Taxi Driver Online

One of our drivers has just been diagnosed with sleep apnea. He is also very overweight and his is to be fitted with a gastric band. At the moment he is an employee of the company but he will now be loosing his license until he is passed as fit by his doctor. Where do we stand as a company. Do we pay him sick pay until such time as he is fit to drive? Do we dismiss him because he can no longer do the job that he was employed to do? Do we make him redundant?

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Grandad,

legally I think you'll find you are obliged to pay him sick pay does he have a contract of employment ? If you are a member of the FSB their legal helpline is very good at solving these sort of problems

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Yes he does have a contract of employment but it doesn't mention sick pay.
I have no problem with any of the options but I wondered which would be best for him with regards to claiming benefits.

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Grandad,

I think if you employ him as a taxi driver, and he loses his taxi driver's license, then you are well within your rights to dismiss him.

That should help him get sick pay, but the Job Centre might ask why he can't do another job such as answering the phones.

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IDFIMH

We are not a big enough company to warrent having a telephonist. We had a meeting with him a few minutes ago and decided that he would claim sickness benefit for the next couple of weeks and see how things are going. He is supposed to be getting a CPAP machine installed quite quickly so hopefully it won't take long for him to get his licence back.

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Grandad,

The driver doesn't lose his Taxi badge he loses his driving licence until his doctor sees fit to let him have it back.

When he gets the CPAP machine he'll be monitored for a few weeks then his licence will be reinstated. It's no big deal theres loads of overweight cabbies out there suffering with it who also have the CPAP machines. He'll be back on the road in no time.

I'd watch out though if you decide to dismiss him on the grounds of his illness, you could potentially open the biggest can of worms ever..

We would not dismiss him on the grounds of his health. Dismissal would only become an option if he was unable to get his driving licence back on the grounds that not having a drivers licence would mean that he could not be employed in his current role of driver. Just one thing Nidge, when you say a matter of weeks, roughly how many weeks are we talking about?

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Grandad,

He could also be kept off the road until he has lost a reasonable amount of weight, as this will be the crutch of his problem

By whom? The DVLA or the Council?

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Grandad,

The Doctor, to reapply for his DVLA licence back he will require a letter from his GP and a medical
As he has had his DVLA licence suspended he should also return his badge, and when he replies for it one of the questions on the application (it is on ours) is have you ever had your drivers licence suspended or refused by a council for any reason

he will only be off the road until he is cpap controlled and complient ,how long this will take to get is machine depends on the area he comes under ,then its just a case of getting used to look like darth vader at night and getting used to a gale force wind blowing up is snout ,the sleep clinic will then inform dvla that is apnea is controlled and they will return is license with no restrictions he will not be kept off the road until he loses weight that is tosh sorry

I'm not sure dissmissing him is even an option here.

1 - He is self employed even if he drives a company vehicle

2 - It could be argued that his predicament is self inflicted

3 - You had no desire to sack him anyway

4 - He should be able to claim sick benefit from the state although this will only be about £65 pw unless he's special.

5 - You as a business cannot afford to support dead weight (forgive the pun) you have to look at it as it is.

Personally I think the best you could do for him is to write him a letter for the benefits office explaining the case and that as soon as he's passed fit you will be re-employing him, what you really have to check is the wording of unemployed/redundant vs sick, right now I would class him as sick myself, but saying he's unemployed could maybe gain him a bit extra to live on, or the flip could mean he can't get benefit money for a certain period of time.


But to sum up, a self employed person is just that, in the glory days this equated to larger earnings at the cost of holiday/sick pay and responsibility for ones own tax and insurance contributions.

He is not self employed. He is on the books.

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Grandad,

The guys who I know who have suffered with it were off the road for 4 weeks.

I was asked not to drive by the consultant until my sleep apnea was under controll it was rushed through(about 4 weeks) as I drove for a living dvla were informed and I have a letter saying I am OK to drive as its all controlled.I did not even notify the council as its no different to wearing glasses you pass your medical your fit to drive. Look up sleep apnea association on the interweb hope this helps.