Long-term sickness

[create]

I have a colleague (and good friend) who has done nearly 30 years with our large company.

He hates the job and has done for several years, but has stayed hoping for a good redundancy package (which do come up every so often)

He has recently been suffering with high blood pressure and has managed to persuade his doctor to sign him off for 3 weeks. He's hoping that the doctor will give him more time after this. Stress of the job may be contributing, but IMO his lifestyle/diet etc are likely to be just as much at fault.

Anyway, he thinks that if he can get enough sick-leave, the company will give him a package to leave. This has happened for some of our colleagues in the past (more than 10 years ago) but I think that actually, if the company can show he's not fit to work, they can get rid of him without a pay-off and he's playing a dangerous game.

In the past under-performers have also been given packages to leave, but the company has recently been taking a much harder line and using disciplinary proceedures to get rid of these people.

He's very good at the job and no-one would want to lose him. For his own sake, he should hae left ages ago, but is nervous of change/lacks confidence.

Does anyone know what the true position is with long-term sickness?

Not an expert but I believe if he is off long term (this would be around 6-12 months in my company) he could be dismissed for capability/ill health. It's basically a no blame dismissal but he would be unlikely to be given the option of a redundancy packege if this process had begun.
I think he needs to know that this might be the likeliest outcome.

Difficult for you to help other than try to get him to understand this.

Also, how long will he be paid a full wage while sick. SSP is not a lot of money.

Yes, again that's discretionary and can be up to 12 months for long servers, but is at the discretion of the company and a a hard line has been taken in recent years, where in the past, much more effort was made to be decent.

I know this, because my role has meant I've sat on some local boards over the last 2 years and heard lots of very confidential information - my friend is not so aware

If someone is not fit for work nor likely to be for the foreseeable future it's perfectly possible to dismiss them on capabity grounds without any kind if expensive 'package'. If your employer wants him to leave they'll probably not pay any more sick pay than they are required to do, get occupational health advice as to anything they can do to facilitate his return, then if it becomes clear that's not realistic eventually they can terminate.

If they have good HR, take good advice and take all reasonable steps, no need to be making any payouts really.

Thanks flowery, that's what I thought really, but he's convinced it's going to work out for him (wishful thinking) I do know other in the organisation have come to these sort of arrangements many years ago, but can't see it happening now. Also, no-one is going to want him to leave (unless he's really not turning up for work, I suppose) as he's very much relied upon in his role

High blood pressure is not really grounds fir being off work imo-doubt gp will sign off for longer than necessary to bring under control - unless he is going to go down the 'stress' route which I don't think will do him any favours if he ever wants to work again....

My feelings exactly elliot. He's being really stubborn and won't listen though and of course it's not really any of my business, but he's been a good friend to me in some difficult work situations over the years.

As Elliot says - high blood pressure won't stretch out to long term sickness alone. They'll probably look at reduced hours for him and a reduced role.

Companies aren't making big payouts currently. I think most companies are going for the minimum. Sounds like he's desperate.