Advice regards duty of care

[hellywelly3]

What happens when you’re off work on sick leave and there is no contact from your employer? Been off since November.
I’ve been asked to complete 2 occupational health assessments. One in March and one in July. My employer has ignored all advice from occupational health. One recommendation was to make wellness calls to me. I had no contact, it’s like I’ve been completely forgotten.
Acas advised I wrote to them and point out that they have a duty of care and with a reply date, which I did. They’ve replied with “they were just about to contact me” and to let them know if I want a zoom call or inperson meeting.
I just want to know what do I say at the meeting? Do I ask them to explain why they’ve not been in contact?
My main thing is without any contact they’ve made going back to work really awkward.

How have they made your returning to work awkward?

Asking them to account for not being in contact would probably not be a fruitful approach. Regardless of what ACAS have told you, there is no requirement in law for them to contact you, so really, there is nothing to be gained in hashing over history.

If you are thinking that you want to return to work, then what would that require? How can the employer support your return? What steps are needed to let you do that? Those would be the things that the interview could focus on. If you are not ready to return yet, you could ask about how the employer feels about that and what, if any, next steps they or you will be taking. Given it is approaching a year that you have been off, most employers will now be considering termination processes - many would have started them already. So you perhaps need to get their views on whether that is something they are thinking about or not.

I think you need to let it go, they did not have to contact you and possibly thought it was better to leave you alone. If you are worried about things being awkward then demanding explanations on why they haven’t contacted you surely isn’t going to help. They are obviously a good employer else you would probably have had your contract ended by now. Why not try to be positive than go in looking for trouble.