Sickness and redundency

[Namechangedtodayforthis]

My workplace is going through a restructure and we are all potentially up for redundency. There are roles but we need to apply for them and compete against each other. Apart from the CV and interview process they have said they will also be judging us on criteria such as our attendance and we will be ranked on this.

I am feeling upset about this as I was off sick for a month last year with a very serious illness, I was in hospital for a week and returned to work as soon as I could manage to walk again. It was no fault of my own and I never take days sick otherwise. So the thought I will get a low score in this area and that could potentially mean redundency seems very unfair to me. Does anyone know if it is legal to use employees past health issues as a selection criteria in a redundency process? Or am I being unreasonable?

What has your union said about it? You should probably get legal advice

Not sure if this helps but as a manager of a team, your absence wouldn't bother me as there was a reason and a drs note etc. What I would be looking for is those who had lots of shorter days off self certificating just feeling unwell, those taking Mondays off multiple times etc which result in long weekends for example

I havent asked them, but thanks I will get in touch. I am quite shocked that it is considered to be an acceptable thing to do.

What law do you think they would be breaking? (Not intended to be snarky!)

I would have thought that an employer is entitled to take all sorts of things into consideration including attendance and performance. But remember, a one off absence relating to a particular illness would be regarded as less impactful to the organisation than a high frequency of shorter absences.

Sorry you’re going through this OP.

It is legal, in fact it is one of the criteria suggested by ACAS.

If your absence was linked to a disability it should not be included though.

Most employers would take more account of regular short illness (especially if there is a pattern of this) than lengthy one off illnesses though.

@Comeonmommy

Not sure if this helps but as a manager of a team, your absence wouldn't bother me as there was a reason and a drs note etc. What I would be looking for is those who had lots of shorter days off self certificating just feeling unwell, those taking Mondays off multiple times etc which result in long weekends for example

Thank you and I know my manager is exactly the same, but the way they are doing this with HR ranking us means that individual circumstances dont appear to be taken into account. So what happened to me would be considered the same as someone who took a day off every week for a year.

I dont know whether it was legal or not and I wanted to ask here to try and understand it better from all sides.

I did get referred to consultant care afterwards and put on long term medication which I am still on, but no I never considered it a disability.

It’s legal, but the Bradford Factor is generally the basis for this - a large number of one-day / short term absences are penalised more highly than a long-term absence like yours because they often indicate somebody who throws sickies when they feel a bit tired or hungover or feigns Monday and Friday sickness for a long weekend.

It’s legal unless the absence was sickness or disability related (or a few other exceptions)

It should not be the only criteria but it clearly isn’t in this case

We don’t use the Bradford Factor at work except when looking at sickness for redundancy selection because it focuses on the frequent short term absences far more than the one off long term for a genuine reason.

You’re entitled to ask about the selection criteria as part of consultation so ask them how they are weighting days / occurrences

If your absence was linked to a disability it should not be included though

Just to agree with the above as it was relevant when a family member went through this at the end of last year. He was on the other side of this. The team had to cut a set number of people and they ended up in the position that the people who were on maternity leave or extended sick leave (or just back on staged return) could not be considered for redundancy which only left 3 'unprotected' team members of whom 2 had to be cut. (Family member ended up being redeployed but it was a near thing.)

I'd be very surprised if your HR were not following the correct procedure with you but it's definitely worth checking. There are differences when posts are being cut and people need to re-apply v. a straight headcount reduction with unchanged posts/duties.

I hope it all works out well for you, OP.

@ComtesseDeSpair

It’s legal, but the Bradford Factor is generally the basis for this - a large number of one-day / short term absences are penalised more highly than a long-term absence like yours because they often indicate somebody who throws sickies when they feel a bit tired or hungover or feigns Monday and Friday sickness for a long weekend.

Thank you I never heard of that, I wonder if I should ask if they are using this formula as that would make for a very different picture!

My husband (who has terminal cancer so is legally disabled) is currently going through this at the min. We get to know the outcome on Friday

I think if they are using something like the Bradford factor, it won't impact you much. Unsing the Bradford scale, many shorter absences will give you a far worse score than one long one.

If I look at my workplace, some people take really the piss. Regularly off sick on a Monday, staying off with every sniffle whilst others come in when they are not 100% or stay only off when they are seriously unwell.

Multiple short absences impact most businesses far more and I think it is fair to take work ethic in that sense into account but I wouldn't worry much with your background, OP.

Thanks everyone, I am hopeful from this that the number of absences is of more importance than the length of time if that make sense. My one long absence being less important than say 10 short ones. Fingers crossed anyway and thank you for your wisdom.

I believe disability and sex (m/f type) related illnesses can’t be counted. But yep, if it comes down to the wire then they will
Use absences as a way to decide..... it’s not going to be up to your manager if HR are involved I do t think... I’ve been through this several times. There’s usually a way around it if your smart and do your research....start checking your workplace handbook and contract ...

Same criteria as when my company made us redundant and we had to apply to what jobs there were.

Legal unless the absence is maternity/pregnancy or disability-related. The ACAS website sets this out very well if you want to read it from both the employer and employee perspective.

Also worth making sure that they have your recent absence recorded accurately (i.e. correct number of days, not including any you took as holiday etc.)

But if you are on long term medication then you MUST have a disability. Unless it’s paraceatamol?!

If you need meds to help or manage it, then it’s a disability

But if you are on long term medication then you MUST have a disability. Unless it’s paraceatamol?!

I think you should read up how disability is defined.... being on longterm medication is not a criteria..

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince

But if you are on long term medication then you MUST have a disability. Unless it’s paraceatamol?!

If you need meds to help or manage it, then it’s a disability

No, that's not the definition of disability.

I get ‘Access to Work’ for disabilities

I’m on long term medication to manage my disability. I’ve got a fairly good idea about what counts as a disability.

If something requires long term medication, then it must be having some impact on her

if something requires long term medication, then it must be having some impact on her

plenty of people are on regular meds to avoid certain conditions impacting them. It doesn't mean that their condition has a significant impact on their daily lives other than having to remember to pop a pill every morning.

Have a read up how it is defined under the Equality Act 2010