A friend is into her 5th continuous week of absence, all supported by GP notes every 2 weeks, stating ‘stress at work/anxiety’ or ‘Depression’. Essentially what started as a stress at work issue 3 months ago has caused her lots of stress and she has now developed severe depression as assessed and documented by her GP. She is on anti-depressants and receiving counselling. She has been with the company for over 10 years with a previously good sickness record and no previous history of mental illness.

On informing her employer of this 5th week of absence for depression, the employer has written directly to her GP (cc:ing my friend) asking the GP to reissue the fit notes or provide ‘explanatory notes’ for the above illnesses supported by official DSM-IV/ICD-10 classification codes, plus the GP’s record of what he believes are the causes of the work-related stress.

The questions:

1) Can the employer write directly to the GP without the employee’s consent? They have not made any attempt to do this. The first she heard was when she received a copy of the letter. Surely the GP will just ask the employer if they have consent, and also for the employer to make her aware that she has a right to see these notes first? Technically they are not asking for a full report, but still, they are asking for confidential information from her notes beyond that on a sick note, and she has discussed some highly sensitive issues to do with her depression.

2) If they don’t ask her consent, can this potentially be used against them at a tribunal, should it come to that?

3) Is it right that an employer is questionning the doctor’s certificates by asking for more information on the genuineness of the illness?

My friend is in fact genuinely ill and in fact the original cause of stress was her employer, so she is now really worked up that they are being so harsh on the sickness, and that they may use the GP’s report to not pay her company sick pay (to which she is entitled 4 months due to length of service).

Any thoughts on what else she could do gratefully received.

Thanks.