Can you be sacked for being signed off?

[GandalfTheGoat]

Hi

My question is as the title states - does anyone know or have any info please?

For reference, the person has been working for there for over 2 years and does not have a long record of sick days.

They have been signed off for two weeks and possibly will be for longer - The signing off is because of an inflammation of the liver and possibly a stomach ulcer - this has not been an issue at work before.

We have heard through a colleague that work aren't happy that the person is signed off and there have been many discussions about them so we are slightly concerned that they may try and sack them. There have been no previous warnings or disciplinary action.

Any advice or info would be much appreciated.

Depends what the job contract says - if the contract doesn't protect you, yes, you can be sacked for being ill. Someone who knows more will be along, but that's the basics.

No. You can be dismissed if you have a long-term illness which is preventing you from carrying out your job properly, but your employer has an obligation first to try and work with you to improve your performance.

It’s possible that in this case the employer may be being very pre-emptive and assuming this will turn into a longer term absence but they still can’t just dismiss on this assumption.

They can sack whoever they want to sack at any time. As a result of that you may well have a claim depending on the reason and the process followed.
However on the face of it one short term sickness absence would not on its own ordinarily be enough to dismiss fairly this the sacked person may well have the ability to pursue a claim.

Agree with Comtesse, it is possible to end someone's employment when they are off ill but it would normally be after following quite a long procedure so I doubt they are intending to do anything right now.

The other point that I'm going to raise is about any linked personal issues that may have contributed to the current illness and also impacted on performance at work before going off sick. That would make more sense if the employer is thinking about the future, as it does seem a little strange to be worrying after only a few weeks (or is it a really small company).

Is this your partner, OP? This 'colleague' who has given you this information, is there anything in it for them if your partner/whoever it is didn't work there anymore?

Thanks all for your replies.

Yes it's DP and a fairly small company.

The colleague is slightly senior to DP although DP is senior too, I'm not sure whether he'd have an agenda. Although the added stress over worrying isn't helping him to get better so isn't doing him any favours.

Hopefully the sickness won't be a long term problem although he hasn't improved yet. Nothing at work has contributed to the illness - he overdid the drinking and has now inflamed his liver. I'm his defence it had been five years so he got a bit carried away and is now paying the price. He physically can't do anything at home - not even lift DD as he has no strength.

Does the company not have a sickness policy which details how long an employee can be off sick and still get some pay. Usually when this runs out, a company will want to open up discussions about when the employee will or will not come back.

Yes they can dismiss employees but it’s unusual to jump the gun over sickness and it would be unreasonable. However, it’s best to give the employer a heads up on likely return to work and remain upbeat.