Employee Statutory Sick Pay

[Guest]

I am a owner and manager of a pub in the UK and currently right now we have an employee on Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) since September of 2018.

They have provided evidence from their doctor saying they are not fit to work due to depression and their mental health. As of right now they are attending day hospital for treatment and under medication to help manage their condition.
I have been made aware that they are currently self employed on something called Twitch in which they stream games for around 5 hours a day, 3 to 4 times a week. I have seen one of their streams and they seem perfectly fine and seem happy enough to interact with people and complete tasks without difficulty. I have also been told by one of their flatmates, that they regularly take their dog on a walk each day and seem to be perfectly functional at home. They interact normally and apparently according to their flatmate, they just play video games in their room all day.

We are a small business and we can ill afford to pay for someone that appears to be in a fit enough condition to work.

I have also been told that this person did not disclose their previous mental health condition when applying for the job and therefore was not truthful in declaring a potential in a breakdown of their condition. This person has been under treatment before and did not tell us before joining our team.

I have been told to report them to HMRC as they may not be disclosing tax that they may not be paying.
I am not sure if we are able to dismiss them as they do have a doctors note which I cannot really dispute.

Is there anything we can do in this situation?

Thanks

[james_law]

Hi,

An employee who is deemed unfit and unwell to work one job can legally be deemed fit and well to work another job. So while it may be unfair they seem fine to you, they may legally work another job as long as its not similar or the same.

Also does their contract state they cannot work for anyone else when they are working for you?

Regarding the disclosure of their mental health, was this something you asked them to disclose?

I personally would not be too hasty and dismiss them as it could have serious repercussions down the line for you.

[PSmith69]

Hey there, didn't register before but I have done so now.

In all our employment contracts and application we ask for any preexisting conditions and such so we can help our employees if they wish to do so.
But this employee failed to do so, in full knowledge that they do have a mental illness from past history.

They are allowed to work for anyone else if they wish to do so, but looking at their stream, they would not be doing anything harder or straining than working in the pub.

It's just that paying this person for this amount of time feels like an abuse of trust and fraud on their part.

[james_law]

If you have a quick read of this, it will be of some help.

http://www.lindsays.co.uk/news-and-i...cal-conditions

[PSmith69]

Thanks for that, I do not believe we would have rejected the employee based on previous history but this was undisclosed beforehand and we could not offer help and resources that we might of had available.

At that time as well, they were not under any medication which they should have been since it is a long term issue and they weren't getting the help they needed.

I do not think I can dismiss them based on this and likely will just have to pay the remaining weeks left on the Sick Pay before not renewing their contract.

[james_law]

Thanks for that, I do not believe we would have rejected the employee based on previous history but this was undisclosed beforehand and we could not offer help and resources that we might of had available.


At that time as well, they were not under any medication which they should have been since it is a long term issue and they weren't getting the help they needed.

I do not think I can dismiss them based on this and likely will just have to pay the remaining weeks left on the Sick Pay before not renewing their contract.

If the job had been conditional on how that question was answered then yes I would say you could hold a disciplinary and quite possible dismiss them. But as you expressed you may have hired them then it cant be deemed such a condition.

If they were not under any medication then the person could have very likely answered your question truthfully.

You say about not renewing their contract, is the contract only for a set amount of time???

[PSmith69]

Yeah the contract is only a year which is up in April of 2019.
I think I may just have to continue paying them the sick pay and then just not renew the contract.

I think I will also report them to HMRC since they have not declared their streaming as a source of income.