Croner Training's 8th update on Fitness for work 2008

Course Overview

Most employers and occupational health staff are faced with difficult decisions concerning fitness for work, whether this be recruitment decisions or decisions concerning a return to work after a spell of sickness absence. The impact of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 has made itself felt in many important decisions coming from the Employment Tribunals. This leading one-day seminar will help you answer the following types of questions:

• Would it be lawful to refuse to recruit someone with a previous history of mental illness?
• What action can an employer take if he finds out that an employee has lied at the pre-employment interview about a significant ill health problem?
• What can an employer do if he suspects an employee is malingering or ‘cheating’ whilst off sick?
• Is it lawful for an employer to use the absence record of an employee with a disability in a redundancy selection exercise?
• What is the evidence base for effectively helping employees with common mental health problems?

Audience

• Experienced practitioners who wish to update themselves in areas of occupational health and the law
• HR managers
• Occupational health physicians
• Nurses
• Line managers
• Health and safety managers

Skills Gained

This one-day seminar will help you:

• Improve your understanding of the law and good practice in dealing with ill health cases
• Gain an understanding of the ethical issues of confidentiality and consent and what your doctors and nurses can and cannot tell you
• Receive the most up-to-date information on the new data protection rules and guidance from the Information Commissioner on worker's health and medical records
• Learn about the impact of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the new DDA regulations 2004 and the most recent case law
• Model precedents for sickness absence and other ill health policies
• Have your questions answered by two leading experts in the field of occupational medicine and the law
• Return to your company and implement some practical solutions to difficult problems

Course Outline

Medical ethics and the DPA 1998

• Confidentiality and informed consent, sensitive data under 5.2 of DPA 1998
• Medical reports and disclosure issues
• Difficult situations

Age discrimination Regulations 2006 - health and age and recent case law

• Bloxham vs Freshfields
• ECJ mandatory retirement age

Stress, anxiety and depression - how to deal with these issues

• Intel vs DAW
• Implications
• Making reasonable adjustments under the Disability
• Discrimination Act 1995 as amended

• Examples of reasonable adjustments
• Sickness and stress
• Triggered by discipline or performance investigations
• Drafting a sick pay clause to deal with 'stress' absences caused by disciplinary issues
• Offering options to those who go off with stress to avoid a disciplinary hearing - latest Guidance from ACAS
• Conduct during sickness absence
• Using private detectives and Human Rights Act 1998 and the use of covert surveillance
• HSE Stress Management Standards - how to adapt them to your own organisation the law and medical issues for 2008
• How to deal with stress; focus groups, risk assessments, round table discussions, policies and procedures and using clinical psychologists
• The policy at EDF Energy

Bullying at work

• Latest case law
• Practical tips on how to deal with bullying

Sickness absence - getting staff back to work

• Understanding sickness absence - recent case law and good practice
• Obtaining medical records and conflicting reports
• Assessing medical reports
• Employees who refuse to give consent to disclosure of medical records and medical reports
• Hanlon vs. Kirklees Borough Council
• MED 3 - are they meaningless and can you challenge them?
• How to deal with malingerers
• Drawing up an effective policy
• Conflicting medical advice

How to assess fitness to return to work

• Asking the doctor the right questions
• Expert evidence

How to use your OHP service to assist in short-term, unrelated sickness absence cases and the acute or long term sickness cases

• Early retirement on ill health grounds
• Permanent Health Insurance cases

Croner Training's 8th update on Fitness for work 2008 / cm65301