1. Working within your means:
how employers support employees with cancer
Jen Remnant, ESRC PhD student
@JK_Remnant

2. Multi perspective study
People in work when diagnosed with cancer
Line managers
Occupational health and human resources staff
Health care professionals
Macmillan Cancer Support staff (National and North East England)

3. Line manager responsibilities
Communication with employee
Redistribution of workload
Identifying a timeline for return to, or departure from work
Line manager resources
Occupational Health
Personal social skills / managerial skills
Employment and cancer specific service (for some employers)

4. Relevant Policy Sick pay Statutory Sick Pay, £88.45 per week
Occupational Sick Pay
Equality Act 2010
Includes protection from discrimination
Entitles people with cancer to legal protections in the workplace

5. Sick pay, severance pay and reasonable adjustments
12 months full pay
6 months full pay, 6 months half pay
6 months full pay, 1 month half pay
6 weeks full pay, 6 weeks half pay (+ SSP)
6 weeks full pay (+SSP)
Statutory Sick Pay
Nil (resignation)
£2000 compensation
£8000 redundancy
£14,000+ redundancy
£12,000 redundancy (+£25,000 pension)
[Undisclosed compromise agreement]
[Undisclosed ill-health retirement]
Nil
Phased return
Flexible working hours
Changed shifts/hours
Changed role
Alterations to working environment

6. supposed to be six weeks they paid me for six months… ‘cause
Discretional employer decisions relating to sick pay:
…it’s supposed to be six weeks, supposed to pay that, they paid me for six months… ‘cause he [manager] said to us, you’ve never been on the sick in all the ten years you’ve been with us…they actually paid us six months…
supposed to be six weeks
they paid me for six months… ‘cause
you’ve never been on the sick
Employee
…according to my contract you get six weeks full pay, and then it goes to half pay, but in exceptional circumstances they can change that. So I wrote a letter to the chair of the board of directors… I’m going to be off longer, um, I have got cancer, I’m receiving cancer treatment um, would you be able to extend the time, and I thought well, you know, if cancer’s not an exceptional circumstance I don’t know what is. And they refused.
according to my contract you get six weeks full pay
in exceptional circumstances they can change that
they refused
Employee

7. what her behaviour’s been like has she been keeping in touch,
Discretional employer decisions relating to redundancy/severance/ill health retirement payments:
…I have to compile a case… to say how well she’s performed, whether it’s in her production, her quality, what her behaviour’s been like, how accommodating she’s been, has she been keeping in touch, has she been trying always to come back to work…
how well she’s
performed
what her behaviour’s been like
has she been keeping in touch,
has she been trying always to
come back to work
Line manager
…I says , I’ll not be coming back to work, he [Human Resources staff member] says right, that’s fair dos, you’ve told us how you stand he says. We’ll see what we can do for you. So he says he came back to us… he says, I’ve seen, I’ve spoken to the directors and they said they could put a package together for you. Erm, er and give you what they call a compromise agreement. That was their way of sort of giving us a bit extra money. Erm, so they put this package together for us and it was well in excess of what I would’ve got…
We’ll see what we can do for you
giving us a bit extra money
Employee

8. back in that short period of time we have to support that
Discretional employer decisions relating to reasonable adjustments in the workplace
she
I’ve never refused her [early finishes], because I think she was good enough to come back in that short period of time and I think as an employer we have to support that…
was good enough to come
back in that short period of time
we have to support that
Line manager
You can’t help yourself from doing it, and if that had been a different person, a person who didn’t try their utmost to come into work like, after the operation, and then when they come back be really productive, I could imagine that I would, I probably would struggle.
You can’t help yourself from doing it
try their utmost to come into work
be really productive
Line manager

9. What impact can the use of managerial discretion have?
Employee defiance
Low level employee deceit
Lower effort and productivity from employee
…they offered us a deal of fourteen thousand pound after twenty four years of work, they had no chance. So I stuck it out.
Employee
I was on the sick. I didn’t tell [my employer] I was going [on holiday]. I just thought I’m not, no. It meant that I didn’t take holiday, so I had holidays [left] to take.
Employee
…and I just said to me manager, you can pile the work as high on me desk as you want, but I can only do what I can do. And I’m not gonna get stressed over it.
Employee

10. Concluding thoughts Final questions
Line managers make discretional decisions about the support afforded to employees with cancer
These decisions have material implication for employees with cancer
Employees respond negatively to perceived unfairness
Final questions
Should managers be able to make discretional decisions about the support they offer employees with cancer?
How can we ensure fair support for employees with cancer?