Know Your Rights: Medical Appointments - a guide for London Underground staff

If you have a medical appointment, how should you and your manager deal with it?

  • You are supposed to arrange the appointment outside your working hours if possible. But the company accepts that it is not always possible.
  • If the appointment takes you out of only part of your shift, you should get paid special leave.
  • If the appointment takes you out of your whole shift and you have not been able to arrange cover, you may have to take annual leave; if that’s not possible (eg. if you have run out of annual leave entitlement), you should get paid special leave.
  • This implies that if you are able to arrange cover, you should get paid special leave.
  • If your medical condition is covered by the Disability Discrimination Act, management will still expect you to try to arrange appointments outside work time, but if that is not possible, then you must get paid special leave for the appointment, and will not have the absence counted as an item of non-attendance.
  • LUL’s policy refers only to annual leave and paid special leave, so they should not try to force you to take unpaid special leave.

If you have any questions, or if you think that management are infringing your rights, contact your RMT rep immediately. More guides to your rights here.