Occupational health meeting

Hi ,

I’m so sorry to hear that you are experiencing difficulties with arranging your return to work . My name is Linda and I am a Work Support adviser. My team advises on employment law rights on the Macmillan Support Line.

Firstly, it’s important for you to be aware that due to your cancer diagnosis you are protected by the Equality Act 2010 if you live in England, Scotland or Wales. If you live in Northern Ireland you are still protected, however, the law is called the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Both laws protect you from discrimination linked to your disability. They also allow you to request reasonable adjustments at work. Reasonable adjustments are changes or adaptations at work that might help you overcome any difficulties you are facing due to your cancer. The protection is lifelong and does not depend on you having active treatment. You can read more about both discrimination and reasonable adjustments in our booklet “Your Rights At Work”

You mention that you feel your boss does not understand cancer and its side effects. I have provided a link to our booklet called Managing Cancer in the Workplace   which may be helpful for him to read as it has been designed specifically for Employers.

A reasonable adjustment at work such as a phased return is a temporary measure and will not change your original Employment Contract. It is designed to support you back to work gradually by increasing your hours over a period of time and with regular reviews with your Line Manager. It can be helpful for you to ascertain how many hours you can cope with. You can ask your Doctor or Consultant to provide a Fit Note to support your request for Reasonable Adjustments at work.

If however, you have made the decision that you want to reduce your working hours permanently, this would be a permanent change to the terms and conditions of your contract. As a disabled employee, you can request this as a workplace adjustment to enable you to remain at work. If you’re your Employer refuses your reasonable adjustment request, they would have to prove that it was unreasonable of them to make the adjustments.   Failure to make a reasonable adjustment for a disabled employee could be deemed to be discrimination.

A referral to Occupational Health is considered good employment practice. This means that you will be assessed by a medical professional who will ask about your ability to work and what reasonable adjustments may be needed to support you. If you are concerned that the person undertaking your assessment may not be very experienced in your type of cancer, you can provide them with information in advance of the appointment. This may be information you already have from your medical team. It is important that they know what aspects of your job you will need support with. They will also make recommendations for such reasonable adjustments in the Report for your Employer to note. Both you and the Employer have a copy of the Occupational Health Report. You have the option to tick a box to say that you wish to see the Report before it is sent to your Employer which we recommended you do. This may be helpful as it will allow you to check the report for accuracy and you can have amendments made if needed before it is sent to the Employer.

If you would like to discuss the matter further, you can do this by replying to this post, via webchat, emailing us or you can call us to talk through your situation in more depth and we will be happy to help.  We are available on our helpline between 8 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday on 0808 808 0000 option 1, then 2, then 3.

 Linda – Work Support Adviser