Please help

[phoebepants]

Hello, hope you can give me some advice

 

My husband has been off sick for just over a year with stress and depression due to the job role he has been doing. He has been with the company for over ten years and was moved into a sales dept when the role he had been doing had been closed so it was either move into this sales role or lose his job. Fast forward this time last year, my husband could not take any more of the pressure for not hitting targets(he's in no way a salesman, never has been, more focused on customer care) end up at the doctors (after much persuasion from me) and signed off work. He is still off now.

 

He has said all along that he is happy to return to work but not to that dept. his doctor agrees, he has spoken to occ health, they agree and he has seen the companies own doctor who also agrees that at present he is unfit to return to work unless he is moved department. The company's stance on this is that while he is off sick he applies for other roles with in the company and await the outcome of these applications as they don't move staff around departments. (we know for a fact this is not the case)

 

He has been on full pay for a year, 6 months was his companies pay policy and the other 6 months were what we thought were income Protection payments, the paper work had been sent off and as far we were told it had all been sorted out. He got paid at Xmas time and he only rec'd half pay. It turns out that the company had not sent the paperwork to the insurers and he had been paid incorrectly for the last 6 months!!!

 

They have now submitted the paperwork to the insurers but we have no clue if he is going to get paid anything at the moment, no body can tell us this, they are also saying that he might have to pay back the last 6 months pay. Can they make him pay this back as it was their error?

We are experiencing severe financial difficulties at present. He was also not told that he would only receive half pay, we only found out when we went the bank

Also there have been numerous other problems such as not sending payslips to his current address (we moved home while he as off) changing his contractual hours and pay with out informing him (this has been rectified and the monies owed paid back) throwing his personal belongings that we're in his work locker away, not giving him any support, he has to chase everything up ever step of the way.

 

I suppose at the end of all this i am asking can they make him apply for different roles, rather than just place him into a different role and can they make him pay any money incorrectly paid to him.

 

We have had such a nightmare with the company, that my husband feels that he has no option but to apply for jobs outside of the company as he has no support.

 

Sorry if this has been a bit of a ramble but there has been that many problems from his work in the last 12 months that we are all over the place with things now

 

Many thanks in advance for any advice given

[honeybee13]

Hello Phoebe, welcome to the forum. It sounds as if the two of you are having a tough time.

 

I don't really know much about work procedures and so on, but some of the guys here do. I hope they'll be along later.

 

I do know a bit about sickness insurance policies [and a lot about stress and depression from work, been there]. Have you been told anything about it and how much it should pay? Maybe your husband was given information about it in a staff booklet? Of course, he may not have any paperwork at home.

 

You may need to start being proactive with work, but let's see what they guys have to say.

 

My best, HB

[benny1970]

Hello,

 

It is likely that your husband will be covered under the Equality Act (disability discrimination) due to his depression. Therefore your employer will have a duty to make reasonable adjustments-for example redeploy to a job that he can do and he is happy with. If I was you I would write a grievance letter to the company stating that because he has depression that the employer has a duty to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act..

 

Please visit the EHRC website for more information and ACAS too.

[papasmurf1cx]

Regarding the money issues..... I hope you have submitted the fit notes from your GP to the DWP for ESA? You should also consider making a DLA application.

 

In regard to the appalling treatment I would, as beny1970 has indicated above, submit a grievance in regard to the poor treatment he has suffered as indicated in your posts. However you should be aware that grieving about discrimination matters tend to get messy and upset management (although I think that has occured already) and he is likely to get worse treatment in the short term. Expect to lose every battle internally but perhaps win when eventually it goes to a Tribunal. .... and that is where it will end up I assure you if you want justice.

 

Check to see if you have legal protection insurance as that will give you the confidence to take the employer on, unions are useless in my opinion especially in discrimination matters but worth a try at least if he is a member, but I suspect he is not as you do not mention it.

 

Finally, do not resign EVER let the employer do the nasty work, don't make it easy for them unless he is prepared just to walk away and get on with life. If you intend to fight you have to remain sick and put in grievances and make allegation of discriminatory practices.

 

You have tough choices to make, might be easier if you have legal cover otherwise it is a matter of character.

[phoebepants]

Regarding the money issues..... I hope you have submitted the fit notes from your GP to the DWP for ESA? You should also consider making a DLA application.

 

In regard to the appalling treatment I would, as beny1970 has indicated above, submit a grievance in regard to the poor treatment he has suffered as indicated in your posts. However you should be aware that grieving about discrimination matters tend to get messy and upset management (although I think that has occured already) and he is likely to get worse treatment in the short term. Expect to lose every battle internally but perhaps win when eventually it goes to a Tribunal. .... and that is where it will end up I assure you if you want justice.

 

Check to see if you have legal protection insurance as that will give you the confidence to take the employer on, unions are useless in my opinion especially in discrimination matters but worth a try at least if he is a member, but I suspect he is not as you do not mention it.

 

Finally, do not resign EVER let the employer do the nasty work, don't make it easy for them unless he is prepared just to walk away and get on with life. If you intend to fight you have to remain sick and put in grievances and make allegation of discriminatory practices.

 

You have tough choices to make, might be easier if you have legal cover otherwise it is a matter of character.

 

 

Thanks you for the replies.

 

We have never been told to submit the sick notes to DWP at all, will look into this ASAP. We are going to try and get an appointment at the citezins advice today and work out where we go from there. The whole situation is putting a huge strain on us both, we are vey committed to sticking together through this but it is not easy

 

I've just remembered another thing he was put on a stage one disciplinary in oct due to the length of time he had been off. He was told he could appeal this descicion and a letter would be issued in 7 days. That was oct 2011 and we are still waiting now. He was going to appeal due to the fact they they have done nothing to help him return to work and he has said all along that if he is put into a different dept he would return immediately. He has reiterated this many time both to his line manager and to Hr. The most annoying this is that no one seems to want to take ownership and do something to get sorted

 

During his whole time off the company he works for has been through numerous changes and he has been passed from one line manager to another and it's only been in recent months that the current one he has has actually been moderately helpful in the fact of contacting him and arranging well being chats, but even he does not seem to be moving things forward as we would like. What is really disappointing is that he has been a committed employee for ten years with a very good work record behind him but this does not seem to be taken into consideration at all.

 

Currently we are waiting for Unum to agree to pay salary protection but we have no clues as to which way this will go. We are also trying to get them to pay his holidays that have been owed for the last year but when speaking to payroll they have somehow missed the cut off for pay day. We have suggested an emergency bacs payment but still they say they are looking into doing this.

I will check into the legal cover thing I may be covered under my own epmployee's package or my home ins.

 

He is not a member of any union as they company themselves will not recognise a union.

 

I'll let you know how we get on at cab

 

Thank you for taking the time to read our saga and reply.