Fact Service May 2017

Issue 18

Fire services sign up to Dying to Work


West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service is the latest fire service to sign up to the Dying to Work campaign, following the Staffordshire service signing up in early April.


Currently, the law allows employers to dismiss terminally ill workers if they fail a capability assessment with "reasonable adjustments".


The TUC’s Dying to Work campaign wants to change this, asking employers to sign up to a voluntary charter that sets out an agreed way in which their employees will be supported and protected at work, following a terminal diagnosis.


Andrew Scattergood, chair of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in the West Midlands, welcomed the fire service’s decision. “This is about giving firefighters who are battling a terminal illness choice and security,” he said.


https://www.fbu.org.uk/news/2017/04/26/west-mids-fire-service-latest-protect-workers-terminal-illness