Cancer Patients Face Discrimination At Work

A top cancer charity has told Sky News that employers could be discriminating against workers with cancer if they do not offer flexible employment arrangements.

Macmillan Cancer's Duleep Allirajah said: "Cancer patients are covered by equality legislation and that places a duty on employers to make adjustments to the workplace.

"If employers don't really consider those adjustments, then they could be discriminating."

Employers have an obligation to discuss changes to working hours, allow flexible working and phased return to work to employees with cancer.

Yet figures from the charity show almost half of people who were in work when diagnosed have said their employer did not discuss sick pay entitlement, flexible working arrangements or workplace adjustments as a result.

Cancer Care: Top Tips For Employers And Staff

Mr Allirajah says many businesses misunderstand the nature of a modern cancer diagnosis.

"Most employers really don't understand that cancer is changing as a disease," he said.

"I think there is still this assumption that cancer is a death sentence.

"Employers genuinely do not realise that cancer is classed as a disability.

"For many people who've gone through treatment it has become a long-term chronic condition that they are having to live with and affects their day to day lives."

According to Macmillan Cancer Support, 83% of working people who receive a diagnosis are financially worse off as a result of their condition, losing on average £570 a month, or nearly £7,000 a year.

Ben Wilmott, Head of Public Policy at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, says employers may be failing to support workers with cancer out of ignorance, rather than discrimination.

"Too many employers don't understand their obligations under the law," he said.

But businesses and offices that don't address that lack of information could face punishment.

Mr Wilmott added: "They risk very significant fines, they risk damage to their reputation, they risk losing talent and not being able to recruit key talent.

"This is not something that affects very few people. This is something that affects most people in some shape or form, either directly or indirectly during the course of their working lives."