Phased return to work. Rights?
Phased return to work. Rights? I finished my rads on 27th February this year, preceded by a mastectomy and 6 cycles of chemo. I’m currently living on incapacity benefit and my income protection insurance. i’m a supervising social worker for a private fostering agency and I want to return to work, probably in 3 weeks time. I’m really worried about doing too many hours but I can’t live on part time money. I’ve spoken to my boss about a phased return to work but this would mean on a reduced salary which I can’t live on. My boss has said she can’t provide a phased return with reduced hours and full pay as she’d still have to pay someone to work the remainder of my hours/caseload, and her budget won’t stretch to this. I’d lose my incapacity benefit as soon as I return to work. I won’t qualify for the 16hours/£86 “thing” with inc ben as I earn too much i.e I’d earn £86 very quickly, and I can’t live on that and part time money. My insurance stops as soon as I return to work. I’m a single parent so I don’t have a partner who can shoulder some of the financial responsibility. I’ve tried finding out if there is any legal right to a phased return to work with fulll pay but I can’t find out from anywhere. I’ve tried CAB, who did n’t know, and ACAS who said it can be negotiated. does anyone know if there is any legal right or protection for this? My boss wants me to go back full time and “see how I get on”. One of my colleagues has told me it is really hectic at the moment and I know I’m going to end up in at the deep end.
Geraldine
HI Geraldine
I know that it states on the gov.uk website the following
Some of the new laws - including the increased protection for people who have HIV, cancer and multiple sclerosis - came into force in December 2005. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) website has more about the December 2005 changes.
not sure what the involve though guess you could ring them…
kind regards lucy
Sadly I think not Hi Geraldine
What a predicament to be in. I’m pretty sure there is not a legal right to a phased return to work on full pay…assumng you’ve used up all your sick pay entitlement. Are you in a union? You could ask them for advice? (though my union were hopeless.)
What about going back full-time, but be determined to take time off when you need it, leave early, don’t take work home with you.?..easier said than done I know.
I did get paid full pay while not working full-time and also got generous dollops of sick pay beyond already v. generous conditions, but that was only because I was lucky enough to work for a Univeristy which had a relaly positive approach to people with cancer, and also a good line manager who pulled some strings for me for which I’m eternally grateful…mind you the people who had to work hours extra to pick up my workload didn’t feel so good about it.
I hope you manage to get a solution which works and pays for you.
best wishes
Jane
Thanks for your replies. I think I’m going to have to go back full time and do my damnedest not to take on too much. Don’t think this is going to be easy as the view of our head office is that " 6 months is long enough to get over cancer" so I think they expect me to hit the ground running. Also probably explains why they were only prepared to pay company sick pay for 6 months in total. I’ve used up all of my SSP. It seems that the only protection the DDA gives me is that they can’t sack me. It’s an awkward situation and one I’m sure lots of other people find themselves in.
Geraldine
I can sympathise with you. It shouldn’t have to be this way. It is 9 years since I was diagnosed. I was only on full pay for 6 months then it went to half pay. In total I was off 7 months, I too had to go back due to the financial side of things.
Whilst I was off my job disappeared and they had to find another for me in another department. The trouble was I had to go back full time, not phased in, and they really piled the work on. I was exhausted every night for a month. No one seemed bothered, and eventually I got a pay off from them and left.
It’s not right that employers can get away with this, there should be more financial help from the government in these cases.
Hope you can work something out.
All the best
Chris x
Disability Rights Commission I rang the DRC today and got some good advice from them. The company that I work for is a national company with profits in the millions. The DRC advisor said that a phased return is a reasonable change, and a large company using cost as a reason not to do this, is a poor excuse, and “unreasonable”. Interestingly he told me that some of the worst organisations when it comes to disabled rights, reasonable changes, etc, are the social care ones, particularly local authority… So much for non oppressive, anti discriminatory practice!!
Anyway, just thought it would be useful for anyone else who works for a large organisation to know this.
Geraldine