How to Handle a Show Cause Notice for an Employee with Potentially Contagious Illness?

Hello to all experts. Our management wants to issue a show cause notice to an employee on medical treatment grounds because he/she has been suffering from a medical disease, which may be TB. The employee has been experiencing a cough problem for more than 6 months and has been spitting and coughing during office hours, which could pose a health safety risk to our existing staff, as it may be a transmissible disease.

Issuing a Show Cause Notice on Medical Grounds

I would like to understand the basis on which I can issue the show cause notice for requiring medical treatment time for the safety of our existing staff, especially during this pandemic. Your guidance on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Dear member,

Issuing a Show-Cause Notice for Misconduct

A show-cause notice is issued when an employee commits some misconduct. However, the misconduct must be defined in the standing orders. Therefore, the question that arises is whether "suppression of communicable disease" or "suppression of medical unfitness" has been included as misconduct in your standing orders or not.

Proof and Sensitivity in Handling Health Issues

Secondly, a show-cause notice cannot be issued merely on suspicion. What proof do you have to prove that the employee is suffering due to Tuberculosis (TB)?

Notwithstanding what I have written above, precaution must be taken to stop the spread of communicable or contagious diseases. Pulmonary diseases are contagious. Therefore, the health of other employees is also important. However, you need to handle this matter with due sensitivity. Anybody can suffer due to any disease. Today, the employee could be suffering due to some disease; however, once cured, he could prove an asset to the company in the future. Therefore, it would not be fair to give him a blow of a show-cause notice. As an HR professional, it is your job to counsel him to get cured as soon as possible.

Counseling and Medical Certification

To handle this matter, you may call the employee to your cabin and ask him why he has been unable to cure his cough for the last six months and what medication he has taken. Tell him that his prolonged coughing makes other employees uneasy, and in the interest of all, he must take medical treatment. Above all, advise him to submit a medical fitness certificate. In the medical certificate, it must be written that he is not suffering due to any disease that can spread to other employees.

After the personal counseling session, as a follow-up, you may send him a notice for producing a medical certificate. However, it needs not be a show-cause notice. Along with the medical certificate, advise the employee to submit the medical test reports also.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Misunderstanding of 'Show Cause' Notice

Probably, the poster might have misunderstood the meaning of 'show cause' notice in his excess of enthusiasm to implement the orders of his management.

Addressing Employee's Chronic Sickness

The acts of the employee described in the post are not misbehavior but an indication of his chronic sickness. If it can affect the workplace atmosphere or others as the management apprehends, what is needed at this stage is patient counseling by HR. Advising the employee to take appropriate medical treatment forthwith and, if necessary, immediate sanction of sick leave or any other leave subject to availability is crucial. If he refuses to oblige for some reason or another, it is better to refer him to a medical board to ascertain whether he is fit to work in a crowded workplace without affecting the health of others.

A medical board would normally be constituted by the District Medical Officer or the Superintendent of a Government Headquarters Hospital at your request. The board's decision is final and would be accepted by any Court of Law.