Sickness pay advice please.

sleepystar1975

Hi all

I am hoping to pick the brains of your folk in the know.

My Husband is a home delivery driver for a well-known supermarket.

When making a delivery to a house, he tripped on a tree root sticking out of the customers driveway (well, hidden in the gravel...but poking out enough for him to trip on), then landed on a kiddies bike, in doing this, he caused damage to the ligaments to his knee, twisted his back, hurt his ankle and bruised his crown jewels. When he got back to the store to report this, there was no first aider on site, meaning we had to get a babysitter to look after the little'un while we sat in A&E till 2am - where they did all the necessary pokes and prods, gave him crutches and the required follow up appointments, and the advise to rest/ice/elevate for the first day or so, then gentle mobilisation, but to take time off work., blah, blah, blah

The symptoms in the knee have since worsened, to the point that they (the hospital) have ordered MRI scans for him and considering referring him to the ortho team and he is now under the physio team too.

However, he is still being written sick-notes (or whatever they are called now) for work, this is now week 3, just going into week 4. As there is no end in sight with his knee, he has requested that he is trained on check-outs, where he can go into work on his crutches/walking stick, and not have to do the long walking and heavy lugging that the delivery job required. They have sait that they will facilitate this....but the checkout trainer is off sick, so will have to wait till she comes back before this can happen.

So, we are gettig a bit twitchy about wages. And were wondering what he is likely to be paid. He asked his boss who said "don't worry, you will get sick pay", but didn't specify if this was just to be SSP, or whether he is to get any more, as the accident technically was a work-related accident, we were wondering if there was any entitlements he should get too? He has only worked for the company since May of this year (since being made redundant from his £35k/year job, this 20 hour week/almost minimum wage job is all he could find. but it keeps him out of mischief......and means he can play his rubbish music in his van till his heart is content, and not ruin our ears with it;))

If you could point us to any sources we would be grateful, as we want to be informed of his rights, just incase he doesn't get any monies he should have got when he gets paid on Friday.


Thanks all for reading this loooong post, I really appreciate it

pinkshoes

Perhaps he could write and ask if another checkout trainer in a different store could train him?

Make sure he puts everything in writing showing that he is keen to come back and do something else.

G51shopaholic

The injury was not caused by his employer but the people to who's house he was delivering.

My sisters neighbour was delivery driver for Sainsburys and slipped on stairs and landed on her back - very very painful. She got full sick pay for 6mths and received compensation for injury but her employer (and quite rightly so) took back the full sickpay from her claim for lose of earnings.

It sounds harsh to say sue someone but if it was a car accident you'd sue so why not this instance? It is NOT the employers responsibility.

Also on checkouts your husband would have to stand up to pack bags and sitting down might make his knee swell up.

Sounds like a total nightmare for you both - but I'd sue the home owner for negligence.

McKneff

Much as I hate ambulance chasers, it is quite clear that your OH is not one of them so I would go with G51shopaholic's advice.

Do you have any legal help with household insurance.

Go back and take photographs (if the stump is still there) and pass them on to a solicitor when yo find one.

sleepystar1975

Thanks all for your replies, sorry I didn't follow up sooner, I broke the wireless modem thingummy when I was cleaning (does that count as a good reason not to clean?)

I will put all your suggestions to him, and suggest he looks in to the no win, no fee peeps, I know he won't like doing it, but as McNeff and G51 says, we'd do it if it was a car accident, and not only that, in most cases, moneys will come from the house owners insurance (If they have it) and not out of the mouths of their family

sleepystar1975

McKneff wrote: »

Do you have any legal help with household insurance.

.

I get a certain amount of legal advice offered with my RCN subscription, enough to kick us off I guess:)