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[Sam0406]

Ok I had a CABG x3 feb 2019 I’ve been back at work and they have refused to take me off night shifts. I have letters from

Occupational health and my GP I do not know what else to do.

[Hidden]

I’m a qualified HR officer: your employer doesn’t have to take you off night shifts if that’s not something they can accommodate. Under the equality act, you would likely meet some of the threshold for disability (even if well now, long term, chronic conditions suffered previously are taken into account to determine if you’re still covered if/where appropriate), which would therefore mean reasonable adjustments should be considered, however, reasonable adjustments - like shift pattern changes or redeployment - come with the caveat that they’re only reasonable if the business can facilitate them. If the business need is for your role to work night shifts and there’s no scope to alter that, then letters from occupational health and the GP are irrelevant. The benchmark the employer has to meet, is if you left or they dismissed you on health grounds and then you took them to tribunal, could they demonstrate they’d considered reasonable adjustments but there were none that could be made without causing ‘harm’ to the business need. If they can show that the role couldn’t be moved to the day shift or that there were no suitable roles to which you could be redeployed (and if they do have roles, it’s worth bearing in mind that could potentially be at a lower wage, or less hours, if that’s all they had), then the tribunal would find in the employer’s favour and dismiss your case. Without all the details, it’s difficult to give you an opinion on whether or not your employer is in the wrong here, but if they’ve involved OH, it sounds like you probably work for a large enough company that they’ll have ‘proper’ HR: have you asked for a meeting with anyone there?

This link from ACAS regarding reasonable adjustments is thorough and worth a read:

acas.org.uk/reasonable-adju...

A call to their helpline might also be useful to you - their advice is free, impartial, and they would also be who your employer would turn to if they wanted to check that they were taking the right and legal actions in relation to a situation.

[daviduk1976]

gov.uk/reasonable-adjustmen...

Have a read...do you gave a union at work?