Employees rights on sick leave

We have taken on a new member of staff a few weeks ago. He has worked for less than 2 weeks and has been on certified sick leave for the past 4 weeks, we do not think he is suitable for the post, can we let him go, no contracts have been signed yet?

As a general guide, you can let someone go within the first year as they are not covered by the Unfair Dismissals Act.

However, there are also anti-discrimination rules. You can't discriminate against someone who is disabled. They could claim that their illness is a disability . While they would be unlikely to succeed, they could tie you up in the tribunals and courts for a while.

You should issue an employment contract to them. Make sure that it specifies that sick leave is unpaid.

Then if their attendance does not improve terminate them.

Make sure that there is no probation period in the contract.
Make sure that the notice period is short.

Brendan

thanks for reply,
do we need to give employee warning, can we give it while they on sick leave, can thet be let go while on sick leave

This is a difficult situation; a girl who worked for me at my last employer was calling in sick at least once a month; one or two days at a time. The factory manager called me in to his office on one of these sick day and told me to sack her; no ifs, no buts...... she was only working in the place about 7 months and she already had something like 10 sick days.

It put me in a very awkward situation; when she came back, I gave her the news and to be honest she was actually quite accepting; I guess she saw it coming.

I would be interested to know what would have happened if she challenged it as there was no warnings etc (the employer didn't exactly have the best disciplinary procedure in place)