An employee being diagnosed with a serious illness or injury is not grounds for automatic dismissal. 

If the illness/injury causes the employee to be:

a) absent from work for a long time,

b) regularly absent for short periods of time or

c) incapable of performing his job,

the employer must implement the proper process before moving to dismissal. The key factors being that the employer should exercise compassion and hold the worker’s job open for him for as long as he reasonably can.

Download this Guide to understand all the factors that must be considered to determine if an employer's decision to terminate an employee who is sick/injured was fair or not.