Manager isn't happy my child keeps getting ill

This week my child has been ill and so has to stay home with me, I have no other care for her other than myself. But yet my manager is getting annoyed I'm off work so much because of it. She wants to have a meeting and has asked about someone else looking after my child but my only option is a babysitter which will lose me money as it will cost more to pay the babysitter than what I'll earn in the day. Plus I also have to pay for nursery fees regardless. What can I actually say to my manager? I obviously don't want to get fired but she's making it sound like if I keep taking days off to look after my child that she will sack me for it. What am I supposed to do??
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Depending on what she says in the meeting depends on what you should do. If she threatens you with being fired for having to look after your child then calmly explain to her that if she does that you will be taking the matter further and possibly suing for unfair dismissal where you would get quite a decent pay out and she would probably lose her job.

Ah I know this feeling. My daughter has caught soooo many bugs, one after another, since starting nursery. However, unfortunately your manager would have a case against you if you keep taking time off. They can say that you aren’t able to do the role. I’ve had to use annual leave and dependency days to cover sickness so far, in the worst case I’d have to use unpaid leave.

Whilst many work policies will be flexible in emergencies, my work for example will say, you can use annual leave or unpaid leave to cover it, and should it keep happening, that’s something they can raise as an attendance concern. I don’t think being sacked is the first step, and hopefully if you explain it’s bug season but you have no other options, and get through winter they’ll be understanding. You may need to come up with a plan for how those days are covered though, and what a concerning threshold might look like for your manager.

I think if I were you, I'd request a union representative to attend that meeting with me

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