Fake Stress Leave?

Neyite

I was having a drink with a friend the other day and she mentioned that a work colleague had made a mistake in work and was due to meet management but subsequently went out sick. A doctor’s cert was duly sent in with the reason for absence being stress leave. My friend seemed to think that management can’t take any investigations further or issue warnings now that the staffer in question is on stress leave.

Now, this is not the first time I heard this – a couple of years ago I heard another person telling a story of a work colleague in the exact same circumstances – facing a possible disciplinary and disappearing on stress leave. The consensus seems to be that the disciplinary action is ‘frozen’ and they can’t fire you. Note that I am specifically talking about someone abusing this reason for absence, not genuine stress sufferers.

Has anyone heard of this before? Is stress leave treated differently to another medical absence? How does a manager determine if it is bogus or not, and does it have an impact on duty of care to the employee if it’s claimed to be work related stress? Are management powerless to issue dismissals/ warnings etc once the stress leave cert has been pulled out?

pow wow

I know personally of two instances in which it happened. Both of which were related to thefts (one of cash, one of office equipment) and with a UK employer. I'm not overly familiar with how their absence was managed except for them having to send in regular certificates as they would with any other illness. The investigations were conducted in the absence of the employees as much as they could be, and both were dismissed within days of their return to work. One of them had their absence go on for a couple of months and my employer insisted they visit the company doctor/psychologist for assessment. They did and returned (to be fired) about a week after the assessment.

I've also heard countless stories from colleagues about such abuses of the system.

seamus

A lot of employers seem to allow themselves to be taken for a ride over sick leave, offering full pay indefinitely for anyone out on sick leave and failing to insert contractual clauses that allow for pay to be removed or allowing the employee to be let go after a certain period of time.

Strictly speaking, the person can be fired while on sick leave. There is nothing legally preventing the employer from ending the employment while the employee is sick. However many company policies will prevent this because the absence of the employee doesn't allow the a chance to defend themselves, so they have to wait until the employee returns.

As mentioned above, insisting that the employee see the company doctor (as they can do) will get them back in sharpish. As too would suspending their pay.

Stheno

Some companies are quite fearful of stress leave as it can be used as a euphenism for depression by some doctors, which afaik is classed as a disability and is to be treated differently.

wmpdd3

As pow wow has said, I have seen the investigation continuing while the person is out sick with statments taken from all other involved and then return to the normal proocess when they do return.

Sometimes to maybe 7 meetings and then dismissal.

xoxyx

I have seen this before. A friend of mine's boyfriend was a heavy drinker (borderline alcoholic, if not fully fledged). He was turning up to his job still drunk from the night before on a daily basis (he worked on an assembly line).

After a long time, he got called into his manager's office because his colleagues had complained about the state he was coming into work in. He was given a warning.

Less than a week later, he had gone to his doctor and got himself certified stress leave time.

Three months' later, he had not gone back to work and was still receiving full pay from his job. He was drinking every night - either at home or at the pub.

The thing about this guy was that he was a functioning alcoholic, so his days were spent going out for drives and camping trips and hanging out with his friends. The nights were spent pissed.

The last I heard, after a year or so, he was put on reduced pay after a number of consultations with his job's doctors.

Thankfully, he's no longer going out with my friend!!

Stress is a hard one to prove sometimes, and it's a tough one for employers, but I think that some people do get an easy ride after shouting "wolf", eh, I mean "stress". Not saying at all that it's always the case that people are abusing their position, but it happens, and there's no doubt about it.