Fair dismissal of employees suffering from ill-health is still an area of difficulty for employers.

An employer must try to find out the true position of the employee's state of health from the employee himself, his own doctor or, in some cases, from the company's doctor.

Even if the employer has consulted with the employee's own doctor and the company doctor, often this will not be enough to ensure a dismissal is fair.

Employers should always consider the possibility of alternative work. In one case a dismissal was held to be unfair where insufficient consideration was given to finding the employee a job in circumstances where he was not fit to do shift work but could have done a day job.

The first question is whether the employee is disabled for the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act. For the employee to be classified as disabled, the physicial or mental impairment must be long-term, ie it must have lasted for 12 months or be likely to last for 12 months.

Under the Disability Discrimination Act, an employer is required to make reasonable adjustments to his or her employment arrangements and premises in order to help a disabled person overcome the practical effects of a disability.

A further word of warning. A tribunal recently awarded an individual the sum of £103,000 due to him being discriminated against on the grounds of disability. Most of the award was made up of estimated future loss of earnings but it shows that employers must tread with extreme caution when dealing with ill health/disability issues.

Julia Lister heads the Keighley office of solicitors Gordons Wright & Wright.

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