnant and not feeling well. Don't give up and find out what are your rights. Here is the website:http://www.hsa.ie/eng/Workplace_Health/Sensitive_Risk_Groups/Pregnant_at_Work_Frequently_Asked_Questions/

All the best

caramel0

One more thing, just found this little bit of info in that FAQ and I think that relates to you..."If an employee during pregnancy and the 14 weeks immediately following childbirth is regularly involved in night work for a period of at least 3 hours between 11.00 pm and 6.00 am or at least 25% of their monthly working time is performed in that period, and has a medical certificate stating that this may damage her health, she must be found alternative daytime work. If this is not possible the employer must grant the employee leave including Health and Safety Leave or extend the period of maternity leave."

jeeney

Poor skeptic,

You are having a horrible time with your pregnancy and work don't seem to be helping at all. I don't have much advice to give you only that working 5 12-hour shifts in a row is surely illegal - whether one is pregnant or not? And then asking you to work at the weekend too? They cannot do that when you have provided a letter from your doctor stating no more than 39 hour week. Poor you - you shouldn't be having this stress on top of feeling miserable the whole time too. There's nothing you can do about being ill - and while work may not be happy, they should not be forcing you to work longer hours to make up for lost time. Is there anyone else at work you could talk to/get support from about this?

The hsa website looks good below and I'm sure there are other sites too if you google it.

Good luck with it all

skeptik

caramel0 wrote: »

Hi,

I don't know where you work or what you are doing. However, I would advice you to consult this website and maybe even contact them directly. They cannot force you to work 12 h days, if you are pregnant and not feeling well. Don't give up and find out what are your rights. Here is the website:http://www.hsa.ie/eng/Workplace_Health/Sensitive_Risk_Groups/Pregnant_at_Work_Frequently_Asked_Questions/

All the best

caramel0 wrote: »

One more thing, just found this little bit of info in that FAQ and I think that relates to you..."If an employee during pregnancy and the 14 weeks immediately following childbirth is regularly involved in night work for a period of at least 3 hours between 11.00 pm and 6.00 am or at least 25% of their monthly working time is performed in that period, and has a medical certificate stating that this may damage her health, she must be found alternative daytime work. If this is not possible the employer must grant the employee leave including Health and Safety Leave or extend the period of maternity leave."

Thank you very much for going to all that effort. The problem is, HR at my company are very good at their job and would never break any laws, especially regarding pregnant women, it's my immediate supervisor that I'm worried about. He is ruthless when it comes to getting people to do overtime. He makes you feel like you're the one to blame if targets aren't met and if others have to work overtime. He would be the type to not allow you take the holidays you need when you need them out of spite. There's nothing can be done about that because holidays are at the descretion of the management and they will always take his side. He actually said to a pregnant colleague one day that she had to "mind her job" because she wanted a day off to mind her husband who has a serious illness at the minute. I try to stand up to him to a certain degree but again, I'm afraid that if I take it will come back to bite me. I'm not sure that any laws are being broken as such it's just a nasty, back handed supervisor.

caramel0

Well the first thing I can spot from your messages, is that he/she is a bully. Bullying is listed as an hazard on work. I would go to the citizen information centre too, to ask your rights in regards to days of and so on.
Then the next thing is to contact the Labour relations people at http://www.lrc.ie/ and find out where you stand. People have the right to take time of and now when you are pregnant and not feeling well, you should be first in line to get the time off. However the truth is that you have to fight for your and your child's rights, and they won't be able to let you go because you are pregnant or unwell.

skeptik

Thank you very much for the advice. I'm going to take a trip into the Citizens Information tomorrow, see what they have to say. Then I think it's time to go speak to my doctor as she knows in the 4 years I've had this job there has been alot of downs thats have affected my health. Again, thanks for all the effort in giving me good advice

crazy cat lady

I know you are worried about the repurcussions of this in the future, but your immediate concern is the health and wellbeing of both you and your baby now. Take all the time you need to ensure that you are in optimum health for the pregnancy and for when the baby is born.

You may predispose yourself to post natal depression of you are not both physically and mentally well when babs comes along. Put this a-hole of a supervisor in perspective in the grand scheme of things. He is a bully who can be dealt with through the right channels (as already suggested) but don't let him put a downer on your magical time! he really isn't worth it!

I hope everything works out for you and good luck with the pregnancy