Law queries

Is it legal to use sickness absence as the basis for an appraisal in redundancies?

A Labour Research Department survey, published early last year, found that 41% of employers used absence records as a criteria for redundancy selection. There is nothing in law that prevents this, although employers need to take account of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to ensure that they are not disproportionately selecting disabled employees, if their poorer attendance rate is directly related to their disability.

* More information: LRD booklet, The Law at Work 2002