Here is a list of the various techniques management are using to crack down on non-attendance ie. to pressure our members back to work:

1. There have been several instances of unfair use of 'patterning', in which a manager sees a 'pattern' in what is in reality a coincidence. Management are effectively accusing the staff concerned of skiving, with no evidence and without even being honest enough to accuse them directly.
2. Management now consider that they have the right to issue a 52-week written warning for a first breach of the policy if it is a 'patterning' case, despite this flatly contradicting the stated policy of a maximum 26-week oral warning.
3. Management have counted items towards a warning that have already been used towards a previous warning. This is 'double jeopardy', and has been used against station staff despite an agreement not to at the Stations & Revenue Council.
4. Pretty much every case that triggers the policy is now sent automatically to LDI, despite the Attendance Support Pack stating that the duty manager should make a decision whether or not to send the case to LDI and that "*often* the right word at the right time is all that's needed" and an LDI is not necessary.
5. Far fewer LDIs are resulting in any outcome other than a 26-week warning (unless it's a 52-week warning!), with duty managers rarely showing any discretion and giving a lower sanction.
6. Managers are holding 'fact-finding interviews' with staff regarding sickness absences, which very much resemble disciplinary interviews except for the absence of a union rep! The subsequent LDI then appears to rubber-stamp a decision the manager has probably already made.
7. Company policy states management can call staff in for a meeting when they have been off for 28 days or their certificate indicates that they will be. Despite this, managers have been calling staff in earlier than this.
8. The 28-day policy mentioned above states that the member of staff will be entitled to union representation. Management are using this to insist that if a member of staff has not been off for 28 days then s/he is not entitled to union representation at the meeting. This is despite the Attendance Support Pack clearly stating that staff off sick are entitled to union representation at *any* meeting with management.
9. Management are even calling in staff for sickness reviews who are not off sick.
10. Some managers are sending staff to LUOH as soon as they return to work, even if the staff member feels that there is no need.
11. Some locations have imposed 'local sickness reporting procedures' which specify exactly when staff must phone in when they are off sick. This contradicts the agreed guidelines on contact with staff off sick, which state that the manager must agree contact arrangements with the member of staff.
12. Managers are contacting staff off sick unreasonably often. In one case, management contacted the member 13 times in his first 5 days off.
13. Management have significantly narrowed the range of items of non-attendance that will not be counted against you. For instance, they have narrowed the definition of 'invasive surgery' to emergency invasive surgery only.
14. Several members have had Company Sick Pay stopped on very weak pretexts when they have not breached contractual requirements (the only reason for stopping Company Sick Pay), and have had to wait a long time for it to be restored.
15. The latest ruse I have become aware of is that even if a member of staff's GP certificates that s/he should stay off sick, if LUOH say that s/he is fit, then Company Sick Pay is stopped if that member follows his/her own GP's advice and stays off sick.
16. Unannounced visits to sick staff's homes by duty managers.
17. Stopping Company and Statutory Sick Pay to staff who have medical certification from an overseas doctor.

Each of these represents an attack on our members' rights. Together, they represent a concerted drive by management to bully sick staff back to work.

Management clearly have some kind of crusading think tank coming up with a new idea to oppress our members every week. They will doubtless add to this list for as long as we continue to let them.

The time has come to strike back.