Employee sick, but has not started work?

[icemaiden]

As above.

Employed someone to start a job on 1st October. Contracts signed, has now informed me that they are ill and not sure when they can start employment.

Not sure where I stand on this. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[icemaiden]

They have an under lying health issue but they weren't specific. We didn't ask what it was. Scared of discrimination issues. But they assured us that it wouldn't affect their work. They have Pneumonia.

[pink-kittens]

I had pneumonia last year and was off work for 2 weeks but really could have had at least another 2 weeks off as it left me absolutely drained of all energy

As for where you stand legally? I really dont know but look on the .gov web pages and it will most likely explain there
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm

[buildersmate]

There are several options here - depending on what you wish to achieve. What follows below assumes you now want to rethink your decision to employ - which may be wrong, so please advise.

I wouldn't get hung up about the 'discrimination' bit. An employee has to have 12 months continuous service before he/she can bring a claim to an Employment Tribunal - so that is never going to be an issue UNLESS this employee could find a way of fitting into the 'Autmatically Unfair' categories, in which case the 12 months service is not applicable. See here for more on automatically unfair (down the page a bit).
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/RedundancyAndLeavingYourJob/Dismissal/DG_10026692

All of the above assumes that the employment contract was initiated. Until the employee turns up on the first day, I believe that it hasn't - but I'm not prepared to put my neck on the line to say that. Let me explain further.

There is a difference between 'wrongful dismissal' and 'unfair dismissal'. Wrongful dismissal is a breach of contract, demonstrated in front of a judge. Unfair dismissal is a situation where the employer fails to satisfy the requirements of the employment legislation, demonstrated in front of an Employment Tribunal - but to be able to make a claim, the employee has to have 12 months service - unless the claim is for an automatically unfair reason.

Whilst I doubt that the employment contract has even started until Bloggs shows up - I'm not prepared to advise you to rely on that route - so I suggest you just check that you couldn't be caught later under the 'Auto-Unfair' rules.

Wrongful dismissal involves a civil case. You have written to Bloggs and confirmed that you will employ him from 1 October and the the notice peri

[buildersmate]

Part 2 - as my original answer has been truncated by the dozy system.

. .........notice period of x weeks applies (if nothing said, notice period is the statutory minimum - which is one week on Day 1 of employment). So if you now wish to rethink this, write to Bloggs and merely state that the employment offer is now withdrawn and enclose the notice period money. That gets you off the breach of contract hook.

But maybe this isn't what you had in mind? - please advise.

[icemaiden]

Thank you everybody who took the time to answer. They are in hospital at the moment so I assume it is quite serious.
I will speak to my partner about your answers and get back to you.

Thanks again.

[Memore]

that is incorrect if the person does not turn up the contract is still valid and they have advised they are off sick - I had a very similar case about 6 months ago and had occupational health etc involved to ensure that there were no DDA issues and we supported the sicknes.

You can't withdraw the contract due to illness once it is offered - It is binding from the verbal offer stage - it is really annoying and I wanted to withdraw the contract in our case but lawyer wouldn't allow it. I thought it was worth the risk. The contract would have probationary period anyway I would hope that would look at attendance etc as well over the first 6 months