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Refusing to visit occupational health

Victoria

Hi everyone!

We have an employee who returned from maternity leave in June this year, she came back to work with reduced hours (9:15am-16:00pm) and on a four day week basis. Since returning to the office the employee seems to have a different issue nearly every week meaning she needs to work from home or is sick. Every illness is a mystery and needs numerous hospital appointments and it never gets resolved by the doctor (always ongoing). 

Recently the employee hurt her knee falling over (out of work) and the employee has purchased a leg brace as the NHS refused to issue one - we also provide private health care with BUPA and they did not give one. As an employer we have been as flexible as possible in allowing working from home for two weeks, two physio appointments a week during work time and doctors appointments. But the leg has been causing issue's for a month now so we have requested the employee visit occupational health.

This is partly because we want to see if their are any recommendations by the doctor and partly because we are worried their are underlying issues with the employee. We are worried that all of these problems are a cry for attention. 

The employee is refusing to visit occupation health because she doesn't feel it is necessary. Please can I have some advice on options for our next move?

We value the employee but the situation is becoming increasingly difficult for her line manager and taking up a lot of time. 

Thank you

Victoria!

Parents
  • I remember reading about a claim of unfair dismissal where the employee had refused to cooperate with the employer and they had to take the decision on the limited information they had. One of the things they did was google the medical conditions. That might sound inadequate, but it was accepted as a genuine attempt by the employer to inform themselves before taking action and the claim was dismissed. Unfortunately, I can’t remember any names.

    I suggest you also do your own research (reputable sites only such as NHS) and then call her to a meeting to discuss her absence history and the information you have managed to piece together. I would also try sending the absence history to your OH assessor and asking for any observations they can make In theory. If the response is that they cannot comment, that goes into your bundle of documents demonstrating that you took all reasonable steps to investigate.

    I suspect the employee thinks that she has foiled you by her refusal to cooperate and you need to demonstrate that you will not back off from fair management of the situation. She needs to get the message that absences every week are not compatible with continuing employment and will be addressed. She may then agree to attend an OH appointment, but if she doesn’t you are proceeding in a reasonable manner.
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  • I remember reading about a claim of unfair dismissal where the employee had refused to cooperate with the employer and they had to take the decision on the limited information they had. One of the things they did was google the medical conditions. That might sound inadequate, but it was accepted as a genuine attempt by the employer to inform themselves before taking action and the claim was dismissed. Unfortunately, I can’t remember any names.

    I suggest you also do your own research (reputable sites only such as NHS) and then call her to a meeting to discuss her absence history and the information you have managed to piece together. I would also try sending the absence history to your OH assessor and asking for any observations they can make In theory. If the response is that they cannot comment, that goes into your bundle of documents demonstrating that you took all reasonable steps to investigate.

    I suspect the employee thinks that she has foiled you by her refusal to cooperate and you need to demonstrate that you will not back off from fair management of the situation. She needs to get the message that absences every week are not compatible with continuing employment and will be addressed. She may then agree to attend an OH appointment, but if she doesn’t you are proceeding in a reasonable manner.
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