|
News and Articles
The Business Doctor is a weekly advice column in the Business Section of the Sunday Times written by Peter Done, the managing director of Peninsula Business Services. It is a sharp focussed response to various questions sent in by business owners, managers and directors.
An example is shown below from 11 th June 2006
 |
 |
 Business Doctor - 11/06/2006
(from Sunday Times, London , 11/06/2006 )
EH Writes: An employee who has been with me for four months has repeatedly failed to meet his targets. Despite retraining, coaching and follow-up support, he is unable to perform. The only problem is that the employee is disabled and confined to a wheelchair.
I know this is a difficult area and I wish to avoid litigation claims. I am altering the workplace to make it easier for him to access his workstation in the hope that he improves.
Under normal circumstances, given the individual's short length of service, he would not be able to make a claim for unfair dismissal at a tribunal, writes Peter Done, managing director of Peninsula .
However, he could make a claim for breach of contract or discrimination, where no length of service is required.
Let's deal first with the breach-of-contract issue. If the job is beyond his abilities despite retraining, you would deal with the matter through your capability procedures. These should comply with the Statutory Disputes Procedures. As long as you stick to the terms, you are unlikely to fall foul of a tribunal in this area.
The most sensitive issue is whether the inability to perform to the standard required is related to the employee's disability. In such a case you will need to investigate what reasonable adjustments might be made to help the individual do the job to the standard required.
You will need to ask an occupational-health expert to assess the individual, the job and the workplace to see what can be done to help him in his role. What adjustments can be reasonably made will depend on the resources of the employer. Local councils or charities might fund some of these costs.
It would be prudent to investigate what financial assistance is available because a failure to do so might be held against you, especially if your argument for doing nothing is based on costs.
The process for handling this issue is likely to be a slow one; it must also be thorough and carried out to the letter of the law if you are to avoid a claim for discrimination or unfair dismissal at tribunal. |
|
Return to news and articles...
All the contributions for 2006 can be found below:
|
