Ill Health / Sickness in the workplace

To deal effectively with employee ill-health and absence due to sickness requires employer sensitivity to the individual circumstances, an awareness of legal obligations, and a thorough understanding of the context in which the person is working.

This is particularly important in the case of those employees who may already have or have recently developed a disability. In such cases there is a legal obligation on employer to make reasonable, necessary adjustments in the workplace to enable the person to continue at work. Of course, this does not always happen and an employer will often take steps to bring an employee’s employment to an end if there is a perception that that employee is losing their ability to fulfil their particular employment role. Employers have to be careful how they manage sickness in the workplace though and employees are best advised to seek professional advice if they fear their position might be threatened because of ill-health.