Our current site Attendance Policy includes a clause on alternative duties and alternative work. We are presently exploring the possibility of extending this further by saying something along the lines of, where there are no alternative duties or work available for the employee, they are required to stay at home until fully fit for their role. We have a high percentage of employees on light/restricted duties so much so that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find alternative duties for such cases. Do you foresee any difficulties if we change policy or tighten policy?

We have assumed that you are referring to employees who are, through injury, physically unfit for their regular duties. The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 2005 (“the 2005 Act”) provides that it is the duty of every employer to do whatever he or she can, as far as reasonably practicable, to ensure the safety, health and welfare of his or her employees. The 2005 Act requires an employer to exercise all due care by putting in place the necessary protective and preventative measures, having identified the hazards and assessed the risks to safety and health likely to result in accidents or injury to health at the place of work concerned. As such, any employee who is unfit for the duties