Long term sick leave

Lollypop1974

Hello,
My partner had a bad accident last July.  He had surgery to his knee and he has been advised by the consultant that he will not be able to return to work due to chronic nerve pain in his leg.
He has worked at the same place for 9 years.  Would he be able to claim some sort of redundancy package for ill health? 

Thanks in advance.

antonic

Redundancy no , unless the role is being made redundant.
What`s more likely is they may choose to manage out of the job on capability grounds if they are not likely to return in a reasonable timescale and alternative employment cannot be found.
If that happens they *may* offer money to go.

Lollypop1974

Thank you ever so much for your advice 😉

Undervalued

Lollypop1974 said:

Hello,
My partner had a bad accident last July.  He had surgery to his knee and he has been advised by the consultant that he will not be able to return to work due to chronic nerve pain in his leg.
He has worked at the same place for 9 years.  Would he be able to claim some sort of redundancy package for ill health? 

Thanks in advance.

As has been said above, this is not a redundancy situation.

Some employers may have provision either via insurance or as an extension of their pension scheme for employees who are unable to continue working for heath reasons. He would need to study the terms of any pension or other employee benefit carefully.

Otherwise I am afraid, providing the firm follow proper procedure, he can be lawfully dismissed and his only entitlement would be to nine weeks notice pay plus any untaken holiday.

Some employers may choose to offer a little more than the legal minimum in exchange for a signed settlement agreement waiving any future claims.

Lollypop1974

Thank you very much for your advice 😉

Manxman_in_exile

Not being funny and I'm certainly not suggesting your husband is exaggerating this, but does what you have described as "chronic nerve pain" necessarily mean he can't return to his old job?

What I mean is I'm a bit surprised that any consultant would be able to say that based just on "chronic nerve pain" rather than some more serious underlying physical/mechanical problem with the knee.  Will returning to his old job make the "chronic nerve pain" worse, or more acute?  Is his consultant aware that saying "You won't be able to do your old job" means that your husband won't have a job?  Without understanding more the consultant's view doesn't seem very helpful to me.

(This post is intended to try to help the OP's husband - not criticise them.  I'm aware chronic pain can be severely debilitating.  But if the OP's husband has no choice but to live with the pain, they might also be able to work with it - depending on their job)).

oh_really

Op, pain management* can be effective in enabling him to potentially return to his role. Unless the consultant was an occupational health consultant their area of expertise may lie elsewhere.

He needs to seek specialist informed advice on how to progress.

What size is the employer and is he a union member, what role is he employed to do?

*pain management need not mean pain free.

Lollypop1974

He has seen various consultants and the leading chronic pain consultant in Wales,  who all confirm that his chronic nerve pain down all of his leg are from the operation that went wrong where the surgeon cut through his sural nerve.  He cannot walk now and this affects his mental health as he has never been out of work.  

oh_really

He may be better in the circumstances seeking legal advice.

Thrugelmir

Lollypop1974 said:

He cannot walk now and this affects his mental health as he has never been out of work.  

A change of career perhaps. Plenty of roles where walking wouldn't be a requirement. 

74jax

Is he in a wheelchair now? Are there any roles at his work that he could maybe be transferred too?

I don't mean this in a bad way but... Does he want to return to work? You mention his mental health, if I was once fit and able and in a year due to medical negligence unable to walk and in a wheelchair, I'm not sure I'd be wanting to return...... I would in the future but I think I'd be in a while heap of trying to adjust.

Are you looking into medical negligence or is it not that simple (sorry I know I'm going off very little info).