SICK: GETS SACK
Page 19
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PLOYERS are not obliged• create employment for an ployee who has become inable of carrying out his orLai job, ruled a Birmingham ounal when they dismissed !aim of unfair dismissal by S. North against John nge and Son Ltd.
he circumstances were it Mr North who had orlally been employed as a ry driver had become the Tipany's transport chargeid. His duties required him assist with the loading and loading of vehicles, inlying some heavy physical 'ort and lifting.
In March 1977 Mr North had extremely serious accident at work, resulting in severe abdominal injuries which totally incapacitated him for some considerable time. In August 1977 the company received a report from Mr North's doctor saying he would be unfit for any work involving heavy lifting within the foreseeable future.
Because of this and other reports, it was decided in September that Mr North's employment would have to be terminated in due course but it wold be done in the most advanteous way for him.
On October 19, the company wrote to Mr North saying that they were keeping his job open for him in the hope that he would be fit in the forseeable future.
Mr North presented himself for work in November, when he was given a medical certificate saying he was fit for work, but not fit for any work involving heavy lifting. His dilemma was that he would not qualify for unemployment pay because of the certificate, though he had no alternative but to present himself for work.
The company felt that it had no alternative but to terminate his employment and Mr North did not dispute that in November he could have not have carried out his normal duties as a chargehand. In their decision, the tribunal referred to the Merseyside and North Wales Electricity Board v Taylor appeal, in which it was said that it is not for an employer, having once established the incapacity of an employee for his normal employment, to create a job for him.
The tribunal accepted evidence from the company that they were unable to fit Mr North into other work and concluded that it had come to a reasonable decision that the apparent incapacity justified termination of employment. It was not for the tribunal to decide whether they agreed with that decision or not.