The sick rules that make life harder for people who face workplace discrimination
![Terry Foster with his daughter Sophie, now six [Image: Liverpool Echo].](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/161112-Terry-Foster-Sophie-Foster-Liverpool-Echo.jpg)
Terry Foster with his daughter Sophie, now six [Image: Liverpool Echo].
The part that isn’t mentioned is that this now costs a large amount of money.
Unfair dismissal and discrimination claims now cost a total of £1,200 to bring before a tribunal, thanks to Conservative Party legislation.
People who have been fighting serious illnesses often do not have that money to spare – especially if they have been struggling to get the Department for Work and Pensions to accept their claim for sickness and/or disability benefits.
See how the system is stacked against the vulnerable?
The message is as clear as it was in 1983 when Neil Kinnock uttered it about the then-Conservative Government: “Don’t get sick.”
What a shame cancer – and other serious illnesses – doesn’t listen to such messages.
A dad who won his battle with cancer after being told he had hours to live was cruelly sacked when he reported back to work.
Terry Foster was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2007, while his wife Melanie was pregnant with their first child.
The 58-year-old spent 19 days in intensive care, and at one point was given just hours to live and placed in a side room to die.
But the Southport dad… fought back, and doctors were surprised when his condition began to improve to the point he could be sent home.
However, after meeting up with his manager about returning to his job… [he] was shocked to hear he was being sacked.
“I went into a state of shock. When I told my wife she burst into tears, it was awful, we had a newborn baby and it was the most horrible time for both of us.
“We really struggled financially… and the stress and worry of it all impacted on my recovery.”
Terry took the company to an employment tribunal and won, being awarded more than £62,000 by the court.
He is now clear of his cancer and attends hospital every six months for a scan.
Sadly, according to new research by Macmillan Cancer Support, Terry’s story is not uncommon.
Source: Cancer patient and dad-to-be cruelly sacked after being given just 48 hours to live – Liverpool Echo
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
That is a harsh and shocking example, the tip of the mountain of discrimination. The more common story is of the older worker who gets age-related illnesses and being either made redundant as “dead wood” not able to meet their company agile and changing business (one my ex employer used!) or simply sacked knowing there will be little way for the employee to bring successful tribunal proceedings.
hmm greyling took away justice rtu ids stuck the knife into the unemployed sick disabled and mentaly ill those famous gates should be now stuck to the tory party bus work makes you better all part of the great culling of the stock under the banner of aktion t4
greyling took away justice rtu ids took away benefits but asking for help to work hmmm youl wait a long time with this government