Dismissal for being sick ?

bonnieheather

sorry to hear about your friends illness, i too was signed off with depression earlier this year. unfortuanately for me this has been an ongoing illness for years and i had to leave my job, but i was given my entightlement of 28 weeks on ssp before i went to talk to my employer!
i have had a look on a couple of wesites to see if i can find anything about being on ssp and employee rights, but they are so long i gave up so here are the links
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/index.htm

http://www.berr.gov.uk/employment/useful-links/index.html

i was once told that if you are off sick, and you have a doc's note you cannot be dismissed, but i could be wrong

hope everything works out for your friend and she get well again soon

bonnie:)
p.s sorry for any spelling mistakes i have a headache lol

dmg24

i was once told that if you are off sick, and you have a doc's note you cannot be dismissed, but i could be wrong

Not correct. See information given above.

CFC

dmg is correct.

A person can be disciplined, or even terminated, on the grounds of sickness. It is unusual though for a disciplinary to be held and outcome given while the person is off sick unless it is likely to result in a termination. A dismissal on capability grounds is not because the person has done anything wrong, or because the company assumes the sickness is not genuine - the company simply needs to have its workers capable of working and attending work. So the grounds of dismissal are that the person is not capable of attending work.(ie not well enough)

Your post is a little confusing because I can only presume you mean that your friend has received a verbal warning after 10 days off sick and has now been invited in for another hearing during the same sickness period. That seems pretty unusual to me.

bonnieheather

CFC and dmg24, thanks so much for the info, as i said i wasn't 100% sure of what i had been told, it would seem that i was very lucky with my last employer!

bonnie :beer:

stevedalton

Sorry to drag up this thread but I also have a colleague who has taken the maximum amount of paid sick leave (4 weeks) with stress/anxiety. I have requested/suggested to my manager that he be given two further weeks paid leave (to which he agreed). He is now signed off on those two weeks until 12th May. However, the manager has written to him stating that he is recommending that he be dismissed on the 13th May unless he attends a meeting on 5th May (or sends a letter) appealing against the managers decision. Is that the correct procedure in law? Can the manager request that he attends or sends written representation whilst still off sick and before his recommendation? I could understand this attitude for someone with a physical illness (broken leg, slipped disc etc.) but surely thats out of order with someone who is suffering stress/anxiety? Anyone? I'd like to help him when we go back to work on Tuesday.

hayley11

stevedalton wrote: »

Sorry to drag up this thread but I also have a colleague who has taken the maximum amount of paid sick leave (4 weeks) with stress/anxiety. I have requested/suggested to my manager that he be given two further weeks paid leave (to which he agreed). He is now signed off on those two weeks until 12th May. However, the manager has written to him stating that he is recommending that he be dismissed on the 13th May unless he attends a meeting on 5th May (or sends a letter) appealing against the managers decision. Is that the correct procedure in law? Can the manager request that he attends or sends written representation whilst still off sick and before his recommendation? I could understand this attitude for someone with a physical illness (broken leg, slipped disc etc.) but surely thats out of order with someone who is suffering stress/anxiety? Anyone? I'd like to help him when we go back to work on Tuesday.

I went off sick in a previous job with depression/anxiety. I had to go in at least twice for capability hearings so yeah I would say they are allowed to ask your friend to go in for a hearing. They can't just let your friend stay off indefinitely and do nothing about it. While he is off sick they are a man down.

There are other things that you haven't mentioned that need considering....

How long has he worked there for?
Has he followed the absence procedure correctly?
Has he had any other warnings?
Has he missed other hearings?

Horace

stevedalton wrote: »

Sorry to drag up this thread but I also have a colleague who has taken the maximum amount of paid sick leave (4 weeks) with stress/anxiety. I have requested/suggested to my manager that he be given two further weeks paid leave (to which he agreed). He is now signed off on those two weeks until 12th May. However, the manager has written to him stating that he is recommending that he be dismissed on the 13th May unless he attends a meeting on 5th May (or sends a letter) appealing against the managers decision. Is that the correct procedure in law? Can the manager request that he attends or sends written representation whilst still off sick and before his recommendation? I could understand this attitude for someone with a physical illness (broken leg, slipped disc etc.) but surely thats out of order with someone who is suffering stress/anxiety? Anyone? I'd like to help him when we go back to work on Tuesday.

The answer is yes, but I am confused as to why you have contacted your manager to ask that this person be given extra time - it is you that is off sick or a colleague and are you a union rep? You can be dismissed when you are sick even if you are on long term sick leave regardless of whether or not you are suffering from stress/anxiety. Has that stress been caused by work or an outside cause? If it is work, has a grievance been submitted, if not why not?

Is there any hope of your colleague returning to work? If not, then the employer can dismiss on ill health grounds because the employer cannot be expected to keep the post open indefinitely. https://www.acas.org.uk will have more information.

catenorfolk

The company has to follow a strict procedure and part of this is interviews to see if they can help the employee in anyway. if the employee is sacked without following a correct legal process then the employee can take the company to a tribunal. Your friend may find this is just to keep the company updated with what is going on. It is probably not to sack her unless there is more to her work/sickness history with them. If she is really worried, she should make sure she takes a union rep with her or if not with the union someone else. She is legally allowed to take someone in with her. Get her to get advice from acas or somewhere like that. She should also checkk her terms and conditions in her contract and see what the company sickness procedure is.
ps, it may be that the job is too much for her and they may find another job within the company that may not cause her soooo much stress. This can happen.

Gazella77

Oh dear, am reading this thread and am getting stressed and worried.

I have been off sick for 2 months now and got another sick leave for 2 weeks (till mid May). I was diagnosed with thyroid problems but on top of that have had massive stress with my brother who's got mental issues and lives with me, battling through the system to get him some help or remove him from my place (I am a single parent with 1 year old baby which is quite stressful as well). I finally completely collapsed and the gp signed me off partially to help me recover and partially to give me time to sort out issues with my brother and proper childcare.
My job is very demanding and I have been anxious and stressed thinking I am no coping very well with everything at the same time.

My boss emailed me last week asking about the progress of my work and requested the meeting to discuss the hours I am working (I came back from my maternity 3 months ago and requested flexible working hrs with 0.85FT instead of full time).
I called and talked to his right hand and disclosed pretty much everything.

But am really worried now.
I have quite a big mortgage and no maintenance after battling with the CSA for over 10 months now so can't imagine how we'd survive without my salary. This job keeps me going (sadly it pays for my brother as well) but on the other hand I am thinking that redundancy would be a relief. But then I'm also thinking that my contract expires in a year anyway and it'd be worth hanging on for the redundancy money.

Not really sure what to do and how to tackle all this mess so I'd appreciate any comments/ advice

Thanks

~Beanie~

Gazella77 wrote: »

I have quite a big mortgage and no maintenance after battling with the CSA for over 10 months now so can't imagine how we'd survive without my salary. This job keeps me going (sadly it pays for my brother as well) but on the other hand I am thinking that redundancy would be a relief. But then I'm also thinking that my contract expires in a year anyway and it'd be worth hanging on for the redundancy money.
Thanks

You wouldn't be being made redundant though, you would be dismissed on the grounds of capability and therefore not entitled to any redundancy payout. Unless redundancy has already been discussed?