Hello All
With regards to the lady with epilepesy refusing to work with "machinery" and refusing permission to contact the GP:
It really doesn't matter what the condition is that is involved . Our expertise is in advising managers on work and functional capability with regards to health issues. In order to do this one has to gather factual information in order to formulate an opinion. In some instances this opinion can be formulated on the basis of history and what is observed in a consultation, other times one needs background information from the persons medical advisors, sometimes the opinion of an OH Physician.
It would be dangerous to give advice without the appropriate facts. As the employee is unwilling or unable to give information about her condition directly, and also unwilling to let you ,on behalf of the employer, seek the appropriate information, the best course of action(in my humble opinion ) is to tell management that you are unable to advise them as she is not cooperating in giving information. It is then up to management to manage.They have an employee who is unwilling to do their job, and unwilling to share information on , for example, a disability which the management would try to accommodate.
Now correct me if I am wrong, but the basis premise is that employers pay employees to come in and do work. If the employee declines to do this work they are effectively not participating in their contractual duties and the management can give them the heave-ho. This needs to be explained to the employee, by the HR/Personnel people (not OH) along with reassurances that if information is provided,the firm will do what it can (reasonable/practicable)to accommodate the disability.
I have found that if the OH Practitioner reassures the employee about confidentiality and that only information on the issue in hand will be sought, and that we are not requesting a complete set of GP records, only a report, employees may change their mind.
Specifically with regards to epilepsy I would suggest the employee looks at the following website (and you may need to help her to do this during a consultation, and print things off for her to read and digest)
http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/info/employees.html
Which contains the following:
Some activities pose special dangers for people whose seizures are not controlled. These include jobs which involve working:
- at unprotected heights
- near open water
- with high voltage or open circuit electricity
- with babies or young children
- which requires regular overseas tours of duty (e.g. some civil service posts)
- with unguarded apparatus or machines
- on or near moving vehicles
- with chemicals, unguarded fires, ovens and hot plates
- on isolated sites
- handling valuable fragile equipment or objects
So if the machinery does not have moving parts and therefore does not need a guard it is unlikely to be a high risk activity..
However I would be delighted to hear if someone has a different opinion.....
All the best
Diane Romano-Woodward
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