Dealing with long term absence can be difficult as when employees are absent from work for an extended period of time it is often due to serious or complex illness. The CIPD’s Health & Wellbeing At Work report 2023 shows that the top three reasons for long term absence are mental ill health including clinical depression and anxiety, musculoskeletal problems and acute medical conditions such as cancer, heart attacks and strokes. Managing long term sickness cases therefore often requires patience and understanding but the aim should always be to enable a return to work. There is no legal definition of long term sickness but many organisations consider long term absence to be any absence that lasts for four or more weeks.
Communication
It is important for employers to keep in touch with the absentee as letting long term absence drift can create numerous problems. Some employers think that they are not allowed to communicate with an employee who is on long term sick, particularly if the reason for the absence is work related. Employers should though agree some form of regular contact with the absent employee. This helps them to keep up to date with how the employee is feeling and means that the employee isn’t isolated and cut off from work which can make the eventual return to work more difficult. You may want to arrange a welfare meeting with the absent employee to discuss their progress. This can be done in work, at the employee’s home or at any other suitable venue. A welfare meeting is a useful touch point. It helps the employee to stay connected to work and also gives the employer the opportunity to discuss the employee’s absence in more detail.
Holidays
When an employee is absent for an extended period of time they may wish to go away on holiday in order to aid their rehabilitation or just have a change of scene. This can be contentious as colleagues see on social media that the absentee is enjoying the sunshine whilst they are covering for them at work. There’s nothing to prevent someone who is on long term sick from taking a holiday though and actually it can be beneficial to the business as well because an employee’s statutory holiday entitlement continues to accrue whilst they are off sick. Therefore, if the employee uses some of that holiday entitlement up whilst absent it means that they don’t have a large chunk of leave to take when they return. Taking holiday will also mean that the employee receives holiday pay which if they have been on statutory sick pay will increase their income for a short period of time.
Occupational Health
At an appropriate point in time it is highly likely that you are going to need to get a professional medical opinion about the health of the long term absentee. Occupational health assessments are the most common way of gaining medical opinions although you may also obtain information from other professionals who are involved with the health care of the employee such as their GP, consultant or specialist. Whoever you are contacting you must gain the consent of the employee first. Occupational health reports usually provide a summary of the current state of health of the employee, details about when a return to work may be possible and if there are any reasonable adjustments which can be made. Once you have assessed the report you should invite the employee to a meeting to discuss its contents. On occasions an employee may not consent to attending an occupational health assessment or for you to contact their health care professionals. If that happens then you can only base your opinion and any action you take on the information available to you and the employee should be aware of that.
Return To Work
The ideal outcome in cases of long term absence is that the employee is eventually able to return to work. That return to work is normally on a phased basis to start with, in order to ease the employee back in. If all goes well then the employee will gradually build up their working hours but it is important for their employer to communicate and meet regularly with them to review how things are going, if they’re struggling with anything in particular or if actually the return to work is going better than expected. It may also be that in order to help an employee to return to work then reasonable adjustments need to be made. Reasonable adjustments can take many forms. It might be that the employee’s working hours are adapted, it might be that they need some different equipment or aids to help them to do their job or that in fact their duties are amended. What is considered reasonable will vary but if employers need support to help them to keep employees in work then the government’s Access to Work scheme can provide grants, funding and practical assistance.
Medical Capability
Sadly, in some instances employees may not be well enough to return to work or the employer can not sustain the employee’s absence. If that is the case then an employee might resign their post. Alternatively, the employer might need to go through a medical capability process in order to dismiss the employee. A dismissal of this type should always be the last resort and it is important to follow a full and fair process which includes gathering medical information and reports, meeting with the employee, assessing any alternative employment or adjustments and following the usual rules around right to representation and appeal.
Dealing with long term absence is tricky and there are many pitfalls to avoid so if you need any advice or guidance on the subject then get in touch with us at CUBE HR.
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Why not also check out our blog on a similar topic What Should Your Absence Policy Cover?
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