Illness And Redeployment.

[REDDRAGON]

Hello all.
Nearly two years ago I was injured in work and have been off ever since. After undergoing numerous investigations and treatments for my injury it has been decided by my specialists and occy health that I can no longer undertake my current duties that I am employed to do and that I should be redeployed.

I work for the NHS and my trust has no redeployment policy or procedure, what usually happens is you are interviewed by personnel and handed any job vacancy applications that they have at that time and you have to choose from the applications there and then and if there is nothing suitable then your contract is terminated.

Now my question?. Does anyone know if there is any minimum legal requirement re redeployment as the current way this is done I do not know if they are abiding by any employment or dda legislation?. It is very confusing as the occy health dept has stated that redeployment normally consists of being placed on a redeployment register for three months and any vacancies that come up in that time should be sent to you before they got into the public domain and this should be done through the trust redeployment coordinator. This is going to be impossible as we do not have a policy let alone a redeployment coordinator.

Having looked on the internet I have found numerous trusts that have redeployment policies and a lot of them mention employment legislation and dda policies but they do not go into the details.

I hope someone can point me in the right direction here as I know soon I am going to be called in to personnel to discuss this and I would like to hopefully go into this meeting armed with something as I dont want to have my contract terminated if I can help it.

I dont think I would get permanant injury benifit and occy health dr has stated that he does not think I would qualify for my pension even though I have nearly thirty years as he cannot say that I would never be able to work again even though currently I do not know what job I would be able to undertake as I am still awaiting surgical intervention for my injury that should improve my quality of life and put me into a better position as to what I can or cannot do in the future.

Any help much appreciated thanks for your time.

[old_andrew2007]

Hi
This won't answer your question just advice.
Firstly have you spoken to your union rep and asked them to support you. Secondly if do not receive replies which help, then you could click on the red triangle, leaving a message for the site team, with luck they can direct your questions to members with experience in HR issues.

Andy

[REDDRAGON]

Hi thanks for the reply sorry its late answering as computer went into melt down and I have just got it back.

In relation to union rep Thats me and I cannot find any legislation that I need have another rep assisting me but so far to no avail. Have difficulty getting hold of fto at the moment due to other commitments. Have just recieved a letter from trust that meeting is to be on 19th of this month and fto will be present but judging from what has happened in past I dont think he has any idea about policy and procedures either.

Hope any of you hr bods can help me here as time is running down.

Thank you M:

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, does the Trust's Sickness Absence Policy not cover redeployment?

Kind Regards

Ell-enn

[REDDRAGON]

Hi Ell-enn, thanks for reply.

this is the info I have found from my trust policy please bear with me its a little long.

RETURN TO WORK AND ALTERNATIVE EMPLOYMENT:

Where an employee is unlikely to be able to return to work to their existing post, consideration of alternative employment is an important element in the fairness and reasonableness of procedures for dealing with long term sickness cases. In addition, one of the adjustments regarded as reasonable under the dda is to transfer the disabled employee to a suitable alternative post which is currently vacant, or known to become vacant in the near future. (This is where there seems to me to be the conflict. If there are no suitable vacancies there and then, then notice is given and contract is terminated this seems to contradict the policy above regards vacancies in near future. How long in future?. Occy health state three months Trust states vacancies applicable that day.).


In such situations, genuine and serious consideration will be given to the suitability of current vacant posts, and also to those posts known to become vacant in the near future.

The rest of the policy goes on to state that consideration will be given to disabled staff re vacancies etc...

The problem I have is long term prognosis is I cannot return to the duties I am employed to do. I do not know if I will be able to undertake any alternative duties that may be suitable as I am still awaiting a surgical procedure that may give me a better idea as to what I can or cannot do. The trust has decided that they cannot wait for this procedure as I do not know how long this will take as under constraints of nhs. (Has been talk of going private but since being off I have had private treatment which has cost me close to 2k to try and accelerate me returning to work but I just cannot afford any more and trust will not assist in costs).

Sorry its so long winded but now coming to end and would just like to make sure that I am covering all my bases.

Thank you M:

[Ell-enn]

Hi, you say your meeting is on 19th (tomorrow?). I should wait and see what happens at the meeting and take it from there. Make sure you have a copy of the absence policy with you and get them to explain what you don't understand.

Kind Regards

Ell-enn