Work Problem - sick leave

reilig

I have a friend who works for Bank of Ireland Credit Card Services. He is currently on a leave of absence from his role which is due to end in 3 months time. He was granted the leave for health reasons. He suffers with his mental health - anxiety and panic attacks. They became a lot worse when he was moved within his job to an office which is an hour of a commute from his previous location. The people that he knew were moved to various other locations and he ended up knowing noone in his new location and became very isolated. This contributed even more to his mental health issues and after a number of months of on and off sick leave, he decided to take a longer break.

Now his leave is coming to an end. He wants to go back to work, but feels that he won't last long in the same location. He wants to be closer to his home (in the city centre). We have written to his HR manager, but he replied that there are no other vacancies in other offices and advised him to take a voluntary redundancy scheme (he doesn't want to do that).

Can anyone advise on this situation?

Would Bank of Ireland make reasonable accommodations for a person with a disability like this in the same way that other companies will?

Any advice, thoughts or information would be welcome?

edellc

reilig wrote: »

Would Bank of Ireland make reasonable accommodations for a person with a disability like this in the same way that other companies will?

this is the bit of your post OP that doesnt make sense to me...in all my years of working I have never ever come across a company who have made allowances for someone with mental health issues...physical disabilities yes to a degree but mental health never...not saying its right there should be allowances but I have never come across it and tbh they have made some allowances by giving time off for your friend to take a long break and give himself time to heal...the mental health you are talking about is a bit of a grey area as for most people its not long term and is manageable with medication, counselling and sometimes eliminating stress from ones life, its not like a disability where your confined to a wheelchair or have lost your sight when it will never get better, but I do know that some mental health issues are for life.

Obviously the bank has downsized so the old branch is no longer there, your friend was lucky at the time not to have been made redundant due to this and was kept on in the same capacity but in another location, he now has the opportunity to go back to work but doesn't want to go back to that location yet if that is all on offer from the company then I really see no alternative for him other than to either go back or take the redundancy.

OP the one thing in life we can not buy back is our health, jobs will come and go even in this economy but once our health is damaged it is hard to get it back to what is was before, so if I were you I would definitely be advising your friend of this as if he feels going back to this environment would set him back then is it really worth.

LeftBlank

You realise that you have probably put enough information in your post to identify your friend?

Wishbone Ash

LeftBlank wrote: »

You realise that you have probably put enough information in your post to identify your friend?

Given the OPs location, I'd say BOI was a disguise!

Nody

They have to make REASONBLE allowances for your friend; giving him a new position in an office with out an open position would in my book not fall under reasonable.