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 was just thinking that this sort of thing is going to become a lot more frequent with young people having mortgages into their sixties and the pension age going up to 70.

I think it normally happens when sick pay is exhausted and there's no reasonable prospect of a return to work. I don't doubt for a second that employers abuse this.

I can see that it’s hard on the individual, but why should an employer pay a full time salary for years if someone can’t do their job? The employer also has to pay for someone to cover the role. This would mean a lot of companies going out of business.

Happens in a lot of places. But you dont know the circs sometimes its dismissal, sometimes its medical retirement.

After a year off they'll likely only be getting statuary sick pay anyway.

Most people now get critical illness cover over life insurance

More than you might think. Lots of employers of all sizes take out sickness insurance that enables them to pay employees who are in such a situation and also insurance to cover the eventual benefit on death (typically 4x salary). It’s a little known (and even less valued) but hugely valuable employee benefit. Millions of employees are covered by these benefits and most don’t know it, but fortunately their employer does and makes sure the payment is made.

Perfectly normal, I work in HR and have seen this done many a time. It's not the illness so much as the length of time off and likelihood of return

For a condition with no prospect of s return most employers consider a dismissal on health grounds after 6 months, private sector anyway. Public sector maybe a year.

I have seen dismissal for medical inefficiency which sounds awful, and the terminology isn't good, but it was for someone who didn't meet the criteria for ill health retirement (was only 50 so doctor couldn't say she wouldn't be able to work in future). She had been off 2.5 years, following a year of every reasonable adjustment, redeployment , WFH possible, and multiple medium tern absences in the 3 years prior, she was valuable and long serving, but her health just wouldn't allow her to continue whatever we did. Then IHR was explored, she'd had 10 months on full pay, 8 on half pay during the last period of absence, plus accrued holiday pay during that time, she got about 45-50k medical inefficiency payment plus 12 weeks paid notice. Her salary was around 28-30k.
The person in question had had a number of health issues over the years including problems with her lungs and recurrent chest infections which would often result in hospitalisation, she was being tested for COPD when the pandemic hit and it all stopped. The business always supported her , during COVID she WFH doing a lower paid admin role but kept her substantive salary, even though we were frontline keywork as her chest was too vulnerable. She contracted COVID twice in quick succession towards the end of the pandemic (not from work) and has never been the same since. She's been diagnosed with long COVID, but she had enduring lung problems before hand that now no one will investigate because they just say it's covid related. Very frustrating all round but she was happy with the work outcome and said she felt she'd been well supported.

But this advice is wrong. You can still be exited by an employer even if you are covered by the Equalities Act 2010 (i.e. have a disability).

Having a disability is protected but does not exclude an employee being managed under a ill health policy.

Sounds like he got a good old fashioned dose of Karma.

I nearly lost my job due to endometriosis and it was horrendous to be in so much pain, begging the NHS to push me up the list and hold on to my job all at the same time

Well - in that case if they didn’t follow process, it may have the effect of leading to a reversal of the burden of proof to prove discrimination, and the employer having to try and rebut that to prove they weren’t discriminatory

He’s still only going on what the employee says though, which may not be the whole story

This is utter crap re cancer. Most CS departments have a Working Through Cancer network.

https://civilservice.blog.gov.uk/working-through-cancer-network/

Agreed. My company has this and I will admit I didn’t really think about it, until I developed Parkinson’s, since when it has been a life saver quite frankly.

i’m not an employment law expert or anything like that. So take everything I say with a pinch of salt.

However my understanding is that while cancer is classed as a disability under the 2010:employment act, this only means employers have to make ‘reasonable adjustments’. This doesn’t mean that they have to keep someone in a job if they are unable to do it because of cancer / another disability.

That said, increasing numbers of people are living either cancer - it’s not the death sentence it was 20 years ago. Treat those people with kindness and respect and you will have the most grateful and dedicated employee ever.

Do the right thing.

Yes this can happen. So if the sick pay term has run out and the person can't return to work how can they continue to be employed. Usually forced retirement on the grounds of ill health.

No I worked somewhere that did exactly this only a few years ago. Paid them until they passed away and got the sickness benefits.

How selfish of you, their life has been severely impacted, just as yours has, but they are ill.

I used to work for a firm, who if you were too ill, and likely to need sick pay for a very long time, or through a terminal illness, they would let you leave on a pension that they would fund, permanently throughout your life.

An American firm.

They were quite compassionate in their terms and conditions, and looked after me, when I was ill during pregnancy, preferring me to spend the whole pregnancy at home, ( not working from home) rather than attend work, and paid me fully until my maternity pay kicked in.

One of my more distant relatives worked for the local authority and went off long term sick after a nervous breakdown. This was in the 1970s. They were entitled to 6 months full pay and 6 months half pay by the terms of their contract. They were then medically discharged and placed on a pension for the remainder of their life. They were aged about 45. They were also entitled to incapacity benefit. Eventually they recovered, retrained as an accountant and went self employed, However they kept their local government pension. I dont know if local government contracts are so generous nowadays. Probably not.

Yes, I’m on long term sick with cancer and currently undergoing chemo. My absence management policy clearly states that if after all the absence meetings etc, I am still unfit for work, I can be dismissed on the grounds of being medically unfit. If it’s looking like I’m heading in that direction, I will apply for IHR.

100% seek legal representation. I’ve just had a sick note for 3 weeks off due to an operation on my finger, which pales in comparison to going through cancer treatment.

I don't see why employers should be expected to pay people indefinitely who aren't capable of doing their job. At the end of the day personal responsibility has to come into play, as do the needs of the business.

it's not personal responsibility, it's what our benefit system was created for and what it must be used for.