Employee Sickness and Fitness for Work

Content

• The Law on Recruitment
  • How do you form a contract?
  • Conditional offers
  • Medical assessment by non-medical personnel
  • What is confidential?
  • What do managers need to know?
  • The implications of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995
  • 'Lying' on engagement
  • When is a medical examination necessary?
  • The purpose of medical assessments
  • Assessing fitness for work
  • Medical standards
  • Legal duty of care
  • Breach of human rights?
  • Summary
• Assessing Health Whilst in Employment
  • Health surveillance
  • Warnings
  • Examinations and assessments when at work and off sick
  • Medical reports
  • Summary
• Short-Term, Persistent Absence
  • Authorised absence
  • Categories of sickness absence
  • Importance of following fair procedures
  • Procedure for short-term, persistent, intermittent absenteeism
  • Obtain medical evidence
  • Commercial factors
  • Warnings
  • Dramatically improved attendance
  • Unreliability
  • Reliability
  • Opportunity to appeal
  • Fair reason for dismissal - Some Other Substantial Reason (SOSR)
  • The nature of absence control policies
  • Concern about publishing 'acceptable levels'
  • Customised self certificates
  • Genuine absences caused by genuine sicknesses are SOSR
  • Appropriate penalties
  • Letters to employees
  • Status of medical statements (MED 3)
  • General guidance to GPs about the giving of medical statements
  • MED 3s, MED 5s and MED 6s
  • Absence control policy - short-term, intermittent, persistent
  • absenteeism: Communication to staff
  • Dealing with the malingerer
  • Summary
• Long-Term or Acute Sickness Absence
  • Long-term or chronic sickness cases
  • Underlying medical condition
  • Obtaining a medical report
  • Human rights issues
  • Consult the employee and allow an independent report
  • where relevant - this takes the place of warnings
  • Consultation is essential in the normal case
  • The employer is expected to keep in personal touch
  • Not all duties are suspended when off sick
  • Employers are not expected to accept a
  • medical report without question
  • The role of the medical expert - disability cases
  • Failure by a doctor to investigate the nature of the illness
  • Occupational Health Adviser versus Specialist
  • A third medical opinion
  • New medical evidence
  • Alternative employment
  • Frustration of contract
  • Permanent Health Insurance (PHI) terms in a contract
  • Compensation reduced for contributory fault
  • Absence without permission
  • Personal injury claims and PHI
  • Waiting for medical reports
  • Conduct during sickness absence
  • The fraudulent malingerer
  • The human rights angle
  • Summary
• Work-Related Illness or Injury
  • Concerns for employers
  • Work Related Upper Limb Disorders (WRULDS)
  • Duty to warn and train
  • Warnings
  • What makes an employer guilty of negligence?
  • The Court's views on work-related injuries
  • The 'egg shell skull' principle
  • Some prescribed diseases
  • Stress and mental illness
  • Alcohol and drug abuse
  • Summary
• Disability Discrimination
• - Latest Law and Case Law
  • Meaning of 'disabled'
  • How do the tribunals determine whether someone
  • is 'disabled' within the means of the Act?
  • Employer's knowledge of the disability
  • What do employers need to know?
  • Justification in refusing to employ
  • What is 'discrimination' under the Act ?
  • Correct comparison
  • Justification defence
  • Making reasonable adjustments
  • The role of the medical expert
  • Some practical advice
  • Guidance for a policy
  • Summary
• Medical Ethics
  • Why is the duty of confidence so vital?
  • The law and medical ethics
  • Regulatory bodies
  • Professional codes
  • Occupational physicians and nurses
  • Confidentiality clauses in contracts/manuals
  • What is 'disclosure'?
  • Exceptions to the rule of confidentiality
  • Informed consent
  • Consent can be ordered by the Courts
  • Defining 'confidential' information
  • Disclosure without informed consent
  • Difficult ethical issues
  • Unauthorised disclosure can also lead to libel action
  • Data protection
  • Alcohol and drug testing - the legal implications
  • Testing for HIV
  • Other forms of testing
  • Summary
  • Useful websites and guidance
• Appendices
  • Appendix 1: Data Protection Act 1998
  • Appendix 2: Medical consent form
  • Appendix 3: Sickness absence model letters
  • Appendix 4: Long-term absence letters and policies
  • Appendix 5: Medical questionnaire for WRULDS
  • Appendix 6: Alcohol and drug testing policy
  • Appendix 7: Draft policy on controlled (illicit) substances
  • Appendix 8: Confidentiality clause example
  • Appendix 9: List of cases