Long term sickness - scared I will lose my job

[user853081]

I have been off sick from work since the beginning of March. I was diagnosed with cancer and have had surgery and treatment since. Im very lucky as the cancer is fairly easy to treat (hopefully no chemo or radiotherapy) but won't find out if my treatment has been successful until Dec/Jan.
I have had a date set in my mind for a while of returning to work at the beginning of September, and I told occ health this. Im now not sure im ready at all I feel so anxious about going back and im so scared I will end up going off sick again.
Like most businesses the company I have worked for are struggling with covid and jobs are been cut in some departments. Im so scared about losing my job and feel like im putting extra pressure on myself to return but at the same time worrying about returning, not been able to do my job to a high standard and losing my job because of that.
I just don't know what to do 😔

As you have cancer you are technically covered by the Disability Discrimination Act - this means it is illegal to fire you for some thing pertaining to your sickness (like sick leave). It covers you when in remission also

What PP said. They’d have a real struggle firing you.
Would you be having a gentle phased return?

@Noshowlomo yes occ health suggested a 6 week phased return to work, which will be great but just a worry after the 6 weeks that I won't be able to cope

Gosh do people just make shit up and post it.

Op, they can’t fire you just because you’re ill. They can move to capability termination if you’re unable to do your job. They can also include your role in those to be made redundant. They do not need to keep a position they no longer need because the person who does it is ill. However they need to follow normal process as the role is what’s made redundant not the person. They then look for alternate roles for the person and if not terminate their employment with redundancy pay where applicable.

The issue here is your anxiety which is fully understandable. Can you speak to your doctor about getting some help with that? Why do you feel you’ll be unable to do your job to the standard required? Is there a physical limitation ( sorry you’ve not expanded on what type of cancer, the treatmenrs etc so it‘S hard to guess if this is anxiety or physical).

Is there a way to stay off longer? Would you like this to be until January?

@CorianderLord

As you have cancer you are technically covered by the Disability Discrimination Act - this means it is illegal to fire you for some thing pertaining to your sickness (like sick leave). It covers you when in remission also

All of that is wrong. The DDA is no longer applicable and hasn't been for ten years. And it is certainly not "illegal" to fire someone for something pertaining to an illness, whether it is a disability or not.

An employer is obliged to make reasonable adjustments to enable a disabled person to return to work following illness/stay in their job or in an alternative job. They are not obliged to keep someone employed indefinitely where they can't do their job, or where there is no alternative job, or reasonable adjustments available.

The time when it may become reasonable for your employer to terminate your employment will depend on a number of factors, including their capacity to make adjustments, or to redeploy you or sustain your absence. This period is usually longer in a bigger business for obvious reasons - they usually have more capacity to manage with longer term absence, or cover it, or afford more expensive adjustments, or redeploy to other jobs.

I agree with Bluntness about the anxiety being an issue, but if you're involved with occupational health that's good, and being recommended a phased return. If you do go off again then there's no point pretending there's not a risk you'll end up out of work, so use that to motivate you to get some help with your anxiety as well as your physical condition. If your OH feels you can cope with a phased return that's really positive.

@Bluntness100 can they make my role redundant if other people working there are doing the same role?
Physically I get tired very quickly, I feel I can be fine one minute then it just hits me.
No I don't want to be off till January I would like to get back to some normality in my life but I just don't know when that will be.

@flowery

Occ health couldn't give an exact date on my return but felt that i should be able to return soon after my appointment with my specialist (Sept 1st), Im not sure beginning of sept is looking likely now.
Going off sick again is what worries me most, I might need further surgery 😢

I was diagnosed with cancer in March too. I've finished chemo and radio therapy and have my MRI scan early September to see if it's worked.

I'm due to go back to work end of September. I can have a year off on full pay but I want to see if I'm ready to resume "normal" life.

Work have said I will have a phased return. Is that possible for you? Like you I'm worried about feeling tired etc. It's all well and good feeling ok when I'm sat at home all day. But another thing when you are back at work.

My job is shift work based as well, which will be hard to get back into. I've not missed my 3am alarms!

[quote user853081]@Bluntness100 can they make my role redundant if other people working there are doing the same role?
Physically I get tired very quickly, I feel I can be fine one minute then it just hits me.
No I don't want to be off till January I would like to get back to some normality in my life but I just don't know when that will be.[/quote]
If there are other people doing the same role but they need to reduce the overall number of roles, they will use a pool approach. This means everyone carrying out this role is put into a pool and told they are at risk. The employer will come up with a mechanism for ranking / scoring each employee in the pool and those scoring lowest will be the ones made redundant.

As Florence says, that’s exactly how they do it.

They say ok five folks doing this, we need four. Let’s rank them

So on performance, potential, communication skills, tech knowledge etc, and allocate points, the bottom person is then the one whose job is then made redundant.

The company then has a period to find another suitable similar role, if this is not feasible, then the employment contract is terminated, with whatever redundancy pay is due.

@Bluntness100 and @Florencex

ok thank you both for explaining how it works, I have no idea of how these things work!

Why did I have to get ill during a pandemic, I couldn't of chosen a worse time to be off sick 😢

Op. If you’re otherwise a good employee, and, to be blunt, better than at least one other doing the same Job and your intent is to return I’d not be concerned.

Clearly if you’re unable to return then yes it is possible they manipulate it to ensure you’re the one who goes, because if they kept you on and you were not able to do the role, they’d be two down. It seems unlikely this is the case though.

Fingers crossed for your recovery, do what’s right for your health and go back when it’s right for you.

I am/ was in a similar position. I was diagnosed with cancer in February and had surgery in March. I had seven days post-operation off work, and quite a few extra days for all the hospital visits. At my company, only the post-operation days are sick leave. The many appointments at the hospital are labelled “absence”. I too am vulnerable to redundancy and as I am the only breadwinner- thanks, Covid - I felt I had to keep working. But my productivity is way down, and I’m still concerned that that can be used against me when it comes to redundancy.

Oh my apologies it seems I need to update my info. Sorry OP