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Employee in ICU how do we manage this? entitlements, liasing with third party
We have an employee who has been taken very ill suddenly currently in ICU on life support; we have a few queries on how we proceed with some issues that are arising?
We have a third party asking questions about his entitlements, whether we are going to pay out etc. unfortunately we have no knowledge of who this person is. We asked for something in writing from next of kin to verify that he is acting on their behalf and he sent back an email saying we were making the situation difficult for the next of kin. And we have to release this as it is not covered under the privacy act? I was always under the impression that any remuneration or salary package was covered as part of the employee file.
The director has approached the next of kin to ask for the return of the company car and phone and she has refused. She states that the employee told her not to release the items to the company as he has private information on the company phone ie bank details and passwords. She has diverted the phone and that is sufficient for our needs she has told us. We explained that we have a temporary service manager while the employee is away to manage the calls and paperwork.
We are unsure how to proceed for the best as we don’t want to cause any more stress or upset to an already difficult situation for her.
It has been a shock for all of us
Would appreciate any views on what is the best way forward and any views on the privacy.
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The last pay for normal pay worked (ie to last day at work) should have been paid as normal into his nominated bank account. Whether anyone else has access to that bank account is the employee's business. Further, if a Medical Certificate has been provided and the employee's PC/L is in the black, then you should pay that for the period covered by the Medical Certificate. If no Medical Certificate has been provided, then I would not be paying anything until you get one. If the family has diverted their phone, then a bit difficult to ask them for this so wait until they call you again and then make it clear you require medical evidence (ie provided he actually has PC/L to use).
As to Company property, well that depends on what your policies state and the employment contract. Best practice contracts should include reference to company provided vehicles not being available during periods of leave etc. But if you haven't done that in this case, and the employee has kept the vehicle when on leave in the past, then precedent has been set and since he is alive, just sick, it's a bit tough demanding it back suddenly.
Having said that, you probably need the vehicle and phone for someone else to do this job while the employee is out sick - so it might be reasonable to request these back - but again, it depends on the conditions of use of this property. Sounds like employee has been using company provided phone for personal use - is that permitted by your policy? If not, you will have to deal with that when he returns to work and perhaps review your policy. In the meantime, one way around this is to cancel the simcard making the phone inoperable - it can probably be reactivated later when he returns or give him another one.
As to a third party questioning entitlements, I would not release anything to anyone without legal clearance. In the case of a death for example, you never release any final payments until contacted & instructed by the Executor of the Estate. But in this case, the employee is not dead, just sick -- interesting however that he is well enough to be able to instruct partner not to give you the car and phone!!!! Perhaps he is therefore well enough to delete all his personal information from the phone??
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