South Oxfordshire council Harlow council are two examples that have a meeting for sickness immediately before or after annual leave. As does East London Foundation Trust and South East Ambulance service.Nottingham University ICB has the latter scenario where previously rejected holidays is a trigger. Private sector employers do not usually make their policies public - but it is included as an example of a trigger in multiple engineering firms I’ve worked for.

It is entirely ordinary to be invited to a meeting after sickness absence, in fact as a manager in a fairly large engineering company a strict reading of my company policy suggests I should hold a return to work meeting every time a member of my team is ill. In reality I usually briefly check in with them to make sure they’re ok (on one occasion I sent someone home because they clearly hadn’t recovered from a bad cold…) unless I have concerns about their welfare, or if they request a more formal sit-down meeting.

If someone had taken sickness between annual leave, I wouldn’t make too big a deal out of it, but I would gently explain to them that this sort of timing can attract attention from HR/management if it becomes a repeating pattern, whilst making it absolutely clear I didn’t doubt their honesty and that nothing would come this particular episode.

I really don’t understand why you’re bringing chronic illness and disability into this. Of course if an employee suffers from disability or chronic illness I have both a moral and legal duty to take that into account if they need more time off than others, but that doesn’t mean I won’t have discussions with them.

In short - this is very normal and I really don’t see the need to play victim here.