Attached are 4  x PDF files from CIPD which are intended to be a summary of how to manage absence. This includes:

1) Do you have an absence problem?

2) How do you develop an absence strategy?

3) How do you deal with short term recurrent absence?

4) How do you deal with long term absence

These 4 papers are the result of a collboration between the CIPD, The Health and Safety Exceutive, and ACAS.

The advocate general has recommended that workers on sick leave should
accrue annual leave, but should not be able to take holiday during sickness absence. 
The advocate general has also suggested that workers on sick leave for an entire holiday
year should be able to carry forward their accrued but untaken holiday to the
following holiday year.  This would be hard for businesses to accommodate given the
impact of effectively doubling paid holiday entitlement in the year of return to work.
The European court of justice is expected to give judgement on this issue in around
six months time so watch this space!

Chris Kisby
dt: +44 (0) 115 983 8215
CKisby@hbj-gw.com

M R L writes: One of my employees, who has been with me for 18 months, is currently off ill due to stress.
He has now been absent for three months on full pay.
I am paying somebody to perform a job when he is not even at work. Am I able to dismiss him or do I need to
follow some sort of disciplinary procedures? If this is the case, am I still liable to pay him full pay or can
I pay him SSP?

In this situation, you should consider whether reasonable adjustments may help the employee return to work
, writes Peter Done, managing director of Peninsula.

Also, you need to clarify if his condition falls under the Disability Discrimination Act as you may have a legal
requirement to make adjustments. In addition, you should consider writing to the employee’s GP — with his consent —
asking when a return to work is expected and what type of work he can do.

Where the employee’s job can no longer be kept open and no …

The High Court gave an analysis of the law relating to gardening leave and confirmed that an employer can insist on a period of garden leave even where no express clause exists in the contract of employment.

The EAT held that a delay of five months between a disciplinary hearing and notice of
dismissal for gross misconduct rendered the dismissal automatically unfair.

he House of Lords considered the meaning of s3 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
It was held that the correct comparator in disability discrimination cases is a person who does not have
the disability but whose circumstances are otherwise the same, overturning the decision in
Clarke –v- Novacold. In the case of an employee dismissed for long-term sick leave related to a
disability therefore, the correct comparator would be an employee also absent from work for that period
albeit not for a disability related reason. No unlawful disability discrimination will result if the
employer can show that the reason for the dismissal was the absence itself and not the disability.
The decision clearly has significant ramifications for employment practitioners.

From the Metro.
It can happen to the best of us.

Apprentice winner pulls a sickie on first day
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Lee McQueen It was the job he beat 15 other people on national TV to win but on his first day Apprentice winner Lee McQueen was forced to pull a sickie.

The 30-year-old, who returned from a holiday in Spain on Sunday, phoned in yesterday to say he was feeling ill.

A spokesman said: “He’s got a virus – the sort of thing that keeps you off work for a few days. It’s nothing serious.”

He rubbished claims that Lee’s new boss Sir Alan Sugar was reportedly furious at his no-show, especially as it was the hottest day of the year so far.

“We’ve known for a few days that he wasn’t going to make it into work. People get ill and he [Sir Alan] understands that.”

Lee was due to help develop digital display advertising screens at Sir Alan’s holding company Amshold in Brentwood, Essex, as part of his £100,000 dream job.

Sutherland v Hatton

Sutherland v Hatton
In 2002 the Court of Appeal gave a landmark judgment in four joined stress cases,
Sutherland v Hatton: Somerset County Council v Barber: Sandwell Metropolian Borough
Council v Jones: Baker Refractories Ltd v Bishop £2002j EWCA Civ 76.
The judgment sets out guidelines on an employer’s common law obligations in relation to
workplace stress-related illness. In three of the cases, the employers were not liable for their
employees’ stress-related illnesses. Only with some hesitation, was liability found in the
fourth case.
The Court of Appeal’s decision signalled the way for employers to take a more robust
approach to this type of claim.
The guidelines given by the Court of Appeal in the Sutherland v Hatton case are as follows:
. There are no particular control mechanisms for psychiatric illness (such as
depression) arising from workplace stress.
. The test is the same whatever the employment. No occupation is to be regarded as
intrinsically more dangerous than another to an individual’s mental health.
. One of the crucial questions is whether the effects …

This article, written by Rymer Rigby, appeared in the Financial Times on 9th June 2008.

Rescuers discovered a man washed up on a South Pacific beach. He had been attacked by a shark and was in need of medical attention. But the only identification anyone could find was an employee assistance programme card in his pocket: this was sufficient detail for emergency treatment to swing into action.

“We were contacted and authorised treatment and made sure the company was informed,” says Jeremy Garman, sales and marketing director at Axa Icas, an occupational health services company. “Twenty-four hours later we realised he needed microsurgery on the [Australian] mainland so we authorised an airlift. He got the surgery which almost certainly saved his life.”

David Smith, secretary of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association, recalls another rescue operation – a man became separated from his tour group in a game park in Tanzania’s Serengeti; he called his EAP with his mobile and, after liaising with the park rangers, they managed to locate him and ensure his safe return to the lodge. …