Colleague dismissed due to cancer

[user9102991]

My colleague was dismissed earlier this month due to a long term illness (cancer). She has been off for just over a year and is going through chemotherapy.
I've never worked anywhere before where someone has been dismissed due to ill health, does this happen in most work places?

I have seen it after 18 months absence in a small business.

Are you sure they were dismissed and not medically discharged? Not that it makes a difference I suppose.

Yes, under the Sickness Absence Policy of large employers.

It happens, yes.

Yes, people can be dismissed after a long-term sick absence, but there needs to be a fair process and they have to have exhausted other avenues before being moved to a capability dismissal (which presumably is what this is because the employee is no longer capable of doing their job).

CA has a good guide: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/dismissal/check-your-rights-if-youre-dismissed/if-your-employer-wants-to-dismiss-you-because-of-long-term-sickness/

I’ve never seen it happen.
I worked somewhere 20yrs ago that kept someone terminally ill employed (although they were off sick) they paid them fully and made sure his family got company death benefits.
doubt that would happen anywhere now

Yes, it’s legal provided the proper procedures are followed. I’m glad it didn’t happen to my dad though, they refused his early retirement request and kept him on the books on full pay while he was dying so he got death in service benefits.

I personally think this should be banned.
It’s inhumane.
at the moment it’s perfectly legal and doesn’t automatically qualify as disability discrimination - even if it does count as DD, sometimes this can be justified by employers.

In my dictatorship (!) every employer has insurance for staff and general misfortune, and they pay out for employees who are unlucky enough to be diagnosed with cancer or another life-limiting disease.

Yes I’ve known it…it’s tragic but in fairness to employers it’s unfair to expect them to pay full wages for that long or hold a job open which may be impacting on other employees own workloads and stresses. I’ve known several people who remained working during cancer - even at stage 4 most largely continued to work in a reduced capacity and treatment tended to be a few months at a time ….not a year?

Its made me feel anxious, I have had cancer myself and had 1 year off and then returned part time. I always worry about a possible recurrence and this just adds more stress to the situation.

It’s 30 years ago now but the Post Office did this to my mum at 53 once she had been diagnosed as terminal - they sent an occupational health nurse to the house out of the blue. She had worked there since she was 16 (apart from a break to have two kids). She lost most of her service benefits and had to go on invalidity benefit. She had only been off sick for four months.

I thought that if you had been diagnosed with cancer you had protections under the Equality Act 2010.

This is awful, I'm so sorry

I have a colleague who has been absent either long term or multiple short term absences for approximately 8-9 months of each year for the last five years. They accrue annual leave whilst off sick (7 weeks a year) and when back are always on a phased return of between 0-50% of normal workload.
Having to carry this person ( cover their work) has had a long term adverse impact on the whole rest of the team and the person is now increasing alienated from the team as a whole.
I wish this person would be dismissed on capability grounds as I feel it would do them and the team as a whole a favor. I doubt it will ever happen though and they will continue to receive nearly 50k a year for no more than 20% of the actual workload.

Parts of the civil service will put you on a warning for 7 days sick, and ramp up quickly from there. They don't give a stuff why you are sick.

I couldn’t work for a company that had ethics like that.

I work for the nhs and have stopped getting paid. It’s a horrible situation and drives my consultant mad. My job is still there. And when I go back I will still have cancer and will still be being treated for it but I will be getting a full time wage. I will be on a long phased return and I can’t imagine I will be in the same role. I just want to go back and be normal. My savings are nearly finished. As far as I’m aware cancer is protected and the nhs won’t be rushing to get rid of me.

DH was dismissed from the NHS after an accident. Not even a discussion about alternative roles.

This is why despite not having a spouse or kids I pay for both life assurance and critical illness cover. There is a lot of cancer in my family, I am now the age my mum was when she was terminal, and I live in fear of being diagnosed and having to worry about money if I am really ill, despite having death in service benefit of 2x my salary (so, £80k total) - I expect they would get rid of me before then.

That’s utterly awful - I’m so sorry.

An employer has to make reasonable adjustments if an employee has a disability, for instance hours, wfh. However even if either this the employee cannot work that they can go through the dismissal process. A good employer will do all they can but ultimately they need someone who can work.