Employer contacting off sick employee. Allowed?

LittleMax

butterfly72 wrote: »

Just done a bit of googling.... apparently no the employer should not contact the employee except for the purposes given... i.e. facilitate return.. http://www.landaulaw.co.uk/stress-at-work/

Err, what about the line before it that says, "Should my employer be making contact with me if I am signed off work because of my stress?
Such contact can amount to fair and appropriate management by your employer, and is often beneficial to you too so that you don’t have the feeling of being isolated or ignored."

John-K wrote: »

For god’s sake, that is from a firm of ambulance chasing lawyers, of course they are going to spin it to get people lining up for a compo claim.

Is this the aim here, your friend wants a bit of compo?

They don't even need to spin it people pick and choose the bits that suit!

AstroTurtle

They could probably go down the route of dismissal based on capacity if they really wanted to get rid of her.


The colleague ringing about "Another job" but "Acting on behalf of the boss" seems more long winded and unnecessary if they REALLY wanted to dismiss her.




Long-term sick

With long-term sickness absence, the employer still needs to consider the employee's right to put forward their case and balance that against the organisation's needs to carry out the procedure without unreasonable delay.
Although an employee may be off sick, he or she may still be able to attend a disciplinary hearing - and employers should consider making reasonable adjustments to facilitate this. This could include visiting the employee at home or meeting in a neutral venue.
If the hearing can't be postponed until the employee is well enough to attend, then the employer can, in exceptional circumstances, go ahead with the hearing in the employee's absence.

getmore4less

butterfly72 wrote: »

Asking on behalf of a friend.

So my friend was off sick from work for 4 months due to work related stress and anxiety. This was caused by unfounded accusations pointed at her by her boss which have since been withdrawn.

During her time off she was messaged by a colleague with details of a job in a different company. The colleague was acting on behalf of the boss, even tho she said she'd heard of the job 'on the grapevine'. There is a witness to this. Her question is..is an employer allowed to contact a member of staff who is off sick with details about a job in another company?

Thanks.

Looks like she is now back in work.

What was actually witnessed?

Was the "hey your friend could do this job at xxx" before or after the allegation was withdrawn.

The person that sent the message is the one that should have put in a grievance or just said no I am not telling them.
(a smart boss would not have told them to send a message but just planted a seed).

ReadingTim

The colleague may have been acting on behalf of the boss, but the boss was probably acting in a personal capacity, rather than on behalf of the company - a boss can be a person too, you know, with all the good and bad that entails, and can be separate from 'the company', just as an employee isn't the same as 'the company'.

If the company wanted to get rid of her, they'd take direct action, not drop silly little hints like this.

TBagpuss

OP, it sounds as though your friend wasn't contacted by her employer. She was contacted by one of her colleagues.

As others have said, I think she would struggle to satisfy anyone that it was 'on behalf of' the boss, - from what you say, the message didn't say that, and you'd need both the person who sent the message and the witness to be willing to say that it was an instruction from the boss. And even then, in isolation it probably wouldn't be enough to result in a successful claim.