How much sickness absence is too much will depend upon the individual circumstances.
There is no set rule for when sickness becomes a problem. Some employers have certain trigger points to identify when sickness becomes an issue. The Bradford factor is frequently used and provides a result based on the frequency and length of an employee’s absence during a defined period, usually 52 weeks.
Keeping careful records is very important. Make sure that you keep a record of all absences so that you have very clear evidence. Also, return to work meetings should be undertaken as a matter of practice. They don’t need to be long meetings and are about recording the nature of the absence and whether it is likely to recur. In practice they also discourage individuals from being dishonest about sick leave.
If you reach the point where the sickness absence is a becoming a problem, you may consider undertaking a process.
If you are considering dismissing an employee because of their sickness record much will depend upon whether they have more than two years’ service. It is only when an employee has more than two years’ service that they have unfair dismissal rights.
In practice, this means that in the case of an employee with more than two years’ service you must go through a capability process before making a dismissal. If you don’t do this any dismissal will be unfair.
If the employee has less than two years’ service you could dismiss them without a risk of an unfair dismissal claim. However, caution should still be applied as the individual, with less than two years’ service, could still have rights to bring other types of claims such as discrimination, whistleblowing.
Issues with disability discrimination would only arise if the employee met the definition of a disabled within the Equality Act. An employee who is going through a stressful period in their life may not be considered disabled. However, an individual who has been suffering with stress and depression for more than 12 months and who receives treatment may be. The important thing is that each case is different.
A capability process is essentially a procedure which the employer may decide to use when sickness starts to be as a problem.
If you have to dismiss an employee who has a poor sickness record to avoid an unfair dismissal claim you would have to show that you have acted reasonably and been through a fair process. {SEE UNFAIR DISMISSAL}
