A fear of asking questions about health is driving people out of the workforce in the UK at a growing cost to society and business, according to the head of the Keep Britain Working review.
Former John Lewis Partnership boss Sir Charlie Mayfield, who has been tasked by the UK government with finding ways to keep sick and disabled people in work, said people often became jobless and reliant on benefits because of a lack of health support in the workplace.
He added that HR managers were often told not to call someone who was off sick, in case they were accused of bullying and ended up at a tribunal. “They would do anything to avoid that.”
Mayfield told the Financial Times: “There is a lot of fear. People who are fearful of disclosing their condition … and also fear on the side of the line manager, of saying the wrong thing,” he said.
People who might be better off staying in work, including many with mild anxiety or depression, were left to remain at home while managers “run down the clock” until they can terminate the contract.
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Mayfield, who will set out policy recommendations for ministers in the autumn, said the stakes were high because a “rising wave” of sickness and disability was “landing on a system which has never been particularly well suited or designed” to deal with it.
Mayfield, who was appointed to lead the review last November, was speaking as ministers come under pressure to cancel planned cuts to sickness and disability benefits that would save the government £4.8bn a year, but push hundreds of thousands of people into poverty.
Mayfield told the FT it was in businesses’ interests to have more support in place to prevent people falling out of work when they first develop a health condition. He said the UK system currently “starts with employment law . . . and then it’s GPs at the other end. There’s very little in between.”
Two weeks ago Mayfield told the annual Acas conference that pressures on family doctors meant that most do not have the time or expertise to assess people’s capacity to work when they ask for a fit note to justify extended time off.
Many people signed off sick ended up on extended sick leave until their eligibility for statutory sick pay ran out, he said, leaving them to slip into claiming health-related benefits.
Mayfield highlighted the Netherlands as an example of the opposite extreme. There, employers must offer occupational health support and continue paying wages for up to two years when an employee falls sick, provided employees engage with help to return to work.
Josie Beal, senior associate in the employment team at Birketts law firm, told Personnel Today that Mayfield was right to highlight HR managers’ reticence. She said: “Employers and managers can often feel apprehensive about contacting employees while they are absent from work due to sickness, particularly due to concerns about employment tribunal claims or employee grievances.
“This came across in our recent survey of 500 HR professionals in England and Wales on their experiences with the employment tribunal process over the preceding 24 months. Disability discrimination claims were one of the most common types of claim brought in the employment tribunal and stress and management of ill health were some of the most common type of grievance cases employers had dealt with.
“The survey findings showed an increased need to provide training and support to line managers on handling difficult conversations and managing ill health and disability.”
She added: “It is important to maintain regular contact with employees on sick leave to check in on them and their health and wellbeing, maintain engagement and seek to facilitate a return to work. The key for employers is to strike a balance between maintaining regular and supportive contact while ensuring that the frequency and method of contact is not overbearing or distressing for employees.
“We recommend employers maintain open and supportive lines of communication with employees from the outset of any period of sick leave and agree appropriate methods and frequency of contact.”
Last week, a slight fall in the numbers of younger people out of work and not in training or education was recorded.
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