Cancer - Your Rights as an Employee

Most people suffer a sense of deep shock when they are told that they have cancer and many choose to confront this life threatening trauma head on and try to continue their life with as much normality as possible. By association, this also means choosing to keep on working. Others find that they need to keep working as much as they can simply for financial reasons.

Support from your Employer

Employers should be understanding about the fact that you are going through a very stressful time and should relate to you in a very supporting manner to help you cope with the cancer and its treatment. Before treatment, it's often difficult to know just how the treatment may affect you and it's helpful to let your employer know this so that they are aware that you may need to change your work plans at short notice.

By communicating with your employer or HR manager, they should be willing to make changes to your duties and your working hours to enable you to continue working if you want to. Understandably, some employers may not have had any experience of dealing with this before, so the more you communicate with them, the more they can try to support you in the best way possible.

You'll also need to take time off for treatment and recuperation during your treatment. This time off can be taken as sickness absence or as an agreed reduction in working hours or days per week. Your employer or HR manager should be able to give you all the information you need about your company's sickness policy and how much paid and unpaid leave you're entitled to.

Privacy and Confidentiality

If you tell your employer you have cancer but don't want your colleagues to know, your employer should respect your wishes and absolutely not discuss it with anyone without your permission. Union representatives and HR managers should observe this code also. Occupational health staff are bound by the confidentiality of all health professionals so they will not tell anyone about your illness without your written permission.

However, if you think that you would benefit from the support of your colleagues but don't feel you can discuss your illness with them personally, your employer or HR manager may be able to do this for you in a sensitive way as long as they have your permission to do so.

Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)

Under the DDA, it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person because of their disability. Everyone with cancer is classed as disabled under the DDA and so is protected by the Act.

The DDA also covers workers who were disabled in the past, even if they are no longer disabled so, therefore, a worker who has had cancer in the past but is in remission or is now completely cured will still be covered by the DDA even though they no longer appear to be disabled. Therefore, an employer cannot discriminate against a person for a reason relating to their past cancer. Further information regarding your rights under the DDA and more useful advice is available in another article on this site specifically about the DDA.

After Cancer Treatment has Finished

Research has shown that people who have had treatment for cancer are as productive, or even more productive, than people who have not suffered from the illness. It has been shown that they take less time off work than other employees and, even though they may have lasting effects from the treatment, they still work extremely hard and effectively. If you're being interviewed for a new position and you're asked about whether the cancer might inhibit your ability to do the job (even though you may have been cured for some time), it can be worth pointing these facts out.

Whilst most people often expect to be 'over the moon' once their treatment has ended and feel that they can put their cancer behind them, for others, it can often be a difficult time and there is support available to help. Some people, quite naturally, can have fears about the cancer returning and they might feel quite depressed for a while after but, usually, these feelings diminish over time and most people begin to enjoy life again.

Although your employer should already know this, you also need to make them aware that you'll usually need to continue to attend your GP or hospital for check-up appointments intermittently for a few years after your treatment.