Rights for terminally-ill staff ‘a step closer’

An MP says better protection for workers with terminal illnesses could be implemented across government following his meeting with a minister.

Labour’s Lee Barron, who represents Corby and East Northamptonshire, wants terminal illness to become a protected characteristic.

The move would stop bosses sacking people because they had been diagnosed with an incurable condition.

Mr Barron says the Cabinet Office minister, Georgia Gould, signalled her intention “for the whole of Whitehall to sign up” to a charter guaranteeing the rights of workers with terminal illnesses.

Mr Barron, who led a debate on the issue in parliament last December, said: “It’s legal in this country to sack a worker diagnosed with a terminal illness.

“That is wrong.”

The Equality Act 2010 prevents employers from discriminating against people because of certain protected characteristics.

At the moment, these include things like disability, religion and sexual orientation.

Mr Barron told parliament that designating terminal illness as a protected characteristic would mean workers who have been diagnosed would not have to “worry about taking [their] workplace to a tribunal”.

He invited the minister to sign up to the TUC’s Dying to Work Charter, which “means committing the employer, in this case the UK government, to support, not sack, terminally ill workers”.

He added that “getting central government endorsement is crucial if we are to change the law”.

A number of employers have already signed the charter, including RS Components, Wincanton and Royal Mail.

Mr Barron said: “Listening to the minister’s intention for the whole of Whitehall to sign up to the Charter is reason for much optimism.”

A government spokesperson said: “The Equality Act 2010 already provides protection for many people with a terminal illness, under the protected characteristic of disability.

“It is therefore unlawful for an employer to discriminate against them.”