Phased return to work

SwanseaSouthStander

HELP!!!

Hi, my wife has been ill but wanted to return to work. The Doctor has given her a phased return to work form and she has agreed with her employer to work 2 days a week for 2hrs a day(shes part time anyway). Her employer has told her that she will only get paid for the hours she work but I thought that because she is making an effort to get back to work she was entitled to her full pay?

Can anybody enlighten me on her situation?

Many thanks.

iamana1ias

SwanseaSouthStander wrote: »

HELP!!!

Hi, my wife has been ill but wanted to return to work. The Doctor has given her a phased return to work form and she has agreed with her employer to work 2 days a week for 2hrs a day(shes part time anyway). Her employer has told her that she will only get paid for the hours she work but I thought that because she is making an effort to get back to work she was entitled to her full pay?

Can anybody enlighten me on her situation?

Many thanks.

You thought wrong. She should get full pay for anything she works, and (if she is entitled) SSP for the remainder.

GEEGEE8

I think it's up to employers discretion, unless her contract states anything more?

zzzLazyDaisy

She is only entitled to be paid for the hours she works. This has been confirmed in case law relating to the disability discrimination act on the issue of reasonable adjustments where hours are reduced to enable a disable employee to return to and/or remain in work.

Savvy_Sue

When I had a phased return, I continued to get full pay. But then my contract stated I was entitled to 3 months on full pay if I was off sick. If your wife is on SSP then she would be paid for the hours she works, and I don't know where she'd be with any SSP - but it should all be one period of sick pay, not several short ones, IYSWIM and IIRC.

Our payroll people needed a bit of convincing that I could work for one day a week and be 'sick' for the rest, then work 2 days and be sick the rest etc. But I just said that's what had been agreed, so please keep paying me full pay.

zzzLazyDaisy

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

When I had a phased return, I continued to get full pay. But then my contract stated I was entitled to 3 months on full pay if I was off sick..

This type of arrangement is fairly common where the contract provides for full pay during sick leave. After all it is better to have the employee in work some of the time than not at all.

But I assumed from the OP that the wife was not on full sick pay - perhaps I shouldn't have done - apologies if that is the case because that may well change things.

Re the way the new 'fit notes' work.. I'm not sure and will be interested to find out. Under the old sick note system, you were either fit for work or not. So if you commenced a phased return, you were fit for work - albeit part-time - and your ssp stopped, even for the days you were not working. There were strict rules about what sort of work you could do while on ssp, such as voluntary work.

Given that fit notes provide for phased return to work, I wonder what the position is re ssp on the days when you are not working - ie off sick. I suspect that a return to work of any description means that you are no longer on sick leave or entitled to ssp, but I'll be pleased to be proved wrong.

SwanseaSouthStander

Thanks all for your replies. What I should of said originaly is that the empolyer pays her for the hours she work and SSP pays her the rest. I'll try and chase things up today and find an answer.

terra_ferma

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

This type of arrangement is fairly common where the contract provides for full pay during sick leave. After all it is better to have the employee in work some of the time than not at all

Yes I agree, I've seen many people come back to work gradually, on these basis.

Savvy_Sue

And speaking personally, if I'd had come back straight away to my original hours, I'd never have been fit to come back. And yes, everyone was jolly glad to have me for 1, 2, 3, 4 and eventually 5 days a week!