unfair dismissal?

Sephiroth_dude

Hi
Last october my dad suffered a stroke and has been out of work since on sick leave getting his full salary paid,but we were told it would go down every couple of months.He has been with the company 5 years.My mother had a meeting with his employers yesterday and they said they were making him reduntant im just wondering if we have a case for unfair dismissal?Hes still in hospital and will be for another month or two.any advice would be great.
Thanks

Nody

Legal questions require a solicitor not internet advice but skipping the legal advice bit, most likely not. A company can let someone go who's longterm sick if they can show it is highly unlikely the person will be able to return to do the job again.

Once again the company policy (in terms of the employee handbook or similar) will usually stipulate further details on the issue.

Having had a friend go through long term sickness and recovery (lung cancer) I've had the doubtfull pleasure of dealing with similar issue. At the end of the day though your best bet is to get a copy of the employee handbook and speak with a solicitor, they will be in a far better position to give the specifics of your case.

leeroybrown

Just responding to second with what Nody points out. An employer can let someone go if there is medical evidence that they're unlikely to make a reasonably fast return from a long term illness. His terms and conditions of employment could grant him extra entitlements. You do need to talk to a solicitor who has experience in the area as something like this will be dealt with on the merits of the individual case and can vary a lot depending on the circumstances.

jhegarty

Be very careful here becuase they are making him redundant, but I think they could just fire him if they wanted.

Get legal advise, but thread very carefully.

leeroybrown

jhegarty wrote: »

Be very careful here becuase they are making him redundant, but I think they could just fire him if they wanted.

This is an excellent point. Both Nody and I only commented on the legality of dismissing someone due to long term illness. With a potentially large redundancy payment on the table I'd suggest that that accepting it could prove to be a very sensible option.

doolox

A stroke was once a very debilitating thing to get and meant early retirement but now it can mean a return to work after 6 months to a year off depending on how severe the person is affected.
It may be possible to get an agreement to be considered for future vacancies after a certain length of time is elapsed built into the redundancy agreement.
Some companies allow ex-employees to be entered for interviews after 1 year had passed since they were let go.
If this was the case and your dad is good enough to take on the other candidates and passes a medical he might be able to get back in when the good times return.
Some companies might insist that the redundancy package be paid back in the event of a rehire and it might complicate pension entitlements which all need to be look into before making a decision.

leeroybrown

Another point that I'll add is that if they're offering 'redundancy' to him, they may need to reduce staff numbers anyway due to the economic nosedive and are being genuinely good to him in letting him go via a redundancy package rather than have to consider dismissing him outright at some stage in the future if his health doesn't recover. It does hit a nice balance between them resolving what is presumably an internal problem for them and allowing him to receive something other than just dismissal.

Wishbone Ash

Sephiroth_dude wrote:

]Hes still in hospital and will be for another month or two.

I hope he gets well soon.

leeroybrown wrote: »

With a potentially large redundancy payment on the table I'd suggest that that accepting it could prove to be a very sensible option.

I agree. Without wishing to sound unsympathetic in the circumstances, an employer would be under no legal obligation to continue to employ someone who is unlikely to be able to do the job that they were originally employed to do and therefore would be under no legal obligation to pay redundancy.

Sephiroth_dude

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I hope he gets well soon.

Thanks for very much,thanfully hes making a good recovery,hes speech is still a bit slurred but thats gonna take time to come back to normal anyway.

Also thanks to everyone else that replied,The reason I posted this is becuase my uncle thought he mite have a case,but it turns out there making a lot of people reduntant and are downsizing big time,so I guess thats the end of that,again thanks for your replies.