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In my opinion this is a mangement decision not an OH one. What is a reasonable adjustment for one employer may not be for another. The local council is likely to be a large employer so in the eyes of an ET would have more room for flexability. Another consideration is what does the employers' absence/attendance policy say about non attendance for reasons other that sickness. Does the council have an adverse weather policy.?All you need to confirm to the employer is the impact that her illness has on her daily activities of living. Depending on how advanced her MS is she is likely to experience more balance problems than someone without MS so it would be reasonable to say that the employer should take that into account in adverse weather, but I think it will hinge on what the employers attendence policy says. Pass it back to mangement. Sue ________________________________________ From: [log in to unmask] [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Derek Wilkinson [[log in to unmask]] Sent: 06 January 2010 14:27 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [OCC-HEALTH] Disability Discrimination Act and Adverse Weather Happy new year to all, I wonder if anyone has any thoughts with regards to the following which came across my desk this morning: An employee of a local council has MS and normally manages to meet the full responsibilities of her post. However, like most of us over the last couple of days has found it difficult to get into work because of the fine weather we have all been enjoying. This person could not make it into work this morning and rang to inform line management to be told that this would have to be taken from normal leave entitlement. The person concerned suggested that because of the underlying MS, that there was a higher risk to themselves should they slip in the snow because this would cause an exacerbation of previous MS symptoms, stating that this has happened previously. The person concerned wants line management to view this absence differently under DDA and make allowance for the conditionand it not affecting their leave entitlement. Whilst I have my own thoughts with regards to this, I would be grateful for any opinions that other people might have so that at least I can respond with some degree of confidence. Thanks in anticipation, Derek Wilkinson RGN, Dip (OH) Lead OHA Capita Health Solutions ******************************** Please remove this footer before replying. OCC-HEALTH ARCHIVES: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/occ-health.html CONFERENCES AND STUDY DAYS: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/filearea.cgi?LMGT1=OCC-HEALTH OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH NURSING EDUCATION http://www.aohne.org.uk ******************************** Please remove this footer before replying. OCC-HEALTH ARCHIVES: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/occ-health.html CONFERENCES AND STUDY DAYS: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/filearea.cgi?LMGT1=OCC-HEALTH OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH NURSING EDUCATION http://www.aohne.org.uk