Sickness Policy

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE

You are required to telephone your immediate Line Manager by one hour before your shift is due to start on the first day of sickness absence, stating why you are absent and when you expect to return. If applicable, you need to give details of work that needs to be covered. If your absence continues, you must contact your Line Manager regularly to update on your continuing absence.

Should your Line Manager not be available, you must leave a message and contact information for them to contact you when they are available.

Please note that personal contact is required at all times when contacting the Organisation. The sending of text messages or email will not be accepted as notification. You must also remain contactable (where possible) at all times during your sickness absence. Obvious exceptions would include during periods of hospitalisation. Your Line Manager should be able to contact you as appropriate in working hours during your sickness absence to enquire on your progress.

Should your absence period exceed 2 weeks (or 10 working days), your line manager will contact you to arrange a home visit to discuss your prognosis and identify ways to support you back to work where possible.

You must provide the appropriate certificates as referred to below at the relevant times, and complete any absence recording documentation as required on your return to work.

Failure to notify the Organisation as set out will result in action being taken against you under the under the Disciplinary Procedure and no payment under the Organisation Sick Scheme.

Notification of Infectious Diseases

You must notify the Organisation if you are suffering from or have symptoms of a notifiable infectious disease e.g. mumps, measles, or food poisoning etc., or where you have been in close contact with someone with such an illness. Where you have been off work with this type of illness, you must contact the Organisation and your doctor prior to returning to work to ensure that it is safe to do so.

SELF-CERTIFICATE AND STATEMENT OF FITNESS FOR WORK

You should produce the following written evidence of absence and ensure that appropriate documents are provided for the whole of your absence.

Self-Certificate for absence of up to and including 7 calendar days; or

Statement of Fitness for Work for absence of more than 7 calendar days; or

when requested, where more than 3 periods of self-certificated absence occur in any 12 month period (this may have to be obtained at your own expense); or

for absence before or following an annual or bank/public holiday.

You should forward certificates, statements and any correspondence to your immediate Line Manager as soon as possible. Failure to do so may result in sick pay being delayed or withheld and action under the Disciplinary Procedure being taken.

The Organisation reserves the right to require you to undertake a medical examination by a medical practitioner and/or specialist of the Organisation's choice and/or to seek a report from your Doctor.

Where the Organisation wishes to seek a report from your Doctor, you have rights under legislation; a summary of these rights is included later in this Handbook (under 'Access to Medical Reports').

STATUTORY SICK PAY

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will be paid when you are absent from work due to sickness, provided that you have complied with the requirements and conditions attached to its payment.

When SSP is payable

SSP cannot be paid for the first 3 days of sickness. Therefore, payment usually starts on the 4th day of absence, and continues for as long as you are absent, up to a maximum of 28 weeks in any one period of sickness.

SSP is paid in exactly the same way as normal earnings.

When SSP is not payable

SSP is not payable in certain circumstances, the principal ones being:

if your average weekly earnings are less than the figure set by the Government for the payment of National Insurance Contributions for absence of less than 4 days

if you have failed to follow the sickness Notification Procedure

if your employment has terminated

where Statutory Maternity Pay is being paid to you

for days on which you do not normally work (e.g. if you work Monday to Friday and not at weekends, SSP will normally apply to those 5 days only).

The rules on SSP are very complex and you should not hesitate to raise any query you may have with the Organisation.

OTHER PAYMENT DURING SICKNESS ABSENCE

Subject to the satisfactory completion of 26 worked weeks’ of continuous service, the Organisation may, at its absolute discretion, provide sick pay benefit, which will be inclusive of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for absence due to sickness.

A maximum of 40 days full pay and a further 20 days at half pay may be payable in the sickness payment year, which runs 1 January to 31 December. Payment will only be considered after a review of your sickness absence during the previous six rolling months.

Where you are absent through sickness and this period continues from one payment year into the next, you will continue to be eligible for the balance of the existing year’s payment, but you will not qualify for payment in respect of the subsequent sickness payment year until you have returned to work for a continuous period of 1 month.

Other Conditions

- all payments made include SSP
- as with SSP, the notification procedure must be followed in order to qualify for payment
- the Organisation reserves the right at its discretion to withdraw or amend the benefit in respect of you, or employees generally, at any time and to take action against you under the Disciplinary Procedure if your absence is excessive
- where payable, sickness or industrial injury benefit must be claimed from the appropriate Government Agency and any benefit received must be notified to the Organisation; such benefits will be deducted from the above payments
- at any time during employment, the Organisation reserves the right to require you to undertake a medical examination by a GP and/or Specialist appointed by the Organisation
- If you are absent due to sickness during the course of disciplinary proceedings or during investigations into alleged breaches of rules, procedures or contractual obligations you will not be entitled to sickness payment from the Organisation (other than SSP)
- If you are absent from work due to injury or illness caused by a third party, any payments made by the Organisation as sickness payment will be classed as a loan; this will be repayable to the Organisation by you if compensation for loss of earnings is recovered from the third party
- eligibility for sickness payment will not prevent the Organisation from terminating your employment prior to the expiry of the above maximum benefits.
- Part time workers pro rata payments

Important

If you have been absent due to sickness and are found not to have been genuinely ill, you will be subject to action being taken against you under the Disciplinary Procedure, which could include dismissal.

RETURN TO WORK INTERVIEWS

Having regard to its duty of care to its employees the Organisation will complete a return to work interview after any sickness absence. This will ensure that you are fit for work and whether you anticipate any further absence relating to your illness. This will also give you an opportunity to discuss any concerns you may have regarding your illness with your Line Manager and Human Resources, and allow the Organisation to make any reasonable adjustments where required.

Note: For every 4th period of sickness absence in any rolling 12 month period, your return to work interview will include a member from the Human Resources team.

Access to Medical Reports

In certain circumstances it may be necessary for the Organisation to obtain a Medical Report from your Doctor/Specialist in order to establish:

- the reason for and likely duration of absence
- when you will be able to return to work, and whether the problem will recur
- what, if any, treatment is being prescribed; and
- whether you can carry out all the duties of the job.

This will enable the Organisation to plan workloads. It is in the interests of both yourself and the Organisation to establish, with the benefit of expert medical opinion, your ability to work. You have certain rights under the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988. Your Doctor/Specialist cannot submit the report to the Organisation without your consent. You may withhold consent to the report being sought or can request to see the report prior to it being forwarded to the Organisation.

If you indicate that you wish to see the report in advance, the Organisation will inform you when the Doctor/Specialist has been written to; and the Doctor/Specialist also will be notified that you wish to see the report. You then have 21 days to contact the Doctor/Specialist regarding arrangements to see the report.

Should you indicate that you do not wish to see the report before the Organisation, you still have the right to write to the Doctor/Specialist, if the report has not been provided to the Organisation, and have 21 days to contact the Doctor/Specialist regarding arrangements to see the report. You have the right to ask the Doctor/Specialist for a copy of the report for up to 6 months after it has been supplied. (There may be a charge for this.)

You may ask the Doctor/Specialist to amend any part of the report that you consider to be incorrect or misleading. If the Doctor/Specialist is not in agreement, you may attach a statement of your views with the report. If the Doctor/Specialist thinks that you or others would be harmed by the report, or any part of the report, it can be withheld from you.

No decision will be made that could affect your employment without careful consideration of all the circumstances.

Where the Organisation wishes to obtain a medical report, you will be asked for your written consent. Should you withhold such consent, the Organisation will take a decision regarding your continuing employment without the benefit of medical opinion.