Altered hours/duties due to health issues and pay

veryconfused20

My GP has advised reduced hours and amended duties for a temporary, but potentially long term (up to 12 month) period due to an ongoing health issue following maternity leave. My question is, can I expect my employer to force me to amend my contract to be a part time employee as a result, or should I continue to be employed full time? 

TheSpiddalKid

It may be helpful to clarify if you are asking about your pay or your hours for this period of time.
Are you hoping to reduce your hours but not your pay? Or alternatively, are you anticipating that you will reduce your hours and pay and are asking if this can be temporary and if you can increase your hours again later on?

If you're looking to protect your pay at the FT rate but work PT then this may be difficult to justify, especially for 12 months. if your medical condition is likely to last 12 months then it likely may come within the definition of being a disability, in which case an employer has to make reasonable adjustments. The key word here is to act reasonably in making the adjustments but it is permitted to consider the relative cost of any adjustment.  

if you're looking to protect your contracted hours but accept that you may not be able to protect your pay for the time you are working reduced hours then this may be more probable, there is even the right to make a short-term flexible working request but this may not be necessary if the change is made on a temporary basis as a reasonable adjustment 

Savvy_Sue

does the Fit Note explicitly recommend you reducing your hours? 

I cannot see an employer continuing to pay you as a full-time employee if you are working part-time for up to 12 months. Whether they should force a contract amendment on you is another matter: a temporary change might be enough.  

But bear in mind the employer is not obliged to meet the recommendations of the fit note. 

Are you in a union? Their support could be useful. 

veryconfused20

I was off sick for much of my later pregnancy, however was keen to do what duties I could in order to not be forced to commence maternity leave early. My employer offered me reduced hours (and amended duties) for the final four weeks before my due date; I remained on full pay for this time and nothing contractually changed, presumably because it was only for a few weeks. 

I am due back next month and am awaiting a meeting with my employer to discuss my plans. I had always intended (and still do) to return to work as normal, however due to ongoing issues throughout my maternity leave, I am not physically capable of performing my usual role safely. There is no reason to believe this incapacity is permanent, but I can't provide a timescale for when I'll be able to return to normal duties (my role requires quite demanding manual handling and I have lost and are continuing to lose a significant amount of weight unintentionally).

There's no point in lying and saying I wouldn't like to prefer to remain on full pay particularly in the current climate, but I'm really just trying to gauge what I can or should expect as I am not familiar with long term sickness rights in a general context.

Your post was very helpful though, thank you @TheSpiddalKid.

Undervalued

veryconfused20 said:

My GP has advised reduced hours and amended duties for a temporary, but potentially long term (up to 12 month) period due to an ongoing health issue following maternity leave. My question is, can I expect my employer to force me to amend my contract to be a part time employee as a result, or should I continue to be employed full time? 

They could possibly do that.

It is important to understand that unless your illness amounts to a disability (for employment law purposes) the employer does not have to follow the GP's suggestions. That is not to say they won't, they may well, but they could say "do you full job or stay off sick until you can". Equally they may propose alternative arrangements for you to consider.

veryconfused20

Undervalued said:

veryconfused20 said:

My GP has advised reduced hours and amended duties for a temporary, but potentially long term (up to 12 month) period due to an ongoing health issue following maternity leave. My question is, can I expect my employer to force me to amend my contract to be a part time employee as a result, or should I continue to be employed full time? 

They could possibly do that.

It is important to understand that unless your illness amounts to a disability (for employment law purposes) the employer does not have to follow the GP's suggestions. That is not to say they won't, they may well, but they could say "do you full job or stay off sick until you can". Equally they may propose alternative arrangements for you to consider.

Thank you for replying. 

I don't know the details surrounding what constitutes as a disability, but I'd guess what I'm experiencing wouldn't. That said, I work under a professional registration and feel like I would not only be putting myself at risk but other people too, and so if my employer were unable/unwilling to make alterations, I would stay off entirely to mitigate risk. I am keen to avoid this however as I would prefer to fill some sort of role even if it were not my usual as I don't feel my state of health makes me incapable of doing -any- kind of work.

Savvy_Sue

veryconfused20 said:

I was off sick for much of my later pregnancy, however was keen to do what duties I could in order to not be forced to commence maternity leave early. My employer offered me reduced hours (and amended duties) for the final four weeks before my due date; I remained on full pay for this time and nothing contractually changed, presumably because it was only for a few weeks. 

I think that would be normal while you are on maternity leave - and once you return to work, you're only protected if you return to your previous terms, otherwise your contract can be changed. 

TELLIT01

The OP needs to discuss the situation with the employer in the first instance.  If they are unhappy with the outcome it may be worth coming back here to see what options may be available to them.  It would be unusual for reduced hours to be agreed, long term, without an accompanying reduction in pay.

elsien

The employer doesn’t have to follow the GP suggestions anyway. It is more usual for occupational health to be involved to properly assess what you can safely do, particularly in larger organisations. 

What sort of reduction in hours are you considering? 

DullGreyGuy

Its really unclear from the posts what you're asking for... to use some easy numbers... if your old hours were 40 hours a week but you are now asking to only work 30 hours are you really asking to still be paid for 40 hours?

You say your job also needs altering... does that in any way move the job to a more technical or equiv end which may therefore justify the higher pay as you are stripping away the lower skill physical aspect? Would the full time role represent a different split?

You may be able to avoid the contract officially moving to a part time one but it'd be exceptionally generous for them not to pro-rata the monies and likely to cause some tension in the department when others find you've had what is effectively a substantial pay rise.

veryconfused20

TELLIT01 said:

The OP needs to discuss the situation with the employer in the first instance.  If they are unhappy with the outcome it may be worth coming back here to see what options may be available to them.  It would be unusual for reduced hours to be agreed, long term, without an accompanying reduction in pay.

The meeting I'm due to have is to agree the details regarding my return. Given the time frame between the meeting and the end of my maternity leave, my anticipation is that a decision will need to be made during that meeting rather than a second one being scheduled for me then to ponder upon, etc. That's why I was seeking opinion regarding what my employer might be likely to do.