An employee who becomes incapacitated as a result of a critical illness or serious physical injury may upon application be granted extended paid sick leave in exceptional circumstances as provided for in the Labour Court recommendation (LCR 20667) in relation to critical illness. The process is outlined below:
An employee may appeal the decision to refuse the critical illness provisions in accordance with the procedures detailed below. The Critical Illness Protocol and the Grievance Procedure for the relevant sector must be read in full prior to submitting an appeal. In order to appeal the critical illness decision, an employee must apply to the employer in writing, setting out whether he/she is appealing the medical or the employer decision, within 30 days of receipt of the original critical illness decision.
A number of registered specialists in occupational medicine, who are suitably qualified to assess medical fitness for work, have been selected and approved by the OHS and the Chief Medical Officer of the Civil Service to provide an appeal mechanism for employees who wish to appeal the critical illness medical decision.
An employee may appeal the medical decision in accordance with the following procedures
- The employee writes to the employer within 30 days of receipt of the original critical illness decision setting out the grounds for appeal.
- The appeal must only be based on the medical information presented to the OHS in the employee’s original application. It is not possible to submit new medical evidence at this point of the process.
- The medical decision can only be appealed in relation to the employee’s medical condition (in the context of the critical illness medical criteria set out on page 7) and only if the employee has been deemed medically unfit for work by the OHS.
- The employer will refer the appeal to the OHS who will then refer the case to one of the independent registered specialists in occupational medicine.
- This appeal will ordinarily be a file only review.
- The cost of the appeal assessment is set at €100 and will be borne by the employee. If the appeal is successful the cost of the assessment will be refunded by the OHS.
- Employees when making an appeal must forward to the employer a postal order/bank draft or cheque for the full cost of the assessment made payable to “Medmark Ltd. – CIP Appeal Account”.
- The result of the approved registered medical practitioner’s assessment will be notified to the employer for action and the OHS for record purposes.
- The final decision on the appeal lies with the employer, having considered the medical advice.
1. In circumstances where there is no medical intervention.
2. In the case of pregnancy related illness (natural or assisted pregnancy), the requirement for hospitalisation of two consecutive weeks will be reduced to two or more consecutive day of in-patient hospital/clinic care.
3. Employers are required in the case of an employee with a disability-related illness to take all reasonable steps in terms of making an accommodation to facilitate the employee’s return to work consistent with, for example, OHS advice and service requirements.