Worked while on sick note - has been counted as absence

badmoon

Hi there,

This is mainly a rant though thoughts would be appreciated as to whether I'm just being a moany so and so or not!

I had an operation earlier this year and was signed off initially for a fortnight, then when it was clear I wasn't fit to return to the work place I was signed off for 2 more weeks.

I've a low boredom threshold and also feel guilty whenever I'm off ill so spoke to my doctor about whether working from home might be an option and he agreed as long as I could take time to do exercises and not work the same long hours.

Spoke to work who agreed and I commenced work on a big project the following week, I was emailed other work to do including stats for our team etc., and generally spent about 4 to 5 hours a day working.

More fool me perhaps. I then had remote access set up and was checking emails, sending out information to the teams,which has proved useful when I started doing alternate days in work and then working from home as can check emails.

I did volunteer to do this of course but expected that it may be reflected later on our HR records.

Anyway, when I went back into work, the boss said they'd discuss with their senior manager whether it would be counted as absence or not as I'd worked during that time. They never came back to me to confirm either way.

Have checked today as it takes a while for absences to load up on our systems and they've counted it as 2 separate absences for me for the full 4 weeks. (as they were 2 separate notes)

It's a lesson you live and learn I suppose but I just feel a bit unhappy that it's not been recorded anywhere on the system that I did work at the very minimum part time during that period. I may as well not have bothered and recovered fully.

Would you mention it or just put it down to one of those things? I've had treatments following on from the op which I've taken time off for from my own leave as well so work haven't been affected by this at all.

Thanks for allowing the space to rant.

Savvy_Sue

I would mention it. Your doctor and your work agreed that this was OK.

Can you demonstrate that you worked every day during that second sick note? If it wasn't every day, then I'd expect it to have been classed as a phased return. I don't know how that is supposed to work, but when I had one I was recorded as sick on the days I did not attend work.

If you worked part-time during that second sick note, I'm not sure how they'd class it.

Did you get full pay while you were on sick leave?

badmoon

Hi there,

Thanks for your reply. Yeah, I can definitely prove I worked every day. For the first week or so it was from my own PC as didn't have work laptop but was in regular contact by email and as I say was being sent work to do, for the 2nd week I was working from work pc. Not doing full days on either day but a minimum of 5 hours at least.

Then when I went back to the office I did alternate days in the office and the other days worked from home.

I guess that's the issue, how do they class it when I did work during my 2nd note with the GP's permission and work's permission too but not full time. If they'd told me at the time it would have been classed as 4 weeks absence I'd have not done any work and carried on the recuperation fully.

I got full sick pay so that's not the issue, I think it's more the principle of the matter and the fact that it's been left to me to find this out thats annoyed me most.

SarEl

I think you may find that the problem here is not the fact that you worked - it is the fact that you had a sick note! Sick notes don't allow for "this day you are sick, this day you aren't, this day you are" (or they didn't - the system has changed recently). So having a sick note meant that your doctor had advised you to refrain from work - regradless of what he or the employer said to the contrary. As a result, you were formally off sick, regardless of the fact that you worked, and SSP would have been claimed by the employer. What your doctor should have done was signed you back as fit for work but on a phased return or reasonable adjustments basis. This would have meant that any day on which you worked under such an agreement would have been counted as "not sick".

Uncertain

Sick notes are widely misunderstood (certainly the old ones and probably the new variety too).

Either however are simply the doctor's ADVICE to you to refrain from work and entitle you to claim SSP if you CHOOSE to follow that advice.

On the new ones the doctor has an additional option of "maybe fit for work subject to certain conditions" but I don't think that is relevant here.

So, if you chose to work then the firm should pay you accordingly and account for this properly in their SSP records.

Premier_2

Uncertain wrote: »

Sick notes are widely misunderstood (certainly the old ones and probably the new variety too).

Either however are simply the doctor's ADVICE to you to refrain from work ...

Professional medical advice which any responsible employer would knowingly ignore at their peril.:eek:

Often knowingly employing such a person that is advised they are unfit to work would invalidate the employers insurance.

When I worked for a large company, their policy was that not only were you not permitted to work when advised by a professional medical practitioner not to work, but also they wouldn't even allow you back to work until you had been signed as fit to work by their own medical officer after the expiry of any sick note.

As you say, the system has changed a bit recently by allowing doctors to specify types of work their patient is considered fit to carry out.

Uncertain

Premier wrote: »

Professional medical advice which any responsible employer would knowingly ignore at their peril.:eek:

Often knowingly employing such a person that is advised they are unfit to work would invalidate the employers insurance.

Yes, that can be true but is not really the issue here.

In this case the employer didn't have a problem with the OP being at work despite having a sick note. The problem is how they have accounted for it.

Many employers misused the old style sick notes. It actually said on them "For SSP purposes only" so if an employer wanted more medical information they should pay for it.