Q: If an employee hands in a sick note and is found to be working elsewhere during the time in which they claimed to be ill, can I fire said individual?
Aug 14 2007
Answered by: Carolyn Mumby Ask a question
If you can prove it then your employee is lying to you and the company, which in itself could potentially be regarded as gross misconduct, but a great deal will depend on the circumstances.
For example, if the employee has been asked about the suspected fraud and continues to lie to the company, then obviously the matter is more serious than an employee who may later say that they were unaware that there was anything wrong with their actions. This could be due to the fact that the shifts at the other place of work were only light work whereas the work at your company was more onerous and conflicted with the advice they had received from their doctor.
This is a familiar claim by employees when challenged. The case of the employee who claimed sick pay while moonlighting as a painter and decorator highlighted how careful an employer must be to follow the correct disciplinary procedure. In that case they dismissed the employee in his absence because he failed to attend the disciplinary meeting, and shockingly the tribunal awarded the employee £15,000 compensation, even though he had clearly lied to his employer and cheated the tax payer all along.
The moral of the story is that however much the employer is morally in the right, it will rarely be sufficient to excuse them if they get the procedure wrong. So make sure you have watertight evidence, that you give the employee a chance to answer the allegations, that you apply the correct disciplinary procedure and if you are not 100% confident, then you should get specific advice about the case in point before making a dismissal.
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