Sickness

Businesses lose thousands of pounds each year through employee absence due to sickness. We can help you formulate an approach towards staff sickness that is designed to minimise absences.

We can advise you about the best course of action to follow with employees who take frequent short term sickness, where you suspect that it is a misconduct issue. We can also assist in cases of long term sickness absence where there are capability issues and possibly personal injury and/or disability discrimination implications.

Stress at Work

From 5 December 2005 the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 ends the requirement that mental illnesses be “clinically well recognised” to fall within the definition of a disability for the purpose of disability discrimination legislation. This will increase the likelihood that general medical conditions, such as stress, depression and anxiety, will qualify as a disability.

We can advise employers in respect of their legal obligations when an employee suffers from stress and can provide practical guidance on how best to minimise their exposure to personal injury, disability discrimination and unfair dismissal claims.

Disability

Recent developments in disability legislation necessitate caution when situations arise concerning disability and long-term sickness absence. We can advise you on your legal obligations in these circumstances and provide practical guidance as to how to comply. We also have considerable experience of defending disability discrimination claims and work closely in conjunction with our dispute resolution team where there are personal injury implications.

For further advice contact our team direct or talk to your usual contact in the firm.