The good weather is most welcome, but creates particular issues for employers. It is generally true that the hottest days of the year are the days when the highest number of people are absent from work due to 'sickies'. Here are some pointers on the issue of employees taking unauthorised sickness, what you can do to mitigate the problem, and statutory sick pay (SSP).
Firstly, ensure that your employment contracts set out what company sick pay your staff are entitled to. It will vary from job to job and business to business.
Company sick pay cannot pay your staff less than they are entitled to through SSP. If you don’t offer company sick pay then SSP applies.
SSP need only be paid where the absence was genuine and for absences of four consecutive days or more.
Employees must produce reasonable medical evidence of their incapacity and SSP does not need to be paid for any period not covered by the evidence.
With SSP an employee must inform their employer of any date on which they are unfit for work within seven calendar days of that date. It is common for employers to have more onerous notification requirements within their contracts. For example, many employers require staff to report in sick by 9.30am on the first day of their absence and thereafter at regular intervals. These tighter contractual notification requirements do not override SSP, but failure to notify may result in losing the right to more generous contractual sick pay schemes.
If an employee provides details of their sickness absence more than seven calendar days after the first date they were off sick, and the employer does not accept there was good cause for the delay, the employer can withhold payment of SSP.
For the purposes of SSP, employers cannot insist on a doctor’s certificate for the first seven days of sickness or for a period of sickness less than seven days, however they can do so as a condition of payment of their own contractual sick pay schemes (though this rarely happens).
A few years ago the Government replaced old-style sick notes with new ‘statements of fitness for work’ known as ‘fit notes’. These do not state that the employee is fit for work; instead they state that the employee is either not fit for work or may be fit for work taking into account details of the following advice. Thus the GP cannot unconditionally sign the employee back to work, but instead ‘conditionalises’ the return.
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