Breast cancer and your work rights

Secondly, your employer should consult you throughout your absence and you should keep in touch with your employer wherever possible, so that your employer is fully aware of the situation. Your employer should also consider whether there is any possibility of providing you with alternative work or making reasonable adjustments to your workingConditions. Further down the line, an employer might allow you to take early retirement on grounds of ill health (depending on the terms of your pension scheme), should you need it.

If your employer has consulted you throughout your illness, has ascertained the medical position regarding your health and has considered reasonable alternative employment or adjustment, then harsh as it sounds, they may be able to dismiss you fairly as a result of your illness. However, if an employer has failed to do these things and if you have one year's continuous employment, you are likely to have a strong claim for unfair dismissal, and you would be advised to take specific legal advice before bringing such a claim.