Termination of stressed employee was justified

An office assistant had given notice of sick leave and had informed her manager that she had experienced palpitation and anxiety attacks. Her impairment involved that she had “difficulties concentrating due to stress and anxiety attacks”. According to the report from the sickness interview, the office assistant wanted to return to work, because she did not as such have any problems with her work assignments, but other things such as family, challenges on the home front and everyday challenges.

The employer introduced proposed changes to her work assignments to ensure that she could return to work. The changes included reducing her hours and requiring her to no longer work with deadlines.

However, the changes to the work assignments did not suffice and consequently, she reported sick again. She resumed work three times throughout the illness period, where the longest work period was two weeks. On that background, the employer did not see any prospect of the office assistant’s resumption of work within a reasonable time frame. This was incompatible with the running of the agency, and she was therefore terminated. The office assistant found that the termination was unjustified because, in her experience, the agency had pressured her to resume work as soon as possible, and this had worsened her illness.

The work assignments had not caused the stress

According to the arbitration court, the illness was not caused by any negligent organization of the work. Moreover, the employer had attempted to accommodate the office assistant’s work assignments to enable her to resume work. The employer had therefore not exposed the office assistant to the alleged unreasonable pressure to resume work before she was ready. The fact that the employer had used temporary workers did not affect this assessment.

At the time of termination, it was unsure when the office assistant would return to work full time, and the employer was not able to offer her other suitable work that would more permanently exempt her from larger work assignments and time pressure.

On that background, the arbitration court found that the termination was justified due to the employer’s circumstances.

IUNO’s opinion

The judgment shows that terminations of employees who suffer from stress can be justified. In the assessment of whether the termination of an employee who suffers from stress is justified, the courts will have regard to the circumstances that can be attributed to the workplace, including if the employer has tried to accommodate the work assignments or otherwise is able to offer the employee a less burdensome position.

IUNO recommends that companies secure documentation from sick leave interviews and documents the initiatives taken in the attempt to ensure the employee’s resumption of work.

[Industrial Arbitration case FV 2016.0106 of 28 February 2017]