Seven things you might not know about sick pay

 

1)      There is no general legal entitlement to sick pay

 It doesn’t matter if you are a temp, permanent, manager, junior or intern.  If you are off sick, your boss doesn’t have to pay you any money (except SSP – see below) unless they have contracted to pay you when you are off.

2)      Contractual sick pay does not have to be in writing

 A contract does not have to be in writing to be valid – though it can be hard to figure out what the contract terms are if there isn’t anything written down.

Sometimes a contract term can be established by “custom and practice” – although that is a lot more difficult than people generally think.  But even so, if an employer always pays everyone up to two weeks’ sick pay a year, then that might become a contract term — and a sick employee could then insist on it.

Employers who wants to keep their options open should make sure that the contracts that they are using give them the flexibility they want.

3)      Statutory sick pay (SSP) is the Government’s sick pay scheme

SSP is paid to sick employees via the pay packet.  It is not designed to cover all normal pay and often doesn’t.  It is not paid for the first three days of absence, nor if the employee doesn’t provide the right paperwork, nor if the employee doesn’t earn enough to pay National Insurance.   Statutory sick pay is currently a maximum of £79.15, going up in April to £81.60.

4)      Being sick and pregnant

Pregnant women have the same entitlement to sick pay as their colleagues.  There is no larger or smaller allowance.   If a women is on sick leave for a pregnancy related reason in the last four weeks before starting maternity leave, this can trigger the beginning of maternity leave.

Ante-natal visits do not come out of sick leave (or holiday), but they are paid leave (at full pay) in their own right.

5)      Carrying forward entitlement

Unless your contract says so clearly, unused paid sick leave in one year is not carried forward into another.

6)      Holiday refund

Anyone falling sick on pre booked annual leave can apply to have that holiday substituted by sick leave and book replacement holiday for a later date (within the same holiday year).  If sick leave is unpaid, this will result in an overpayment that needs to be dealt with.  If you are outside the EU and sick, you are not entitled to SSP.

7)      Family member’s sickness

Sick pay (where it exists) is for the employee who is off sick.  If a family member is sick, then it’s out of order for the employee to claim sick leave.  An employee who needs to take time off for a sick family member might be entitled to dependant’s leave – but that is unpaid unless the contract says otherwise.

 

Christopher Head is director of specialist employment law consultancy Irenicon Ltd.  Christopher helps people to get the law on their side, and to avoid being tripped up by rules they don’t know about.

Book now for the series of three short seminars in March which Christopher is running, to give you quick clear information about the legal side of having people work for you.  For details of the seminars, and how to book, click here.

Irenicon Ltd  Tel: 08452 303050  Fax: 08452 303060  Website : www.irenicon.co.uk