We have an employee who went on extended annual leave (3weeks 2 days) for a family wedding. He originally requested 5 weeks but this was declined for genuine business reasons and the fact he had taken 6 weeks the previous year for his own wedding.
Two days before he was due to return to work he sent an e-mail and a scanned medical note to say that he had contracted a viral infection and needed complete rest for 9 days.
This scenario was not unexpected as he had said to other collegues he was going to take the full 5 weeks leave irrespective of whether it was approved.
His line manager suspects that the medical certificate is not genuine and wants to know if it is possible to have the employee take a blood test to confirm whether he has contracted a viral infection or whether he has been taking anti-biotics to alleviate the effects.
If this is permissable is there a certain length of time before the detecting of the virus or anti-biotics in the blood becomes invalid?
This has never arisen at work before, if anyone has any experience of such a scenario I would be mostgrateful of their advice.
Thank you
Lawrence Donaghy
