Employers who ignore medical evidence have received a warning following a recent case at the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT).
In Taylor v Merseyrail Electrics 2002 Ltd UKEAT 0162/07, the employer had a discretionary clause in its sick pay scheme allowing for sick pay to be withheld if there were doubts whether an illness was genuine.
Although Ms. Taylor had a GP’s note certifying her absence as being due to stress, the employer believed otherwise and withheld her sick pay.
However, the EAT upheld Ms. Taylor’s claim of an unlawful deduction from wages because the employer ignored the medical certificate, and had not undertaken any medical investigation of its own that might have put in doubt the opinion of the GP. His Honour Judge Peter Clark said, “It was not open, once that medical certificate had come in, for the Respondent to maintain any doubt as to the reason for absence in the absence of any contradictory medical evidence.”
