Constructive dismissal

Weemunchkin

Hi there
Just wanting some advice or input into my situation. I'm a nurse employed by NHS trust and I've been off sick from 14th April 2016 . I have high blood pressure and fibromyalgia and in Feb this year my occy health saw me and their conclusion was no more ward work - that I could do a role with no manual handling and no physical tasks. Since then my trust HR have been looking for redeployment post. I'm now on zero pay and even though a job came up that was perfect - they went to public advertisement with full time role instead of giving me part time hours and advertising part time role. I can't survive on zero pay and feel like they are constructively dismissing me - as in who can live on zero pay. So effectiveness they are pushing me to look for employment elsewhere and have actually said to me to apply for outside jobs.

Does anyone have any advice. My union are involved but my rep is sick at present.

Kind regards

M

sangie595

Weemunchkin wrote: »

Hi there
Just wanting some advice or input into my situation. I'm a nurse employed by NHS trust and I've been off sick from 14th April 2016 . I have high blood pressure and fibromyalgia and in Feb this year my occy health saw me and their conclusion was no more ward work - that I could do a role with no manual handling and no physical tasks. Since then my trust HR have been looking for redeployment post. I'm now on zero pay and even though a job came up that was perfect - they went to public advertisement with full time role instead of giving me part time hours and advertising part time role. I can't survive on zero pay and feel like they are constructively dismissing me - as in who can live on zero pay. So effectiveness they are pushing me to look for employment elsewhere and have actually said to me to apply for outside jobs.

Does anyone have any advice. My union are involved but my rep is sick at present.

Kind regards

M

I'm afraid that just because you want a post to be part time because that suits you does not mean that they have to make it part-time. Did you raise the possibility of making the position part time with the employer and what explanation did they give for not being able to do so?

Just because you are not being paid does not mean that they are constructively dismissing you. You are still in employment, and have exhausted your contractual sick pay. That is all. Many people do not get contractual sick pay; and the vast majority get nowhere near as generous terms as the NHS, where their employers would have fairly dismissed them by now on capability grounds.

If your union rep is sick, you need to ask your union for another rep whilst they are off sick.

getmore4less

don't you start claiming ESA or whatever the current version of that is when SSP/contractual runs out?

Undervalued

Weemunchkin wrote: »

Hi there
Just wanting some advice or input into my situation. I'm a nurse employed by NHS trust and I've been off sick from 14th April 2016 . I have high blood pressure and fibromyalgia and in Feb this year my occy health saw me and their conclusion was no more ward work - that I could do a role with no manual handling and no physical tasks. Since then my trust HR have been looking for redeployment post. I'm now on zero pay and even though a job came up that was perfect - they went to public advertisement with full time role instead of giving me part time hours and advertising part time role. I can't survive on zero pay and feel like they are constructively dismissing me - as in who can live on zero pay. So effectiveness they are pushing me to look for employment elsewhere and have actually said to me to apply for outside jobs.

Does anyone have any advice. My union are involved but my rep is sick at present.

Kind regards

M

Far from it I'm afraid. With the vast majority of employers you would no longer have a job after a year of sickness absence.

If your illness amounts to a disability then your employer is obliged to make reasonable adjustments which might be of some limited help. Otherwise, as I suspect is the case if your union are not addressing this point, I fear they will take steps to terminate your employment very shortly.

If your health precludes you from returning to your original job then I think it is good advice to look elsewhere for something that you can manage.

I sympathise, not that it helps, but ultimately the employer needs a job doing and is not there to adapt its requirements to match an individuals needs or wants.

Andy_L

If they haven't found you an alternative post then what are your options for medical retirement?

Muscle750

My wife has gone throu something very similar and was off work for over 12 months they would not budge and let her go part time and was basically forced to resign. I think her union failed her but nobody will listen. She did not want to be medically retired as it would stop her getting a part time job with the county council with whom she was employed by.

Torry_Quine

getmore4less wrote: »

don't you start claiming ESA or whatever the current version of that is when SSP/contractual runs out?

Yes they should have applied for ESA from week 28 when the SSP ran out.

Undervalued

Muscle750 wrote: »

My wife has gone throu something very similar and was off work for over 12 months they would not budge and let her go part time and was basically forced to resign. I think her union failed her but nobody will listen. She did not want to be medically retired as it would stop her getting a part time job with the county council with whom she was employed by.

Probably because they didn't fail her. As Sangie explained earlier, there is no automatic right to reduce to part time. In a disability situation it might be a reasonable adjustment, depending on the employer's circumstances. Otherwise however the employer is quite entitled to say "do your full job or no job at all".

Tiddlywinks

Public sector budgets are being squeezed to the max. There just isn't the wriggle room there used to be... even in a larger organisation.

An employer is required to consider REASONABLE adjustments - they are not required to make adjustments which will negatively impact on their ability to provide a service.

If the service requires full time workers and / or it is not logistically possible to job share etc then they have every right to refuse.

They may want to help but can't practically make those changes to assist you. That's not constructive dismissal, it's just tight resourcing.

motorguy

Weemunchkin wrote: »

Hi there
Just wanting some advice or input into my situation. I'm a nurse employed by NHS trust and I've been off sick from 14th April 2016 . I have high blood pressure and fibromyalgia and in Feb this year my occy health saw me and their conclusion was no more ward work - that I could do a role with no manual handling and no physical tasks. Since then my trust HR have been looking for redeployment post. I'm now on zero pay and even though a job came up that was perfect - they went to public advertisement with full time role instead of giving me part time hours and advertising part time role. I can't survive on zero pay and feel like they are constructively dismissing me - as in who can live on zero pay. So effectiveness they are pushing me to look for employment elsewhere and have actually said to me to apply for outside jobs.

Does anyone have any advice. My union are involved but my rep is sick at present.

Kind regards

M

And therein lies the problem with the NHS....

sangie595

Undervalued wrote: »

Probably because they didn't fail her. As Sangie explained earlier, there is no automatic right to reduce to part time. In a disability situation it might be a reasonable adjustment, depending on the employer's circumstances. Otherwise however the employer is quite entitled to say "do your full job or no job at all".

Quite. We see a lot of "the union is useless" - even amongst members - when what they really mean is "I didn't get what I wanted".

The union can only work within the law, and the law does not exist to support workers in what they want. If an employer says no to something there is often only one alternative, and that is industrial action. Few employees have the stomach for that these days, so the union has no power. Whether you like unions or not, that is the simple truth. Unions are the members. If they are useless, then that is yourself you are talking about.