Employee having seizures

spadesaspade

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice regarding an employee who has started having seizures in the past 3 months.
There was no issues with this guy when he began 7 months ago but I am terrified something might happen to him, as we work on a construction site with live traffic around.
I am only a small company with 5 employees so hiring someone to be at his side is not an option.
He is a good worker and i would hate to see him out of work but I feel that if something happens to him, apart from hurting himself, it might have a bad impact on what I have tried to build over the past 10 years.
Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Losty Dublin

Is he doing a job whereby his having a seizure could be a safety hazard? Do you know what is causing them? Have you checked out your legal duty of care or legal obligations here?

Me thinks you should consult an employment law specialist or some sort of a safety consultant ASAP

BattleCorp

I'm not a solicitor so I'm just shooting the breeze with you.

You know that he has seizures yet you still have him working on a building site which can be a hazardous place to work at the best of times.

Just my personal opinion but I would think that having him there is a not a good idea. Even with someone working with him, what would happen if he had a seizure and fell off a building/scaffold, fell into a trench, was driving a machine etc. The fact that you know he has seizures may leave you open in the event of a personal injury claim or even a prosecution. Now once again, that isn't legal advice. That's just my opinion which may be totally incorrect.

GerardKeating

It might sound harse, but he has only been working for you for 7 months, so you can let him go with no cause. Have you discussed this with him?

You are not doing him (and your other employees) any favours keeping him and them in potential danger.

uck51js9zml2yt

You need a proper legal and medical opinion on him.
I suggest sending him to a specialist and getting a report back. You pay for it....or sack him after getting proper legal advice

TheChizler

GerardKeating wrote: »

It might sound harse, but he has only been working for you for 7 months, so you can let him go with no cause.

But wouldn't it be obvious that the cause was actually the seizures? Could they be classed as disability?

Garibaldi?

In your own interest, but especially for that person's welfare, I think he should not be working there. Surely he realises this himself.

seamus

GerardKeating wrote: »

It might sound harse, but he has only been working for you for 7 months, so you can let him go with no cause. Have you discussed this with him?

You are not doing him (and your other employees) any favours keeping him and them in potential danger.

TheChizler wrote: »

But wouldn't it be obvious that the cause was actually the seizures? Could they be classed as disability?

Yes yes yes, fncking hell. Do not just let him go. If you fire him and it turns out to be a disability, you could be in trouble.

That doesn't mean you have to have him at the site. It doesn't even mean you have to pay him; as a small company you don't have the finances to send him home and pay him.

This is a touchy situation. It may be that the employee is terrified to do anything about it in case he loses his job. Is he driving to the site? He shouldn't be in any position where he operates machinery or works at a height.

If you don't have any work that you can give him to keep him out of harm's way - even tea-making or pushing wheelbarrows should be fine - then you have to send him home.

- He needs to go to a doctor, if he hasn't already

- YOU need a doctor's certificate that the employee is fit to work

If the employee cannot provide a certificate from a doctor that he is fit to work, then you would be entitled to let him go.

If you are not confident that the employee will go to a doctor and be honest about the seizures, then you would be entitled to send him to a doctor of your choosing. Since the seizures happened in public, at work, you would be entitled to disclose this to the doctor, though the doctor may not discuss it with you, he may only take a note of it.

It's worth noting that this doesn't necessarily mean the employee has epilepsy or is permanently out of action. There are many different types of seizures, with many potential causes. And many potential treatments.

ifElseThen

My old man got a job in the ESB back in the 70s.
2 days after he started, he had a seizure.
The mother gets a ring to say he's in hospital. Hadn't told the job or the ma that he had epilepsy.

Surprisingly they didn't give him the bullet and he was there for the next 40 years working installing pylons.

My old man is on a medication now and hasn't had a seizure in years and it doesn't dull his senses.

Cover your ass for sure, talk to him and see how regular he takes them etc.

coolshannagh28

I was in a similar situation a few years ago , employee having seizures , fell and hurt themselves and was given sick leave with a doctors note , a month later employee asked to return to work , I insisted on a doctors note to indicate ability to perform the job safely before returning to work . This was not forthcoming ,It finished up in a stalemate , employee brought me to a labour tribunal where I was found to have unfairly dismissed the employee and had to make a full settlement .

_Brian

Honestly I’d be letting him go on H&S grounds, tell him you’d be happy to have him back when he can provide a letter saying he’s been maybe 6 months seizures free.

Is he driving to work ?? I doubt his insurer would provide cover if they knew.

Also, contact your own insurance provided, you I’m sure have EL cover, they wound need to be informed about this employee and I doubt they would cover him so keeping him on is risking your business and the employment of all employees.

EdgeCase

If you're a small company without a dedicated HR unit with expertise in this kind of thing, you should definitely get legal advice from a solicitor who is familiar with employment law, not just your local one.

In the long run, it may cost you a bit, but it's going to save you a lot of problems and think about it as a learning experience as you can put general policies in place to ensure that you can deal with similar issues easily in future.

As for the guy himself, he needs to go get that checked out and be assessed for the kind of work he's actually able to do with that kind of problem, as well as getting whatever the root cause of it checked out too. A seizure can be something completely benign or a sign of something far more serious.

For his own sake and also for the sake of anyone he might accidentally injure while operating machinery / driving etc, he should be getting himself to a neurologist.

If this can happen then the last place he should be is on a site. If he did have an accident that caused a fatality, wouldn't you be culpable?

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/crime/epileptic-john-oconnor-jailed-knocking-3242996

Mooooo

Legally he can't drive for 12 months unless a neurologist says otherwise. That would be on site as well as on the road. Operating machinery is also out, i assume this would include consaws and the like. Working at heights would also be out from a h&s perspective. Lone working alarms can be used. He clips it to the belt and it will ring a number or activate a base station if it goes horizontal or whatever.
As said above a solicitor prob the best bet to know where you stand, as a building site would be one of the worst possible locations for some one having regular seizures as even if you control all aspects on your own side there will likely always be someone else on site that may not

seamus

rusty cole wrote: »

If this can happen then the last place he should be is on a site. If he did have an accident that caused a fatality, wouldn't you be culpable?

OP would be liable for any accident, fatality or not. As he is aware of these issues, he has a duty of care not only to the employee, but to everyone else on-site, to remove this employee from any work that could pose a hazard.

If an accident were to happen, his insurance company could refuse to pay out on the basis that he allowed this person to continue working on-site. It could financially ruin him and his company.

GerardKeating

TheChizler wrote: »

But wouldn't it be obvious that the cause was actually the seizures? Could they be classed as disability?

You omitted that last part of the line when you quoted me, where i comment...

GerardKeating wrote: »

Have you discussed this with him?

TheChizler

GerardKeating wrote: »

You omitted that last part of the line when you quoted me, where i comment...

I'm not sure how a discussion with him would indemnify them from an employment discrimination case. It's just something to be mindful of.

granturismo

_Brian wrote: »

Honestly I’d be letting him go on H&S grounds,....

There is no such thing. Alternative duties may or may not be available for the OPs firm. Possibly incapacity dismissal may apply https://www.sor-solicitors.ie/knowledge/incapacity-dismissals.html

https://www.crowleysolicitors.ie/dismissal-for-incapacity/