verylittlehelps

Hi, a colleague is off sick due to an accident at work.  She's still in pain with limited mobility. She's due to have a formal wellness meeting. What can she expect? What happens in those meetings?

2 things essentially happen in these meetings, a conversation around prospects of being able to return to work and referals to OH, OH will assess whether they can return to work or not, if they can, they may limit duties else they will advise they are not fit for work and to rearrange for another assessment date.

After x amount of time, if all avenues have been exhausted and the colleague is not fit for work, they are contractually summarily dismissed.

Wellness meetings are used to discuss any possible adjustments Tesco can do to get you to return to work in any role in the company.

In your case this could be a temporary move to a sitting down role (ie checkouts) or amending or reducing  hours etc. Much will depend on understanding your individual circumstances and what your DR is advising. You need to be open and honest about your condition and be as adaptable as your condition allows. If for example medically you could man a till for a 4 hour shift, the fact you don't want to won't support your cause.

I've seen people return on as little as 2hrs a day to ease them back into work before gradually increasing their hours over a number of weeks to their contracted hours.

However as poster above has said every colleague has a support period after which if there is no foreseeable return to work date you could potentially be dismissed for ill health.