Boarding an employee
The term “medical boarding” means to terminate employment on the grounds of ill health or incapacity. But the only time an employer can “board” an employee is if said employee:
(1) can no longer perform the essential job functions
(2) cannot be reasonably accommodated and/or
(3) no appropriate alternative role is available
The law
An employer intending to dismiss an employee due to incapacity must do so in accordance with item 10 and 11 of Schedule 8 to the Labour Relations Act, No 66 of 1995 (LRA), failing which, the fairness of such dismissal falls to be challenged. Items 10 and 11 of schedule 8 essentially state that prior to dismissing an employee on the grounds of incapacity, that employer must assess whether the employee is capable of performing their own occupation or any suitable alternative position. A conclusion as to the employee's capability can only be reached once a proper assessment of the employee's condition has been made.
Assessment of incapacity
What most people are perhaps unaware of is that this assessment is best conducted by an Occupational Therapist (OT). While we do need the input from the treating medical team, the ability to assess if someone can do their job falls squarely in the scope of the OT.
The OT role
OTs are uniquely skilled at assessing function, including the ability to function at work i.e. to perform a job. The OT assessment will be able to identify if the employee has the capacity to perform the essential job tasks of their own occupation. Since OTs are medical practitioners, we can interpret the medical information through the lens of function, which is more useful for the employer. A diagnosis in isolation, if it is even disclosed to the employer (which is not legally required), is not useful to an employer. What is useful is knowing how that medical condition will affect this specific employee in their specific role within your specific work environment. This is what an OT can do. Cool, right?
Should the OT assessment reveal that this employee cannot perform their own role, we can then advise the employer on what reasonable accommodations would allow the employee to perform some or all of their own occupation. And if that does not work, we are also able to assist the employer work out which alternative role the employee might be suited to.
Once this has all been done, and only then, will the employer have done what is legally required to explore termination based on the grounds of ill health.
We’d would love to hear from you – have you ever worked with an OT? What was your experience?
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