Broken foot - expected to work

andygb

KatrinaWaves wrote: »

Hardly. If the job doesnt involve 'sitting down and resting' then the boss doesnt have to allow her to sit down and rest. She can be off sick and get whatever sick pay she gets, or she can do her full job and get full pay. There does not have to be an inbetween light duties full pay job.

A boss doesn't get to decide about the details on a medical certificate, that is for the GP to decide.
If someone has a fractured foot, then only an unreasonable/nasty boss woulod expect them to stand up all day.

spadoosh

She can solve this with giving her employer a fit note that dictates what duties she can be expected to do, if any.

Im guessing shes trying to minimise wage loss by working instead of getting SSP. If shes disregarded the fit note, and is working despite advice saying she shouldnt then there is no onus on the employer to mitigate her workload.

Worth noting that should she use the fit note, she will be entitled to any holiday days taken whilst she was off sick. Ie you cant be sick (in receipt of sick pay) and on holiday, its one or the other.

Undervalued

andygb wrote: »

A boss doesn't get to decide about the details on a medical certificate, that is for the GP to decide.
If someone has a fractured foot, then only an unreasonable/nasty boss woulod expect them to stand up all day.

Not really.

The doctor's "fit note" can suggest what duties the employee is fit enough to carry out and / or any adjustments that would be necessary.

However it is entirely up to the employer whether to accommodate this. The employer is quite entitled to say "do your full normal job or stay off sick".

Whether the employer is being "unreasonable or nasty" is a matter of opinion but that is the legal situation.

This is different from a disability situation where the employer is legally obliged to make "reasonable adjustments".

KatrinaWaves

andygb wrote: »

A boss doesn't get to decide about the details on a medical certificate, that is for the GP to decide.
If someone has a fractured foot, then only an unreasonable/nasty boss woulod expect them to stand up all day.

The GP also does not get to decide what the employer has to let them do!

if someone needs rest with a fractured foot, only a silly person would want to be going to work... oh, exactly as Spadoosh says, they want to mitigate their losses, get full pay, but also be allowed recuperation time. You are not entitled to both.

shortcrust

spadoosh wrote: »

She can solve this with giving her employer a fit note that dictates what duties she can be expected to do, if any.

Im guessing shes trying to minimise wage loss by working instead of getting SSP. If shes disregarded the fit note, and is working despite advice saying she shouldnt then there is no onus on the employer to mitigate her workload.

Worth noting that should she use the fit note, she will be entitled to any holiday days taken whilst she was off sick. Ie you cant be sick (in receipt of sick pay) and on holiday, its one or the other.

It sounds to me like this is the situation too. I suspect the employer has actually said something like "don't come back until you're well enough to do your job", rather than "come back now and stand on your fractured foot for several hours cos we like to see our employees suffer!".