Originally Posted by
Cottoneyes
The employer as welfare officer The VECCI Blog
The above case springs to mind immediately, you might want to get some specialised legal advice on your case as the above link will show you the dangers of this situation.
Basically the OH&S onus after the above case really swung to the employer to impose the safety issues on the employee, with sacking the only way to avoid the OH&S risk.
When you read this bit from one of the comments, it appears the VECCI blog post is rather alarmist;
A quote from the Australian from the ruling:
“If the applicant had substantially lesser service; had not been a middle-aged man with very poor employment prospects for whom the dismissal has such serious personal and economic consequences; or if it had been brought home to him at any time on 2 September, 2009, that a further breach would have serious consequences, I would not have concluded that the dismissal was harsh,” vice-president Michael Lawler found.
He said Mr Quinlivan should have been warned rather than sacked. He ordered his reinstatement and that he be paid $16,000.”
It seems the employer made a fundamental mistake - they did not warn the employee that if he did not comply with the OHS policy then his employment would be terminated.
Rebecca, my guess is that you cannot force her to take the medication. However, if you believe that she is a risk to herself or other employees because of this infection and subsequent fatigue then you must prevent her from entering the mine site.
I'm no expert, but this is how I would approach it in the absence of expert advice (which you may not be able to wait for).
Give the employee the medic's instruction in writing and make it clear that the issue is fatigue, which means she cannot be assigned any other tasks. She needs to rest in camp until the infection has cleared up and she is no longer fatigued, in the opinion of the medic. However, if she continues to refuse the medication then it might be best to send her home and suggest she sees her own GP.
If she tries to go to work, prevent her from entering the mine site. Make it clear that by trying to continue working she ignoring the company's reasonable instruction and is breaching her employment contract. Make sure she understands that her employment may be terminated if she continues to ignore the instructions of the company medic (and presumably her supervisor), by trying to enter the mine site.
Without more information I would not suggest you actually terminate her employment without expert advice, but at the very least you must be able to send her home while you seek further advice.
Frankly, as a company operating a mine site in a remote location, I really think you should have clear company policies that cover such scenarios and employment contracts that enable you to safety control your site.