We have an employee who returned to work 2 weeks ago following 7 months sick. He has already had 4 sick days since his return 2 weeks ago and is still off. This current sickness is unrelated to why he was off for 7 months.

We have held the position open for him during his 7 month absence period believing following his recovery he would return to work. A temp is not an option as it will take 6-9 months to get them fully trained. We want to investigate dismissing him however we are worried as he has diabities which is covered by the DDA.

We feel that if he stays employed with us this will be an ongoing pattern of a couple of weeks at work then a couple of sick. As we are quite a small company this is very dispruptive and demotivational for the rest of his team. If we knew in X months he would be fit for work again we would persist but I really can’t see that happening. Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed?

Thanks
Robert