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?

Its not selfish at all, its simply stating facts. This person has time off for pretty much anything and everything (‘upset tummy’ ‘migraines’ ‘vertigo’ ‘anxiety’ bereavement’ ) to name a small number. Where an average person might have a few days off this persons default is to go off for months. I myself live with a chronic, possibly life limiting health condition and occasionally have no choice but to be off sick for a week or two, but take a view that if it gets to a point where I’m perpetually absent I will do the decent thing and either resign or request (and hope I get) medical retirement).
its not selfish to not want to have to always work over my own designated workload to make someone else’s life easier!! They certainly don’t care about me!!

It never caused any complaints from parents or students.

A level and KS4 are prioritised in terms of teaching. Teachers were taken from KS3 and cover was supplied for KS3.

If it was long term then a full time supply teacher was brought in. Grades and student performance was never really affected.

Your school was clearly fortunate to have that flexibility and to be able to locate long term supply teachers. My local school has an ongoing struggle to recruit any maths teachers at all and lower year classes are often covered by nonspecialists for that reason already. Though for the cases I know long term supply wouldn’t work as the staff member would turn up for a few days every few weeks and you would have to assume they were back each time.

I know loads of pupils affected by this. Including impacting exam grades and university choices.

No schools can recruit maths teachers though.

But getting a long term supply is easy?

Not in Maths. The others are OK.

Yep.

My son is a child and the one who had cancer but this is why I lost my job.

He had 5 surgeries, relapsed after 4 months, chemo and was in hospital for 10 months.

Im sorry to hear about your son and that you lost your job. Cancer certainly sucks and affects just about every aspect of a persons life.

Understanding cancer and employment rights | Macmillan Cancer Support https://share.google/b5WK30zBM3QgvkGwS

This implies cancer is protected as a disability

It happened to one of my colleagues. I was shocked to be honest as I thought the civil service would be more sympathetic.

This happened to my friend very recently. Like a pp, from the moment she was diagnosed she was treated like she was lying. Her line manager and colleagues were horrible to her. Kept trying to ‘catch her out’.

Every time she had to book a day off for chemo, they told her it was inconvenient and tried to tell her to change her appointment.

When she was too ill to go in, she was harassed about when she’d be back and told how difficult she was making things for the rest of the team.

They tried to short cut procedures to sack her. She had to be very ‘on it’ in terms of knowing her rights, and got her union involved, to make sure proper procedure was followed.

The work situation added so much stress to an already horrific time. It really shouldn’t have been that way.

This wasn’t a small company either. No excuse.

Cancer is classed as a disability. The employers can't dismiss her. She now has a case for constructive dismissal as employers haven't met their responsibilities regarding the Equality Act. she would win as there is protection in the Equality Act. Contact the union, an employment lawyer, ACAS.

Yes that is the policy where I work. Recently seen it implemented with a colleague I used to work with.

It may not be as horrible as it first appears:

• the loss of the job because they're incapable of doing it for reasons of ill health is evidence supporting any claim they make on a critical illness policy and/or for Employment and Support Allowance.
• Relatedly, if they claim Universal Credit they may have been advised to let the employer dismiss them rather than resign

If you're worried your employer is being evil - join a trade union and start making plans to look elsewhere for work / try increasing your savings to give you some leeway if you leave in a hurry.

@Burntout01We have similar where I work- but almost 7 years. Always seems to be able return to work just before drop down to unpaid sick leave (so after almost a year). We’ve started putting a date in the calendar as to when the next period will be as it’s so obvious. 💯 agree with everything you’ve said about the team having to carry them, accruing leave, and extended phases returns. Not to mention the time taken to read all emails and refresh training, meaning it’s ages before being fully integrated into the team again.

Am assuming you’re public sector- as cannot imagine this goes on in the private?!

God that is truly awful, your poor friend. Chemo is gruelling enough, without work sticking the knife in.

I know 2 people who were kept ‘on the books’ until they died, I assume to get the generous benefits for their families. This was two American owned cut throat media companies. It made me feel better about both companies knowing they did that. They were covered by long term temps and everyone was very compassionate during their illness and when they died.

I feel like I have worked with the same person.

Yes, it can happen. I was involved in an HR meeting last month (Civil Service) and the person involved is facing possible dismissal on grounds of ill health.

It happens all the time and often in the interests of the employee as it allows them to be paid holidays and notice plus they may be able to apply for their occupational pension. Almost everyone know who had treatment for cancer was back after a year give or take. Those that weren’t were not coming back, usually because they were terminally ill or the illness, treatment and age meant they were no longer fit. One personal recovered from the cancer but became mentally unwell and wouldn’t return to work. She was off nearly 2 years. They couldn’t keep her job open forever!

The NHS let people go in these circumstances. I know three people who this happened to. Two were off long-term sick with no prospect of them returning in the foreseeable future as they had chronic conditions (one was in her late twenties and the other was in her late fifties), and the other one had had a huge amount of sickness absences.

Back in the 1980s, a friend of mine had a catastrophic brain haemorrhage which left her severely disabled, unable to talk or communicate. Her employer had to let her go after a year, and she subsequently died a year or so later.

When it's unlikely that someone will ever be able to resume their role in any shape or form, or are likely to have continued sickness absences, I can't see how an employer can keep them on indefinitely.

DD bought a house in 2020 and DS bought a house last year. Both have life insurance and critical illness cover.

For info, if you have a genetic test for a condition, you absolutely are NOT required to declare it for insurance purposes. The only exception to this is the test for Huntington's disease. You MUST declare that if it's positive.

But he wasn't being made redundant as the post was still there. He was being let go because he could no longer do his job due to ill health. There is a significant difference.