ill health and normal duties

[nigrob]

Hi,

For over two years now I have been moved away from the duties I used to perform at work and given duties that assisted my direct manager and department.

These new duties are what I consider to be my normal duties due to the length of time I have been performing them.

Since undertaking these duties I have never been asked to do any of the previous duties.

I have never asked for these duties but I didn't mind doing them as I hoped they would help me in future progression. 

 

In August last year I had an operation to remove metalwork from my spine and subsequently had a number of weeks off of work.

On returning to work I had a phased return to work and during this return my Employer gave me equipment to help me with the day to day tasks, again I never asked for these.

My Employer now has requested a second occupational health meeting for me but on the form they have said that I cannot do 3 duties which are duties that I have not performed or asked to perform for over 2 years.

The policy at work covering this says that the policy should be used until the employee returns to normal duties.

 

I have had to sign to say that I cannot do the duties listed though as my health improves I believe I will be able to do them in the near future should the need arise.

Is it fair for my employer to list duties I no longer undertake ?

 

I also fear that my employer is looking at reducing my salary which I feel would be unfair and possibly discriminatory.

My condition is classed as a disability and in previous meetings my manager has said that my duties now are different because of my condition which is untrue.

I also wonder if I should send a statement to my employer to add to the referral for occupational health saying that the duties listed have not been required to be undertaken for over 2 years and I would be able to do them now though it would be slower than a fully able person and that they would also cause me an increase in discomfort and pain though I would still be able to do them.

 

Can anyone advise me on this issue please.

 

Nic

 

 

 

 

 

[honeybee13]

Can your union advise on this, nicurro? They will know more about you and the firm than we do.

 

HB

[Emmzzi]

Your employer sounds reasonable and supportive. Why do you fear a pay cut? What else is going on?

[nigrob]

Hi Emmzi,

 

I fear a cut in pay may be the driver for this as the tasks I have been doing were part of the duties that other workers should have been doing.

Also there has been no adjustment to my role documented in the two years that I have been doing the tasks but now they are wanting to go through a capability process for ill health to record that I am doing them and that I am not doing the core functions of the original role which the salary was based on.

The role I am doing could be paid lower as there is a set structure at the workplace for salary.

I am not happy that I have had to sign a form which stated that I am unable to do the core tasks though I feel I am able to do them should the need arise.

If the employer wanted to recognise the duties I am doing this could have been done in the two years already gone by without waiting for an occasion of absence to trigger a capability process.

 

nic

 

[Emmzzi]

Then why did you sign it? You really need to help yourself here....

 

however as they have not yet suggested a job re-evaluation you sound just a little paranoid....? Any reason for that other than anxiety on your part?

Edited July 28, 2019 by Emmzzi

[nigrob]

This Is why I feel that a supplementary statement may be helpful.

I signed it as I I hope to be able to trust the Manager involved but now I am unsure, I always maintain that I should expect to recover fully and then be able to perform the tasks listed.

 

Nic

[king12345]

Ok, your health and safety union rep should be helping you, even if you're not in the union, so ask for their help.

My opinion: your employer is just following standard procedures. 

It is not at all unusual to be employed for certain duties and then do just half of them for years and years, but you're still contracted to do everything in your job description. 

For example, bus drivers' main duty is to drive buses, however, there are duties listed in their job description that they'll never perform, moving company cars or taking drivers to remote book on points being two of them.

This is because there are drivers who do that on a regular basis and never drive a bus: this doesn't mean that they are exempt from driving a bus.

If they are off sick, occupational health will report that they're not fit to drive a bus, despite them not driving a bus for years.

This is a true example by the way.

So, my advice is: go with the flow and let OH do their bits.

What you have to say at every meeting is that you are improving and you will be fit for full duties in the near future.

Use exactly these words.

Don't go too much into what duties, how near is near future or anything else. 

The only thing the penpushers are interested is to tick the box marked as "improvement ongoing" or similar, so keep them sweet and you'll be back doing the duties you've been doing for the past 2 years without much of a problem. 

Let them hear what they want to hear and don't go into much details.

Again, a good union rep would do this for you if you're in a union or at least advise if you're not.

[king12345]

38 minutes ago, nicurro said:

trust the Manager

NEVER TRUST A MANAGER.

When the ship is sinking they will push you and take the last life jacket. 

However,  in my life I met 2 managers who resigned rather than screw their staff, so there's a small minority of human managers out there, it is just a very, very small minority. 

[nigrob]

Thanks King,

 

I hope my trust is not misplaced and my Manager is doing the right thing after all it is a result if what he asked me to do and not me asking to do the tasks.

Time will tell and there is always the grievance procedure if anything happens that is detrimental to my T’s & C’s.

The union may be able to help but the local reps only have basic knowledge and to get the area official involved is not a quick process.

I can discuss the matter with the rep and then see what occupational health say.

Could I ask if Occupational Health representatives should send me the report prior to sending to my employer and I can refuse to give them permission to share the report if required.

 

nic

[king12345]

You can't refuse permission to share the report, but you can see it before it's passed to your employer and make comments.

Nowadays, after so many reports to the gmc, our company OH type up the report there and then and agree on what was said in the presence of the employee, which is a much better system. 

In my experience some OH dpt are better than others, same as the officials making the report.

So, I always suggest to secretly record the meeting so to have a better memory of what was said vs report.

Also (but this was never done) if worse comes to worse the recording could be disclosed to the relevant people.

If you find that the report is grossly wrong or diagnosis are made, first of all you should ask for the gmc number of the person writing the report.

This usually triggers panic, deep fear, because they know they're not prepared and they're biased.

OH workers know the consequences of being reported to gmc, so they'll try to avoid it.

So summarising: next step is to tick the box "I would like to see the report before is sent to my manager".

Then when you go in, record the meeting, it's not illegal. (It's illegal to disclose it to 3rd parties and not always)

 

[ericsbrother]

Lets look at this from the job evaluation structure. If is normal that any job that is in a higher tier than those in the same group below it can be accomplished by the postholder of the higher tier job but not necessarily the other way round because of education training or experience.

 

Now you dotn say if your old job was in a different job group as far as your employers structure goes but it wouldnt be unreasonable to expect you to perform duties you are qualified to do and have those tasks evaluated as a best fit in your current group. If your health problems are such that you may never perform teh higher tier duties it is acceptable that your employer reassesses your current job in line whith the grading structure if there is permanence to the changes. being disabled isnt the reason for this, changes in work or responsibilities would change the job and so the employer is faced with a redundancy or offering a change of duties to fit in the work available fo suitabel and then pay you according to the benchmark for that grade.

 

If they were kind they may ringfence your salary but they will not be obliged to.

 

i would find out what it is they are hoping to achieve by this exercise, if you cant do the job you are paid to do they can let you go by following the correct protocols ( they are doing that at the moment) or determine when you will be capable fo doing them and hold off if you are likely to recover fully in say 6 months. If you cant do the job and want to stay then you will have to consider the lower grade job and the drop in salary but as said may be able to make an individual arrangement until wages catch up with your current salary