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New Fit Note - effective from 6th April 2010
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Posted in Employers on Apr 08, 2010 by Richard Hayden
The new fit note scheme replaces the old sick notes this month and as a business you need to be aware of the changes within this scheme and your responsibility as an employer.
The sick note scheme simply meant that a GP can sign a patient off as unfit for work and until such time they were fully fit to return to work employees would remain on sick leave. Unless as an employer you experienced long term absence with employees you will probably have not deal with the rehabilitation of employees back to the workplace.
The new fit note scheme will allow GPs to either declare an employee is unfit for any work or to recommend that they are fit for some work subject to certain adjustments by the employer. As an employer you are therefore required to consider if the recommended adjustments are possible and if so manage these adjustments to allow the employee to return to work.
As an employer you are able to refuse to make the required adjustments if this has an adverse impact on your business however you still have a duty to assess the recommendations. In the event of recommended adjustments not being available then the employee will be treated as if they are unable to work in any capacity.
You do also need to remain aware of other legislation such as the Disability Discrimination Act when dealing with long term absence issues.
One of our HR Business Partners - Quest Consulting Services are happy to provide further details in an information pack, please contact us on 0844 504 4666 and we will be happy to refer you.
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The sick note scheme simply meant that a GP can sign a patient off as unfit for work and until such time they were fully fit to return to work employees would remain on sick leave. Unless as an employer you experienced long term absence with employees you will probably have not deal with the rehabilitation of employees back to the workplace.
The new fit note scheme will allow GPs to either declare an employee is unfit for any work or to recommend that they are fit for some work subject to certain adjustments by the employer. As an employer you are therefore required to consider if the recommended adjustments are possible and if so manage these adjustments to allow the employee to return to work.
As an employer you are able to refuse to make the required adjustments if this has an adverse impact on your business however you still have a duty to assess the recommendations. In the event of recommended adjustments not being available then the employee will be treated as if they are unable to work in any capacity.
You do also need to remain aware of other legislation such as the Disability Discrimination Act when dealing with long term absence issues.
One of our HR Business Partners - Quest Consulting Services are happy to provide further details in an information pack, please contact us on 0844 504 4666 and we will be happy to refer you.
At Key Appointments we want to supply you with relevant and useful information, if there are topics you would like more information on then please email us at info@key-appointments.co.uk
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