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mfactor

Hi, I have been off on long term sick for 7 months and was resigned to probably not going back...........


(Bare with me it will make sense)



My local management have been quite happy to leave me alone to see if I could get my health sorted, (stress causing complications with my diabetes) , and the slightly higher manager could not be bothered to see me for welfare interviews in all the time I was off....

However a couple of weeks ago I was booked at short notice to see occupational health and a welfare interview a day latter..

I did think it was a bit strange that I had not been seen for 7 months and now I had been seen twice in 2 days...........



But a few days later a notice went up that we were closing next month...........

Now I am not usually a paranoid person but...........


..... had a quiet word with my manager who, off the record confirmed that they were going to give me the push on capability grounds to save on about £15000 redundancy pay (been there 17 years)......


I must admit I am a bit conflicted on this as I would have taken redundancy on medical grounds right at the start with only 12 weeks PILON, so they have already paid me over £12000 sick pay this year that they did not need too.


But am a bit annoyed at being dragged in for a "welfare meeting", when everyone including the office cat knows its nothing about welfare but about saving some money.............:mad:


Opinions comments etc welcome


PS My company is a massive multinational who are evrywhere you look , but best not name them, just to say that they are well known as a profit before everything company by all in the industry.................

sangie595

There isn't any such thing as redundancy on medical grounds so you couldn't have asked for it! Redundancy is a specific thing in law, and being too sick to do your job isn't one of the grounds.


Your manager may be right or not about what the intention was - but legally they couldn't do it! To dismiss on grounds of capability would mean that they would have to follow a specific process which would take longer than a month to complete. So any such move would be transparently an attempt to avoid redundancy entitlements. However, there may be other very good reasons for undertaking occupational health and welfare processes at this time. Just because the workplace is closing does not mean that all the jobs are going or have to go. The employer would need to consider your suitability for alternative employment alongside everyone else - being off sick would not change that obligation. If they were to determine that you should be made redundant solely on the grounds of sickness absence, they may become liable under discrimination laws for not making reasonable adjustments in their process to accommodate your situation.


Given the size of the company you describe, and thereby taking into account their likely legal resources, if they genuinely simply wanted to save money there is a much easier solution open to them - redeploy you to a suitable alternative employment and continue to "sit on" your absence until you get fed up and resign. That way they won't have to pay you a penny, and they can sit on your employment until Armageddon if they want to because it costs them nothing.