Can my employer do this?

themaadone

My employer has a company wide sickness policy.

I have been told by more than one person that they, my employer, cannot do the following:

The company limit sickness not to days but instead to bouts.

An employee can have three 'bouts' of illness - these bouts can be 1, 2 or 5 days in length; anything over 5 days in length you need to produce a Doctor's note.

If I were to take 3 bouts off sick, each bout 1 working day I would be penalised for however many days I had off sick on my fourth bout. I could lose 1 or 9 days pay.

So, I could be off work 3 x 1 day= that's ok..... or
off work 3 x 5 days= 15 days that's the same as above

so 15 days can be ok but 4 however and you face losing 1 days pay.

Where do we stand on employment law and can an employer enforce a 'bouts' policy?

TM

cte1111

Yes they can do this. My husband's employer switched to this kind of policy a while ago. One of his colleagues challenged it, with a grievance. She found that there was nothing she could do, they can change their policy.

All you are legally entitled to is Statutory Sickness Pay, anything else is at the employer's discretion.

LittleVoice

cte1111 wrote: »

All you are legally entitled to is Statutory Sickness Pay, anything else is at the employer's discretion.

It does depend on what is provided in the written particulars of employment and whether "discretion" is retained by the employer or whether the sick pay scheme rules are fully contractual without allowing employer discretion.

ray123

TM - dont worry too much about employment law. Follow their rules, keep your head down and YOUR JOB!
I could have referred to employment law on countless occasions, forced the issue, lost my job and took my employer to a tribunal. Well done me...
What do I do after? It is hard enough to find a job without being labelled a trouble maker...

KeepYourChinUp_2

yep my company also works on 'bout's or days. I.E 3 separate days is 3 bouts which gains you a 'counciling' but 13 days in one go also gains you a counciling. Therefore they inadvertently encourage people to take the whole week off even if they are only ill for 24hrs because 3 bouts x 5 days = 15 days.

Btw I just received my thanks for not having a day off in the last year. They seem to have forgot to put the check in the envelope though :rolleyes:

naijapower

ray123 wrote: »

TM - dont worry too much about employment law. Follow their rules, keep your head down and YOUR JOB!
I could have referred to employment law on countless occasions, forced the issue, lost my job and took my employer to a tribunal. Well done me...
What do I do after? It is hard enough to find a job without being labelled a trouble maker...

True talk and very good advise. You need to follow the rules and keep head down. It's a small world and it is easy to be identified as a trouble maker

callow

I had a similar thing one. I was sick for 2 days and went back on the third day not feeling 100%. As the day wore on I became sick again and had to go home and then have another day off. This counted as 2 "bouts". This and another day sick later in the year had me in for a sickness interview.

I learned then to make sure I was 100% better before returning to work.

Liz_the_Whizz

"Bouts" or "instances" is a widely used way to structure sickness absence policy.

It picks up persistent "one dayers" who do not tend to trigger if there is a single limit of eg 7 days (ie someone could be off 6 times for 1 day of sickness without triggering the sickness absence procedure, but if the trigger was 3 "bouts", it would be activated sooner).

Many see it as a fairer way as it is widely held that people throwing a sickie are more likely to take one day absences.

But as callow points out, it can work against a genuine person who is trying their best to return to work.

IMHO, linking it to pay is quite another matter - what your employer will achieve is a workplace resembling A&E at times with people coming in when clearly unfit for work with all sorts of infectious diseases. And what happens if you are off on genuine long-term sickness? Not much advance from Victorian management principles based on callous distrust of the workforce.

The advice from others is right - if it is contractual, it is legal. Keep clear records of your sickness absence just like you do with your leave, on a rolling annual basis, so you know exactly where you stand.

And when you get a chance, move to a more enlightened employer.