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Posted By warderic
Your opinion please. About a year ago one of our production managers employed a person who has mental health problems, what type of problems I don't know. This person is a reasonable worker but has recently been having a lot of time off work, the odd day here and there. The production manager is now of the opinion that this person may not be suitable and has asked me to give him some advice, rather like locking the door after the horse has bolted. I feel that this is a difficult situation regarding disciplinary action and would like your opinion on the way forward. The company does not have a disability discrimination policy and not knowing until now of this persons mental health problems, a risk assessment was not carried out.
Thanks in anticipation.
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Posted By Konstanty Budkiewicz
From the information that you have provided, and there being no direct Health and Safety issues evident, I suggest that this in the first instance is an HR issue.
Kon
CMIOSH
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Posted By J Knight
Agree, its an HR problem; even if your employer doesn't have a disability policy mental health conditions can be considered disabilities within the meaning in the DDA,
John
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Posted By akm
Could you just clarify the actual issue? Sounds more of an HR problem than an H&S one. Are you concerned that the work activities are causing the absence or that the person is not capable for carrying out their role? You might be in danger of focussing on the health issues rather than the fact that the person is not turning up to work. I'd say do the risk assessment and then:
a/ assess whether they are medically fit to carry out their role and they are not being placed at any additional risk. Implement controls, modify/change role, provide support etc.
b/ assuming there's not a legitimate cause highlighted by the previous action, address the absences through whatever disciplinary process you have (and that might be just an informal chat)
I'll caveat all the above with the fact that I'm no HR expert by the way!
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Posted By warderic
Thanks for that Kon. However, I think that pointing the finger at HR is hiding from the main problem. It is primarily a HR and H&S problem. From the H&S viewpoint one needs to know if that person is able to carryout their job safely and does there need to be any special procedures or controls put in place. Also, should a risk assessment have been carried out at the start of the employees employment? Unfortunately some of us H&S people don't have the resources of an HR department and are morally obligated to take on some HR duties.
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Posted By warderic
Akm, there is no problem at the moment other than the employee being off work regularly. However, given the circumstances and having many years of experience I sometimes, like many others in this profession, have a gut feeling for these things and know that if not handled correctly all sorts of problems will arise ranging from disability discrimination to not carrying out risk assessment etc. As an example; what if this person is off work because the job has stressed them out, what if the job is too much for them. What in these circumstances would happen if the production manager terminated the employees employment. I know many will say this is an HR problem but there is an element of H&S. I know these are all 'What ifs' but 'What ifs' have a habit of becoming reality.
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Posted By akm
Warderic
Totally agree there's all sorts of 'what ifs' which is why I'd do the RA (its never to late), identify any problems, implement changes and then review in 3 months or whatever. If there's grounds for dismissal based on incapability then you'll have to go through the hoops anyway. Until you start the process you won't be in a position to do anything much and hopefully you'll be able to resolve the issues before then.
Yes you (as a company) were obligated to do a RA on employment but you can't change that. But you can be in a position to make a reasoned judgement in the future. Just try and stop the Production Manager from pre-judging any future action!
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Posted By garyh
How do you manage to make the link between "mental health" and "disability"?
Mental health issues can include many things eg clinical depression. This does not make someone disabled, or affect their ability to do the job. You can assess some one's health when recruiting to ensure that they are suitable. What you can't do is discriminate; some of the responses here seem to come dangerously close, casually linking mental health to disability.
To me this sounds primarily a HR issue.
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Posted By Bob Youel
This is probably a situation where you are stepping out of your 'competence' zone so take advice from a senior occupational health specialist and similar such medical experts as this area is a mine field
Having a different mental status to another person does not immediately make somebody disabled etc and in many cases reasonable adjustments can be easily made where all parties benefit
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Posted By NCL
I'll add my voice to those saying that you shouldn't confuse mental health problems with disability. The two do not necessarily go hand in hand.
Having time off work does not mean they can't do the job. I think the procedure would be to talk to the person in question and find out why they are having so much time off work. It may be completely unrelated to their mental health problems. If you didn't know they had mental health problems how would you treat the situation then? And there you have your answer.
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Posted By Kieran J Duignan
Hello Warderic
Your request is so unspecified that it suggests you are simply casting a wide net to very skilfully trawl for imaginative ideas or else you and the company are very much at sea.
From the standpoint of employer responsibilities, it is to unfortunately ill-advised to categorise an employee as having 'mental health' problems without knowing their nature and gravity. What you have written could be used as prima facie evidence of discrimination not only if the individual has a learning disorder but another unspecified kind of deviant condition about which he might be sensitive.
From what you've written, your organisation appears to lack a competency assessment system as well as a risk assessment system. A chartered occupational psychologist may be able to provide both, especially if he/she is a chartered safety & health practitioner and a qualified counsellor who can ise a couple of the well-validated questionnaires which are readily available to suitably qualified professionals to make an incisive and legally defensible assessment of his mental health condition.
Alternatively, you can enlist the combined help of H R and occupational medical/nursing specialists.
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