Career Break requested by employer

offalyal

Hi, a friend of mine has been on sick leave from work due to a genuine illness. His employer does not pay him and he is claiming illness benefit. His employer has now asked him to request a career break from work as apparently it will look better for the company's sick leave figures? Is there any downside to him accepting this does anyone know? Thanks in advance

Slydice

I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a standard career break by law.. so it'd probably depend on what is written on the piece of paper he signs.

Yeah, sounds like that from what I read here:
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/leave_and_holidays/types_of_leave_from_work.html

Career break or study leave

There is no entitlement to take unpaid leave such as a career break or study leave. You may have a provision in your contract of employment about this or you may be able to negotiate with your employer. An employer should consider requests for a career break or study leave made on an individual basis.

So.. read any contract really carefully

mel.b

If they take the career break, can they still claim illness benefit? I don't know, but I wouldn't think so?

AndrewJRenko

Fairly unethical for any employer to be massaging figures like this.

Neon_Lights

Employers always massage figures, I think the idea here is not to be too loyal these days. The friend should find another job

Victor

That would likely affect their PRSI contributions, length of service and CV at a minimum. Is this a work-related condition? Will this affect anything else that is happening, e.g. insurance?

What is the employer offering?

Neon_Lights wrote: »

The friend should find another job

Eh, the friend can't work.

LollipopJimmy

He would basically be resigning with an agreement to be rehired. This could be a sneaky way to get rid of him altogether or it's a way to get him to break service. I don't buy the problem with sick leave figures for a minute unless it's an entry level type role like working in a supermarket or a factory floor worker where tey have huge rates of absenteeism

AndrewJRenko

Neon_Lights wrote: »

Employers always massage figures,

The person up the line receiving the figures may not be quite a blasé as you about the massaging.

__..__

I wouldn't take it.
If he does take it make sure he gets in writing from the employer that they required him to take a career break because he was sick. Theyll change their tune suddenly when he asks for that first.

Neon_Lights

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

The person up the line receiving the figures may not be quite a blasé as you about the massaging.

The people up the line are generally too busy focusing on the bigger picture and as such are coinneseurs of creative statistics. Especially if they're fulfilling their strategic ends, happens in most departments from finance to hr to marketing.

jimmycrackcorm

It might depend on how long the person may be out sick. After a certain period of time, the person may be found unfit to work and their position terminated. A career break gets over that.

AndrewJRenko

Neon_Lights wrote: »

The people up the line are generally too busy focusing on the bigger picture and as such are coinneseurs of creative statistics. Especially if they're fulfilling their strategic ends, happens in most departments from finance to hr to marketing.

If they're too busy to care about these stats, why would changing the person from sick leave to career break make any difference?

If somebody is asking the employee to change, then somebody cares enough about the outcome of the change to ask for it.

bobbysands81

offalyal wrote: »

Hi, a friend of mine has been on sick leave from work due to a genuine illness. His employer does not pay him and he is claiming illness benefit. His employer has now asked him to request a career break from work as apparently it will look better for the company's sick leave figures? Is there any downside to him accepting this does anyone know? Thanks in advance

I am presuming this person works on the Civil or Public Service?

It is normal enough that Govt Depts in the Civil Service go through options someone who is on long term sick leave might have including the possibility of a career break.

If your pal takes a career break then it is possible that:

(i) When they give their return date back from Career Break they can be waiting a further 6 or 12 months (I can't remember which it is) to get back to work, this is solely at the discretion of their parent department.

(ii) They won't necessarily go back to the Govt Dept that they were previously working in.

(iii) Upon their return they could be placed on the redeployment panel for their area which means they could go back to a different Department that's up to 45km away from their workplace.

If this person is in the Civil Service they can talk through their options with their Employee Assistance Service.

If this person is not in the Civil Service then the above post has been a waste of time!!!

offalyal

Hi bobbysands81, my apologies, I didn't mention that this person is working in the private sector. Thanks

bobbysands81

offalyal wrote: »

Hi bobbysands81, my apologies, I didn't mention that this person is working in the private sector. Thanks

Ah well, ignore my post so!!!

screamer

It makes absolutely no difference about the "numbers" of sick leave days in a private company, none. Yes, it's difficult when someone is out long term, especially if it's a small team/ company where they don't backfill with a temporary replacement, but if someone is sick, they are sick, and no way your friend should agree to any "career break", which BTW, is requested by an employee, and not an employer. Also, I doubt they will be able to claim illness benefit if on a career break, and putting undue pressure on themselves financially, will only add stress to them, which will prolong illness and recovery. Best thing I would think, is for your friend to simply state that they will be remaining on illness leave under medical advise of their doctor. The company cannot force them to take a career break. The only caveat I would include here, is that they need to check their contract/ employee handbook if they have one, as some companies have a built in procedure to actually let an employee go if there is next to no chance of them returning to their role or being able to do it properly owing to illness, however, in most cases like that, there is an associated negotiated termination payout, so just be careful about that sort of stuff. I wish your friend a quick recovery BTW.

offalyal

Thanks very much screamer for your kind reply. Also thanks to everyone else who replied also.