It is my experience that most employees who have had time off work for sickness return to work and continue working hard in their role but there are occasions when other interventions have to be put in place.
What is defined as Long Term Absence? What should we be doing about it?
These are just an example of questions I have been asked by managers in my years of working in HR and by their nature can be the hardest types of absence to deal with. There are so many factors you have to take into account and my advice is to treat each case on its own merits but follow a fair procedure.