Attending Sick Absence Meetings

Keeping in Touch During Absence – Attending Sickness Absence Meetings:

Are you nervous about attending a sickness absence meeting with your employer?

Do you want to know your employment rights UK when asked to attend a sickness absence meeting while on sick leave?

Do you want to know what to say at a sickness absence meeting?

This webpage will assist you in attending a sickness absence meeting and answer the most commonly asked questions, which we get asked when employees are off sick.

This webpage last updated 6.6.26.

My wife Amy & I are employment consultants with 26 years combined experience helping employees like you.

Question – Do I have to attend a sickness absence meeting?

Even if you are signed off from work as ‘unfit to work’ by your GP, then yes, you will still likely have to [communicate] with your employer about your sickness absence from work. However, that does not necessarily mean that you have to actually attend a sickness absence meeting either in person or via video link.

In the alternative to attending a sickness absence meeting with your employer, we suggest you ask your employer to undertake the sickness absence process via written form. Ask your employer to email you a list of questions, which your employer wants to ask you regarding your sickness absence from work. This will obviate the need to actually attend a sickness absence meeting in person or via video link. We have covered this topic in further detail below.

Question – Sickness Absence Review Meeting Questions / What not to say in a sickness absence meeting?

When attending the sickness absence meeting, the employer will want to know when you will be returning to work. This is a trap. If there is no indication of a return to work the employer can dismiss on grounds of capability. Thus, rather than say you don’t know when you will return to work or you are not sure, it would be best to say that you will be guided by your doctor or GP. Put shortly, your GP is best placed to know when you are fit to return to work. So tell your employer that you will be guided by your GP regarding your fitness to return to work.

You could also take the onus off yourself and put the onus on the employer regarding your return to work by saying you will be guided by occupational health.

You may also be asked as part of the sickness absence review meeting a series of questions about what your employer can do to get you back to work. This is a loaded question, which puts the onus on you to answer. To this end, we suggest honesty is the best policy, so inform your employer what the barriers are, which prevents your return to work.

The barriers which prevent your return to work may include the following:

All the above are very likely to be barriers to your return to work.

Sickness Absence Meeting Occupational Health Referral:

During the sickness absence meeting your employer may want you to be assessed by occupational health. This is a double edge sword because the occupational health doctors duty of care is not to you as the employee, but rather your employer. See Kapfunde v Abbey National and Daniel [1998] IRLR 583 (CA).

To this end, if your employer wants to refer you to occupational health during the sickness absence meeting, Amy & I suggest you visit our web page – What not to say to occupational health.

Sickness Absence Work-Related Stress:

If you are signed off from work as ‘unfit to work’ with work-related stress, chances are your employer will want to meet with you to discuss what is causing your stress at work. Amy & I suggest that if your employer contacts you to attend a sickness absence meeting to discuss your work-related stressors, that you raise a grievance letter in advance of the sickness absence meeting to outline the ‘root causation’ of your work-related stress. Please visit our webpage on 15 steps to take before you submit your grievance letter to your employer.

By outlining the ‘root causes’ of your work-related stress in a grievance letter, you will:

  • Slow the sickness absence process down.
  • Inform your employer of the barriers, which prevents your return to work.
  • Put the onus on the employer to put things right.

Raising a Grievance Letter for Work-Related Stress:

By raising a grievance letter for work-related stress, you are letting your employer know what has happened at work, which has ultimately led to your sickness absence from work. You can’t reasonably be expected to return to work if you are currently signed off from work with work-related stress. Put shortly, you can argue that returning to work without resolving the ‘root cause’ of your work-related stress will only exacerbate your work-related stressors even further. As such, it is likely that your employer will put the sickness absence meeting on hold. The grievance procedures will then take priority.

By raising a grievance letter for work-related stress, you can outline within your grievance letter what it is at work, which is causing your work-related stress, and furthermore, what your employer has to put in place so that you can return to work. This is logical.

By outlining your complaints in a grievance letter about the triggers for your stress at work, you are providing your employer with the opportunity via the grievance procedures to both address (and remove) the problems at work, which are causing your work-related stress. See Donelien v Liberata UK Ltd UKEAT/0297/14/JOJ at paragraph 34:

“The real cause of the Claimant’s problems was workplace stress, producing adverse health effects, which could be remedied not by any medical treatment but only by changing the workplace in a way in which the employer had decided not to do, though the employee would wish, so that as long as the employer was determined to resist any change, the adverse health effects on the employee would be likely to continue.”

Thus, by identifying within your grievance letter what the cause of your work-related stressors are, you are giving your employer a reasonable opportunity to put things right so that you can return to work. This can obviate the sickness absence meeting because your employer is then aware of what it needs to do to get you back to work.

The other benefit of raising a grievance letter to complain about work-related stress, is that you will be raising ‘health and safety concerns’. By outlining within your grievance letter what has caused your work-related stress, you are ‘asserting a statutory right’ in accordance with s.44(1)(c) of The Employment Rights Act 1996:

“He brought to his employer’s attention, by reasonable means, circumstances connected with his work which he reasonably believed were harmful or potentially harmful to health or safety”.

In the authority of Mr S Edwards and Others v The Secretary of State for Justice UKEAT/0123/14/DM, the Employment Appeal Tribunal made the following observation at paragraph 31:

“Section 44(1)(c) is to do with drawing safety matters to the attention of an employer.”

Thus, by ‘asserting a statutory right’ on grounds of health and safety i.e., that work-related stress has triggered anxiety, anxiety attacks or depression, you have drawn safety matters to your employer’s attention via TheEmployment Rights Act 1996. This now protects you against victimisation.

Work-Related Stress Anxiety and Depression:

More often than not my wife Amy & I see that work-related stress has triggered anxiety, ruminating thoughts, sleep deprivation, and depression.

In fact, in the case authority of Donelien v Liberata UK Ltd UKEAT/0297/14/JOJ, The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that “stress” is synonymous with anxiety, depression, and panic at paragraph 19:

“Although “stress” is probably better considered as a potential cause of some cases of illness, and is not and cannot sensibly be called an illness on its own, it is common experience that the word is used as a useful label to attach to symptoms which arise from such pressures in those cases, generally though not exclusively being related to diagnoses such as anxiety, depression and panic.”

Thus, if you are signed off from work by your GP with ‘work-related stress’ it is fair comment to say that on the balance of probabilities, your employer knows that you are suffering from ‘anxiety / depression’. This is called ‘constructive knowledge’.

Constructive knowledge is where your employer knows (or reasonably ought to know) that you have an impairment or disability, which is affecting your physical or psychological health and well-being. The European Human Rights Commission outlines ‘constructive knowledge’ as follows:

“It is not enough for the employer to show that they did not know that the disabled person had the disability. They must also show that they could not reasonably have been expected to know about it. Employers should consider whether a worker has a disability even where one has not been formally disclosed, as, for example, not all workers who meet the definition of disability may think of themselves as a ‘disabled person’.” 

“An employer must do all they can reasonably be expected to do to find out if a worker has a disability.”

Therefore, if work-related stress has triggered anxiety, depression, or panic attacks, then the onus is on your employer and its Human Resources Department to establish the matter of ‘disability‘.

Question – What to say in a Sickness Absence Attendance Meeting?

If you are suffering from anxiety / depression then make sure that you say so within your grievance letter before attending a sickness absence meeting. This way, you can alert your employer to the fact that it needs to make reasonable adjustments for your return to work, and furthermore, for the sickness absence meeting too, such as undertaking the sickness absence meeting via email in the alternative to attending a sickness absence meeting in person or over the telephone.

Question – What to say in an Attendance Meeting as an Employee:

We suggest you outline what has happened at work which has ultimately led to your sickness absence from work. You need to outline the ‘links’ between your sickness absence from work, and what happened at work which made you ill in the first place.

It is incumbent upon you to outline this information in writing in advance of attending the sickness absence meeting.

Outlining in writing the ‘link’ between your sickness absence from work and the triggers for your sickness absence from work, will automatically trigger your employer’s grievance procedures. For the avoidance of doubt, any ‘complaint in writing’ is a ‘grievance’ as held in the authority of Shergold.

Question: What not to say in a Sickness Absence Meeting:

When attending a sickness absence meeting do NOT say that you do not know when you will be able to return to work, otherwise this will green light your employer to dismiss you on grounds of ‘capability’ under s.98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996:

“Capability”, in relation to an employee, means his capability assessed by reference to skill, aptitude, health or any other physical or mental quality.“

As stated above, it is best to say that you are under the care of your GP and will be guided by your GP as to your fitness to return to work. That way, you have taken the onus off you and put the onus on your GP.

Remember, you can always book a telephone consultation with us (£35 for an initial consultation up to one hour) to discuss your employment situation and see what Amy & I can do to help you moving forward so you don’t fall foul of your employer’s sickness absence policy and procedures. Please email us at – myrightsuk@protonmail.com or call us on 07775943414 between 9-5 UK time.

Amy & I can help you navigate the sickness absence process and avoid the pitfalls most employees make when an employer is managing your sickness absence.

Anxiety / Depression Sickness Absence Meeting:

If you are feeling nervous about attending a sickness absence meeting and you are diagnosed with anxiety or depression, you can ask your employer as a ‘reasonable adjustment’ to undertake the sickness absence meeting via email.

Put shortly, in the alternative to attending a sickness absence meeting in person or via video link, ask your employer to email you a list of questions, which your employer wants to ask you, and inform your employer that you will email them your responses. If your employer fails to agree to this ‘reasonable adjustment’ in the alternative to attending a sickness absence meeting, reach out to Amy & I to assist you – myrightsuk@protonmail.com or 07775943414 during business hours 9-5 UK time.

Reasonable Adjustments Sickness Absence Meeting:

If you are signed off with work-related stress, anxiety, depression or have any other medical condition, your employer should be making reasonable adjustments for you to attend the sickness absence meeting, and furthermore, when implementing the procedures during the sickness absence policy. Therefore, if you have been invited to attend a sickness absence meeting, but your employer has failed to implement any reasonable adjustments for the sickness absence meeting you have been invited to attend, that would potentially amount to a contravention of s.20(3); s.21(1)(2) & s.39(2)(b)(d)(5) of The Equality Act 2010.

For the avoidance of doubt, there is no onus on you as the employee to have to either suggest or request reasonable adjustments for the sickness absence meeting. This position was held in the authority of Mr C Orogbu v Duncan Lewis Solicitors Ltd: 3201906/2021 at paragraph 121:

“The duty to make the adjustment arises by operation of law, it is not essential for the claimant to have identified at the time what should have been done. The EHRC Code of Practice on Employment (2011) at paragraph 6.24 says that there is no onus on a disabled person to suggest what adjustments should be made.”

A similar position was also held in the authority of S v A 2201874/2018 whereas the Employment Tribunal held that:

“The duty to consider whether adjustments should be made and what those particular adjustments should be, falls squarely on the employer at the time it is under the duty.”

Sickness Absence Trigger Points:

It is very likely that your employer has written to you to invite you to attend a sickness absence meeting because you have triggered the sickness absence trigger point.

The majority of employers will have a ‘trigger point’ within the sickness absence policy.

As such, if your sickness absence is ‘disability-related’ then your employer MUST readjust the sickness absence ‘trigger point’ within the sickness absence policy as a ‘reasonable adjustment’.

A failure by you employer to adjust the sickness absence ‘trigger point’ (if your sickness absence is because of a medical condition) could amount to ‘discrimination arising in consequence of disability’ in contravention of s.15 of The Equality Act 2010.

In this regard, we draw your attention to The EHRC Code of Practice on Employment at Chapter 17, Paragraph 6.20:

“Employers are not automatically obliged to disregard all disability-related sickness absences, but they must disregard some or all of the absences by way of an adjustment if this is reasonable. If an employer takes action against a disabled worker for disability-related sickness absence, this may amount to discrimination arising from disability (see Chapter 5).”

The Courts have held that employees with a disability or impairment will likely have a higher rate of sickness absence. See Parnaby v Leicester City Council UKEAT/0025/19/BA at paragraph 14:

“It was also well known that someone suffering from a mental impairment would be at a higher risk of that impairment recurring”

To this end, if you have a disability or impairment and your employer has failed to amend its sickness absence trigger point for you, or is applying the Bradford Factor for your sickness absence from work, reach out to Amy & I at: myrightsuk@protonmail.com or call is 9-5 on 07775943414 to assist you in writing a grievance letter for disability discrimination.

My wife Amy & I are employment consultants with 26 years combined experience helping clients like you. We only work with employees – not employers.

Amy & I created this website after taking our own employers to the Employment Tribunal having endured a toxic work environment. Amy & I realised that other people like us were going through the grievance, disciplinary, performance, capability, and sickness absence procedures, but there was little or no support for employees like us. Hence, we created this website to assist you in writing a better letter of grievance to your employer. We have created this website to assist you in knowing your employee rights and employment rights in the UK.

This website has dozens of webpages dealing with all manner of employment issues. Take the time to educate yourself and articulate your employee rights UK.

Amy & I also have a second website which web site also provides additional information about attending sickness absence meetings.

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