- Conference
- 2011 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 2 December 2010
- Decision
- Carried
Following the comprehensive spending review it is clear that the NHS is not protected from cuts by this coalition government. Conference is concerned by an increasingly aggressive misuse of staff sickness by some NHS employers to avoid the costs of redundancy.
In addition to the fundamental dishonesty of this approach, staff and patient health is being jeopardised. Staff are being forced to attend work when they are genuinely unwell which is discriminatory to many disabled members. Furthermore, as staff are forced to attend work whilst ill due to fears about their employment, colleagues and patients will be put at risk from infections.
Conference calls upon the Health Group Executive to:
1) campaign for consistent, fair and non-discriminatory sickness management policies in all 4 nations;
2) provide branches with model guidance on best practice sickness absence procedures;
3) raise this matter with the NHS employers through the Staff Council.