Exercises in short term and long term sickness absence Pauline Wilson and Andrew Macmillan 6 Novembe

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Exercises in short term and long term sickness
absencePauline Wilson and Andrew Macmillan6
November 2008
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Objectives.

• How to deal more confidently with issues
• What procedures must be followed
• What pitfalls to avoid

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Do you have an absence problem?
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Step 1 collate information

• Employees name
• where they can be contacted
• date of the first day of absence
• cause of absence
• whether the injury or illness is considered to be
  work-related
• working days absent (updated regularly)
• date the employee was last contacted and the
  outcome
• expected length of absence, if known
• return-to-work date
• type injury or illness short-term, acute,
  musculo-skeletal, stress related
• long-term or chronic illness

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But beware! Data protection!

• Data Protection Act 1998
• Covers collection, use and storage of information
  about workers.
• Staff should know what information about their
  health is being collected and why.
• Keep information about workers health in a
  secure place
• Assessment of fitness for work should normally be
  left to a suitably qualified health professional
• Managers should not have access to more
  information about a workers health than is
  necessary. In most cases this can be limited to
  whether they are fit to work or not.

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Step 2 review the information collected

• How often are individuals absent and why?
• Are there any problem areas within teams,
  departments or locations?
• What is the balance between short term recurrent
  absence and long term absence?
• Is a small part of the workforce responsible for
  a large part of the overall absence?
• Are there any patterns of absence?
• Dont rely solely on statistics - follow up by
  talking to managers and staff

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Step 3 consider the potential causes of absence

• Medical factors
• Injuries at work
• Lifestyle factors
• Persistent or recurrent conditions
• Family, carer or other domestic commitments
• Travel difficulties
• Workload and stress
• Organisation and team size
• Company sick pay
• Organisational culture or climate.

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So how do you develop an absence strategy?

• Start with an absence policy which includes
• the expected standards of attendance
• management commitment
• procedures for managing absence
• procedures for investigating and managing
  problem absence.

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Support the policy with other initiatives..

• Rigorous monitoring
• Appraisals
• Incentives?
• Sick pay
• Flexible working?
• Occupational health

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Managing short term absence

• in order to show both the employee concerned,
  and other employees, that absence is regarded as
  a serious matter and may result in dismissal, it
  is very important that persistent absence is
  dealt with promptly, firmly and consistently
• ACAS

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• Measures commonly used
• Notification procedure
• Absence trigger points
• Return-to-work interviews
• Attendance bonuses
• First day medical certificate

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• The Bradford Factor
• S X S X D Bradford points score
• S number of occasions of absence
• D total number of days absence
• Over last 52 weeks (commonly)

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• S X S X D Bradford points score
• 1 absence of 14 days 14 points
• (1 X 1 X 14)
• 7 absences of 2 days each 686 points
• (7 X 7 X 14)
• 14 absences of 1 day each 2,744 points
• (14 X 14 X 14)

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• Return to work interviews
• Welcome back
• Well enough to be at work?
• Cause of the absence
• Disability?
• Review absence record
• Patterns or areas of concern
• Any underlying causes
• Steps to reduce likelihood of future absence

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When can an employer say enough is enough?

• Nature of the illness
• Likelihood of it or another illness recurring
• Length of absences
• Length of spaces of good health
• Need of the employer for the work done by the
  particular employee
• The impact of absences on others who work with
  the employee
• Compliance with company policy
• Assessment of the individuals position
• The extent to which the difficulty of the
  position has been made clear to the employee

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General considerations.

• Consultation with the employee
• Fair review of the attendance record and reasons
  for absence
• Is there a risk of an underlying medical
  condition or are the symptoms and complaints
  transient?
• If underlying condition, treat as long term
  illness
• Is there reason to suspect the illness is not
  genuine?

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Medical investigation

• Is it necessary?
• Yes where risk of underlying illness
• No where no risk (i.e. transient unconnected
  symptoms and conditions)
• If in doubt, investigate

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What procedure needs to be followed?

• Compliance with standard DDP/disciplinary
  procedure
• Give appropriate warnings of dismissal if no
  improvement
• Need to give opportunity to comment on medical
  advice and make representations
• Alternative employment
• Reasonable adjustments

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Managing long term sickness

• Communication is the key
• Requires discussion at the start of the illness
  and periodically throughout
• Personal contact between the employer and
  employee?
• Consideration of the employees opinions
• Consideration of alternative employment

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What procedure needs to be followed?

• Compliance with standard DDP/disciplinary
  procedure
• Need to give opportunity to comment on medical
  advice and make representations
• Consider alternative employment
• Consider reasonable adjustments
• Permanent Health Insurance

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Medical investigation

• Will always be required before any dismissal
• Needs all the available information before any
  decision to dismiss is made
• Info from GP or consultant?
• Conflicting medical reports
• Refusal to undergo medical examination

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Medical records

• The Access to Medical Records Act
• When does it apply?
• What to do if consent is refused

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The Disability Discrimination Act

• What is a disability?
• A person has a disability if he has a physical
  or mental impairment which has a substantial and
  long term adverse effect on his ability to carry
  out normal day-to-day activities

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Impairment

• Physical impairment always includes
• Multiple sclerosis
• HIV infection
• All cancers
• Mental impairment can include
• Anxiety
• Stress
• Depression
• Learning disabilities

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Some conditions are excluded

• A tendency to set fires
• A tendency to steal
• A tendency to physical or sexual abuse of others
• Exhibitionism
• Voyeurism
• Hay fever
• Addiction to alcohol, nicotine or any other
  substance?

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Effect

• The impairment must have a substantial and
  adverse effect
• Substantial means more than minor or trivial
• Focus is on what the worker cannot do rather than
  what they can do
• cumulative effects
• Beneficial effect of medical treatment, use of
  prostheses or aids is disregarded

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Long Term

• An impairment has a long term effect if at the
  date of the alleged discriminatory act, it
• Has lasted at least 12 months or
• Is likely (i.e. it is more probable than not)
  to last
• at least 12 months
• for the rest of the workers life

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Normal Day to Day Activities

• To count as a disability, the impairment must
  affect one of the following activities
• Mobility
• Manual dexterity
• Physical co-ordination
• Continence
• Ability to lift, carry or otherwise move
  everyday objects
• Speech, hearing or eyesight
• Memory or ability to concentrate, learn or
  understand
• Perception of the risk of physical danger

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Reasonable adjustments

• The duty applies throughout employment to
• a provision, criterion or practice applied by or
  on behalf of the employer or
• any physical features of the premises
• which place a disabled person at a substantial
  disadvantage compared with non-disabled people

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Examples of adjustments

• Adjustments to premises
• Reallocating duties
• Transferring to fill an existing vacancy
• Altering working hours or training
• Assigning to a different place of work or
  training
• Allowing time off for rehabilitation, assessment
  or treatment

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Examples of adjustments (continued)

• Appropriate training or mentoring
• Acquiring or modifying equipment
• Modifying instructions/reference manuals
• Modifying procedures for testing or assessment
• Providing a reader or interpreter
• Providing supervision or other support
• Extending sick pay

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What is reasonable depends on

• The effectiveness of the step in preventing
  disadvantage
• The practicability of the step
• The financial and other costs
• Extent of any disruption
• Impact on other workers
• The employers financial and other resources
• If financial assistance available
• The value of the workers experience and
  expertise
• The nature of the undertaking and
  size/administrative resources

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Procedural considerations

• Statutory dismissal procedures
• Automatic unfair dismissal
• Enhanced awards
• Step 1 written invitation
• Step 2 meeting
• Step 3 right of appeal

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What to do next.

• Collate information (beware data protection)
• Look for trends or patterns
• Look for common causes
• Be proactive medical cover/EAP etc
• Adopt an absence policy and tell everyone about
  it
• Use back to work interviews

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and before you dismiss someone

• Short term absence
• Use of warnings
• Medical reports?
• Balance fairness to employee with business issues
  
• Comply statutory dismissal procedures
• Long term absence
• Medical reports
• Consider reasonable adjustments
• Balance fairness to employee with business issues
• Comply statutory dismissal procedures

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Andrew Macmillan

• HBJ Gateley Wareing
• City Gate East
• Tollhouse Hill
• Nottingham
• NG15FS
• AMacmillan_at_hbj-gw.com
• 0115 9838242

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Pauline Wilson

• ACAS
• Lancaster House
• 10 Sherwood Rise
• Nottingham
• NG7 6JE
• Pwilson_at_acas.org.uk
• 0115 9246504

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Exercises in short term and long term sickness
absencePauline Wilson and Andrew Macmillan6
November 2008