Our mouldy office is making everyone sick. Why won’t my boss do anything?

Each week, Dr Kirstin Ferguson tackles questions on workplace, career and leadership in her advice column, Got a Minute? This week: smelly mould, the definition of “unreliable” and unapproved annual leave.

Your boss is breaking the law by not ensuring hazards in the workplace are fixed, says Dr Kirstin Ferguson.Credit: Dionne Gain

Our office smells like bad mould and the team spent a lot of last year with continual bad respiratory infections, bronchitis and asthma. Most days it’s unbearable, and we are always coughing. Our boss thinks we are all exaggerating and that it’s simply “women complaining”. He refuses to contact the landlord to resolve the issue. Would this be enough for a case for a workplace safety inspector if one of us contacted them anonymously? We are frightened to do this, but we don’t want to spend another year unwell.

You should absolutely jump on the phone to a safety regulator, health and safety rep (you should have one in your company), union rep (if applicable), another boss in your business – anyone who can help. Your boss is breaking the law by not ensuring hazards in the workplace are fixed. SafeWork NSW has a useful guide which explains why mould is so dangerous at work and the health issues it can lead to. WorkSafe Victoria also has helpful information on how health monitoring should be conducted to make sure anyone being exposed to mould can be kept safe. This really needs to be sorted out ASAP and your boss and his company will be in far more strife by not acting at all.

And if your boss takes punitive action and tries to bully anyone for getting this sorted, his problems will only get much bigger. Your boss will be breaking the law (again) since it is your workplace right to come to work each day in a safe environment.

My boss asked me to cover the responsibilities of my co-workers while they were on sick leave, which lead me to burnout and illness myself. When I eventually called in sick, my boss called me “unreliable”, despite my condition being verified by a doctor’s certificate. She has since fired a new employee after he called in sick once. Is this legal?

Being sick and being unreliable are two different issues. You can (after the usual warnings, performance reviews, etc) fire someone for being unreliable if they fail to turn up to work without any explanation or arrive late regularly. However, you cannot fire someone for being sick, especially if they have a valid doctor’s certificate.

It sounds like your boss doesn’t like the inconvenience of members of her team being unwell (a natural part of having a human team), and so she had decided to conflate being sick with being unreliable. That is a risky path for her to take; if she ends up firing someone because they were on valid sick leave, she may well find herself in hot water.

It sounds like your boss doesn’t understand workplace laws or how to get the best from her people. Rather than call you unreliable for becoming sick after covering the responsibilities of your co-workers, she really should have been grateful for all the help you provided and regretful of the impact the extra work had on you. A bunch of flowers when you were ill would have been much more appropriate than a dressing-down.

I work in a large department in a public hospital. We were asked to put in our leave requests for the next 18 months. It has been nearly three months and none of our leave has been approved. Is there a recognised time frame when you must be informed whether your leave has been approved?

I assume this length of time, 18 months’ notice, is governed by your award or agreement, rather than an arbitrary period of time someone has suggested. It seems like a very long period of time to have to plan to take annual leave. I have never worked in a hospital environment, so this may be usual to plan rosters. What happens when plans change?

In terms of approval times, the acceptable length of time may also be covered in your award or agreement, but I suspect it probably just refers to a “reasonable period”. Three months seems to be a long time so if you belong to a union – perhaps you could ask them to investigate. Otherwise, I would follow up with HR or your boss.

To submit a question about work, careers or leadership, visit kirstinferguson.com/ask. You will not be asked to provide your name or any identifying information. Letters may be edited.

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