Rumours About Sick Leave: Has My Privacy Been Invaded?

Following Procedure

The procedure when a worker falls sick – whatever the cause – is to phone a manager. This is what happened in the instance given here.

What’s more, you asked the duty manager to keep the cause private. You wanted no one else to know. The only exception was the HR section.

From this, three issues are clear. You followed procedure; you acted in a reasonable manner; and the duty manager received a specific request for privacy.

The Feeling of Distress

Yet when you returned to work, you found that someone had breached the request for privacy. This became obvious when colleagues began making jokes about the cause of the sick leave.

The duty manager or one of the HR employees may have caused the breach of privacy. Either way, you returned to work after an injury and became understandably distressed.

This highlights two further issues. The first is a possible violation of any policy the workplace has about employee privacy. The second is a potential disregard of the Human Rights Act, and the respect an organisation should show to staff who want their private lives kept confidential.

Courses of Action

The cause of sick leave is private. The appropriate manager and the HR section need to know the cause because it may be work-related. They may also help an affected member of staff with occupational therapy and advice.

As for work colleagues, however, it’s reasonable to say that the cause of sick leave is none of their business.

A possible course of action in this example is therefore to complain to HR. The complaint could first take the form of a chat with a senior HR employee.

The result should be an investigation into who broadcast the cause of the sick leave to staff. HR or the duty manager should also give an apology to the affected employee.

If an investigation and apology don’t materialise, the next stage is to consider submitting a grievance. An employee representative such as a union official may be able to help. If not, the HR section can supply a grievance form to complete.

The grievance procedure should lead to an investigation and apology. It’s unlikely that any organisation would want to go beyond this to a tribunal.