Employment Law Seminars - All Events

Time to Go: There are many rights to time off from work; some paid, some not. We take you through all of the statutory rights that employees have to absent themselves from work or request time off; employer responsibilities; and the best ways for employers to control and monitor absence at work.

Table of legislative rights/responsibilities, case law analysis and practical guidance provided by Majella McGuinness of PwC

Long Time No See: When and how exactly does a long term absence become a disability? What, if anything, can employers do to minimise liability and justify a potentially discriminatory act if they dismiss a long-term absentee?

Has the Malcolm decision made it easier for employers to dismiss disabled/absent employees or do requirements regarding reasonable adjustments give adequate protection to those who are off work with illness? Case law analysis and practical guidance provided by Fiona Cassidy of Jones Cassidy Jones

How Long is a Piece of String?The Stringer and Schultz-Hoff cases held that annual leave accrues during long term absence and that employees must be allowed to take annual leave during absences or it must be carried forward to the next leave year. How can employers manage this situation and minimise liabilities?

The ECJ held in the Spanish case of Pareda that employees could effectively re-designate planned annual leave as sickness. But how will this work in practice? What rules or controls can employers impose? Practical guidance, case studies and template documents provided by Michael Black of CFR

Challenging Opinions: the role of an Occupational Health provider is to help organisations keep their absence to the lowest practicable level.

In this session we consider medical certificates; challenging these certificates and the opinion of the General Practitioner; the role of the OH provider in this process; fitness for work generally; fitness to attend disciplinary hearings; and the use of medical certificates to delay or postpone disciplinary hearings, with case examples.  Dr Philip McCrea, OH Consultants

Fit Notes: In April new ‘fit notes’ replaced medical certificates that stated employees were unable to work with alternative ones that state employees may be fit for some work.

Why do people go off sick in the first place; why is it important for employers to know this; and are ‘fit’ notes really the answer to our problems of absenteeism? Dr John Sharkey, Consultant Psychiatrist

I Want You Back for Good: A Carecall pilot project involving 7 long-term sick employees in the public sector resulted in 5 returning to work.

How was it done and what are the costs and benefits of their approach, which is now being extended to government departments? John Conaghan, Carecall