Posted By bereznikov
Good afternoon everyone,

Please bear with me on this one, because I have a number of questions from a situation that has just been explained to me. Also, forgive my impersonal description in the account below.

A diabetic employee works in a pub/restaurant as a cook in the kitchen. Workload is often quite busy during the rush hours of lunch, and dinner. The employee has had frequent short-term (1/2 days) absences from work, stating migraines and other illnesses, not necessarily related to her diabetes, as the reason for the absence. The manager actually has suspicions that the employee is using condition as an ‘excuse’ for frequent work absence, but that is not the point here.

Recently, the employee has been absent with a signed doctors note stating that a week off work was required. The following week the employee produced a self-certification stating that they would be absent from work for another week. The employee is now ready to return to work. The managers’ questions are:
- Is the manager entitled to obtain a copy of the doctor’s note recommending the leave from work?
- Can the manager insist on getting the employee to produce a doctor’s note stating that the employee is fit to return to work? – and then take a copy of this for the company’s records?
- Is there a legal requirement to perform ‘return to work’ interviews?
- Can anyone point me towards information regarding modifying work (completely or ‘gradual return to work’) specifically for diabetics?


I hope nobody has taken offence at this query, but I have not had any experience with it, and would very much value any assistance with it.


bereznikov

Posted By joolz040770
I realise the frustrations around such a situation.

Personally, if this was my employee, I would be referring to Occupational Health for guidance immediatly, especially given the person's medical history. Any GP Report, in my opinion, should be requested by your OH Physician. And bear in mind that an OH physician (who is impartial - working as an adviser to both employee and employer) can "over-rule" a GP decision.

There are no legal requirements around RTW but you can create and implement (through the appropriate channels) a RTW Policy which involves a RTW interview. Believe me it's a very positive thing to enforce, for both employee and employer, and should reduce ad-hoc absences across the board.

Good luck.

Posted By Lilian McCartney
I agree with previous posts.

It's a problem for smaller places to have OH and HR dedicated people and I wonderd if the pub/restaurant might have a trade group that they could use for advice? or perhasps a local traders group which takes in all the small local traders? Just a coupe of ideas.

Lilian