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I have an employee signed off from work by a doctor for a month due to stress. He is currently holding equipment owned by one of our customers that is worth about £50k (he was on the customer's site the day before he was signed off and was supposed to return it straight to the office). There was no warning he had an appointment or that this was likely to happen, so no alternative arrangements had been made. My company MD is wary of contacting him during sick leave for fear of opening us up to a tribunal, but it seems perfectly reasonable to me to ask for this equipment back (it needs to be repaired and this is delaying it, thus making us look bad and failing SLAs with the customer).

Is it legally acceptable to contact the employee to ask to arrange for us to collect it? By a similar token, where do we stand with other company owned equipment he is in posession of, such as his laptop and his company car (which is leased by the company)?

If an employee is signed off from work by a doctor and is currently holding equipment owned by either his employer or one of his employer's customers, it seems perfectly reasonable to me to ask for this equipment back (for example, if it needs to be repaired and this is delaying it, thus making the employer look bad and failing SLAs with the customer).

Is it legally acceptable to contact the employee to ask to arrange to collect it? By a similar token, where does the employer stand with other company owned equipment he is in posession of, such as his laptop, mobile phone or his company car (which is leased by the company)?