Sick Leave

sgt.bilko

Here's a strange one & I need some advice:

I'm recovering from a medcal condition and my consultant has advised that I should be off my feet as much as possible. I have a letter stating this.

A few weeks back, I showed the letter to my boss who was awaer of the condition and has since decided that I should be off work completely until I am 100% fit to work. I am currently on paid sick leave until end of this month but am not back with consultant until mid May. That's 6 weeks unpaid and i'll be up sh1t creek without a paddle or life jacket!

Is my boss legally entitled to make that decision ?? There are positions available in my workplace where I would be off my feet.

I have been employed by my employer for over 10 years

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sgt.bilko wrote: »

Here's a strange one & I need some advice:

I'm recovering from a medcal condition and my consultant has advised that I should be off my feet as much as possible. I have a letter stating this.

A few weeks back, I showed the letter to my boss who was awaer of the condition and has since decided that I should be off work completely until I am 100% fit to work. I am currently on paid sick leave until end of this month but am not back with consultant until mid May. That's 6 weeks unpaid and i'll be up sh1t creek without a paddle or life jacket!

Is my boss legally entitled to make that decision ?? There are positions available in my workplace where I would be off my feet.

I have been employed by my employer for over 10 years

i had this same problem last year. i spent some time in hospital and when i got out i was told to stay off work for a month or so to allow me to recover. i couldnt afford to do this as i wasnt being paid for my time off so i just went back to work and told them i was fine. my employer did ask me a few times was i sure i should be working becuase it was obvious i wasnt fully recovered. i was very withdrawn and didnt have much energy. they basically said that if i wasnt supposed to be back in work yet i would have to go home and stay there until i was fully recovered as it wasnt their problem if i couldnt afford to stay off work. in the end i just kept ploughing along and now i am pretty much fully recovered.

but if they had realised that i wasnt supposed to be in work they would have been within their rights to send me home unpaid becuase it was an insurance risk to have me onsite. if i had collapsed or had an accident due to my health they wouldnt have been covered.

if you think you can genuinely work without causing too much damage to yourself and that it wont effect your recovery too badly then i wouldnt say anything to them and go back to work.

if you really are unable to work then you should stay off and apply for disability.

as it was i wasnt getting paid for the time i spent in hospital so when i eventually got out i was faced with serious bills, everything from credit cards, loan repayments, phone bills, doctors bills, etc. with no money coming in i was screwed. i got as much disability as i could for the time i was off and then i just went back working. it might have delayed my recovery by a few months but nothing i wont get over.

have you the option of working from home?

KdjaCL

You can claim your social sickness, not a lot but its more than being unpaid.

Just need your job and dr to fill in a cert afaik you lose 1st 3 days of claim and 60%ish of your wages.

oasis would know more.


re your boss yes he is, and is fully entitled to ask for a cert of ability to work by your dr before he lets you back.

kdjac

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KdjaCL wrote: »

You can claim your social sickness, not a lot but its more than being unpaid.

Just need your job and dr to fill in a cert afaik you lose 1st 3 days of claim and 60%ish of your wages.

kdjac

your doctor or the hospital will give you the form on a weekly basis completed by them so you just sign them and send them to the social. unfortuanly it doesnt matter how much you get paid from your job, you still only get about €200 a week from the social. your salary doesnt come into it. still, its better than nothing, which in my case was the alternative.

be warned though that you have to send the forms to the social immediatly. if they are in any way late they kick up a big fuss and it is difficult to get them to pay up. in other words as soon as the doctor gives them to you, sign them and post them off. dont wait until you have a few of them to send together becuase they will most likely not pay you then. i had 4 certs for the 4 weeks i was in hospital and i sent hem in together. when they asked why i hadnt sent them sooner i explained i was in a hospital bed for 4 weeks and i wasnt really in a position to be going to a post box. they still only paid me for 2 weeks even thought the certs were fully filled out by hospital staff. so they are really strict about it.

the ironic thing is you pay an obscene amount of PRSI throughout your working career with the idea that if anything like this happens to you that you will be covered. but when the worst happens and you need to claim some of that money back they make it impossible. meanwhile there are people out there who have never worked a day in their lives and have spent thier whole adult life claiming from the social and becuase it is expected of them nobody says a thing. very disapointing i think.

sgt.bilko

that's the puzzling part, my gp & hospital consultant both were of the opinion that they would/could not issue a cert for 3 months ( thats the treatment period) and my gp gave me a "fit for work" cert.

themadchef

My question is "do you feel fit to work?" if you do then bring the GP cert with you to show you're OK to work. He can hardly argue with that.

My other point is to do with the whole "being off your feet".

In most places I've worked, when lets say for example a lady is pregnant and has to be on "light duties" she simply gets put on the till etc. Sending home would never even be discussed! So if there is a position you feel suitable to you in your incapacitated state, then it's very unreasonable of them not to oblige you. My god you've been with them what, 10 yrs +!

There must be some leglislation on this?

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sgt.bilko wrote: »

that's the puzzling part, my gp & hospital consultant both were of the opinion that they would/could not issue a cert for 3 months ( thats the treatment period) and my gp gave me a "fit for work" cert.

well in that case take the time off that you are being paid for and then head back to work when the time is up. if management have any issues with you being back in work so soon then just show them the letter from the gp / hospital consultant that you are ok to work. there shouldnt be any problems then. your employers biggest worry is you being in the office when you are not supposed to be because as i said before if you have an accident due to your illness they will be screwed. if you have a letter from your gp / hospital consultant then they are covered and everything should be ok. its all down to their insurance really.

if the gp / hospital consultant arent giving you the disabilty claim forms then you arent going to be able to claim any money from the social. most gp's have no problem giving sick certs to people to take days off work but when it comes to the disability forms for claiming social they are a lot stricter. the same with hospitals. i supppose they see so many chancers every day trying to skive off work and get a free ride that when a genuine person comes along they dont do them any favours. and the social are unbelievably strict about it. i dont think anyone realises just how strict they actually are until they go to make a disability claim. you would be shocked at how difficult they make it. as i said in my previous post, i spent 4 weeks in hospital which was all certified and then i was certified for another 3-4 weeks after that to recover at home. all i got from the social was 2 weeks disability and if i wanted anymore than that i was going to have to jump through some major hoops. it was easier to go back to work sick. and what annoyed me most was that the forms i had actually sent them should have entitled me to a mininum of 4 weeks money so i had done everything i was supposed to. they didnt need any further forms or signatures or information from me, they just didnt send me all the money. they basicaly sent me a token amount and a letter saying if i wanted more then i had to justify it. and the letter pretty much said i was lucky to be getting that.

the funny thing is i have been working and paying prsi since i was 18 (i am 30 now) and this was the first time i had ever needed anything back fiom them. the amount of money they sent me didnt even cover my bill for my stay in hospital. if you dont have vhi and you go public it cost €40 a day to stay in hospital whcih is €280 a week. disability from the social is just less than €200 a week. so even with diability i was ending each week on a minus. it worked out better for me financially to go straight back to work when i got out of hospital which is what id pretty much did. i think i maybe took a week to rest butthats akk i couldaford what with all yhr bills i came out to.

so the bottom line is if your employer isnt paying you and the gp / hospital consultant arent giving you the disabilty certs and you genuinely feel well enough to work, then just go back to work. you will probably find that your employers wont expect that much from you for the first couple of weeks anyway so use that time to relax a bit. just dont do yourself any damage health wise. at the end of the day its only money.

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themadchef wrote: »

My question is "do you feel fit to work?" if you do then bring the GP cert with you to show you're OK to work. He can hardly argue with that.

My other point is to do with the whole "being off your feet".

In most places I've worked, when lets say for example a lady is pregnant and has to be on "light duties" she simply gets put on the till etc. Sending home would never even be discussed! So if there is a position you feel suitable to you in your incapacitated state, then it's very unreasonable of them not to oblige you. My god you've been with them what, 10 yrs +!

There must be some leglislation on this?

i suppose with pregnant women they cant really send them home unpaid because they would get in serious trouble for descrimination. there are pregnant women in the workplace all the time. they can give them light duties and then after a certain amount of time the employee would go off on matenity leave anyway. they would be used to dealing with pregnant women because it is a daily occurance in the workpalce.

when it comes to other illness it is a bit of an unknown territory for the employer. because they arent doctors they wouldnt know what side effects the illness might have or even what side effects the medication could have. it would all be a bit unknown i suppose.

but your right about the 10 years thing, you would think they would do something for an employee that hs worked with them for that length of time. they should look after them in some way or other. i suppose they are already paying the OP until he end of the month and they arent entitled to do that so its pretty decent of them.