Phased return to work-sick pay entitlement

11cas

Can anyone advise whether you are still entitled to sick pay if you return to work on a phased basis. For example if your doctors agrees you are fit to return to work doing light duties and your employer only has 2 days worth of light duty work for you to do, will you still be entitled to 3 days of sick pay?

What organisation/agency is best to advise on this?

Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks

ohreally

In organisations i've dealt with, a phased return is "paid for" from the employees outstanding sickpay arrangements.

Your employer should have a policy detailing the process.

11cas wrote: »

What organisation/agency is best to advise on this?

A trade union/ shop steward.

11cas

Thanks for the reply. The employee is only entitled to SSP and unfortunately there is no union. My concern is that if the employer only allows them to return to work one or two days and the employee has to forfeit the whole SSP then the employee will be worse off.

Jinx

The organisation I work for fully paid staff when on a phased return. A phased return normally was a 4 week period starting with 2 days work week 1, 3 days week 2 etc I think a call to HR to clarify might be in order.

Mrs_Ryan

Mines the same Jinx - when I came back on a phased return earlier this year I was paid my full wage.

Glitzer

I had a phased return to work and was paid my full wage. Like Jinx phased returns worked over a four week period.

callow

Where I work (NHS) the hours not worked in a phased return are paid with annual leave entitlement.

So an employee on a 30 hour a week contract who has a phased return of 15 hours working would use 15 hours of annual leave to make up the full salary.

teajug

My granddaughter is disable and had to lots of phase back to work and each she was not paid she was only paid the time she work. The first time it was on GP instructions 2 years ago. Then she was off after an accident at work and was waiting for adjustments to be made for her. Her company did not pay her for time off waiting for adjustments and classed it as unpaid holiday. She just found out recently that they do pay for phase back to work if the illness is genuine therefor her employer is saying her disability is not genuine.

Her employer is a very large high street retailer.

chrisbur

11cas wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. The employee is only entitled to SSP and unfortunately there is no union. My concern is that if the employer only allows them to return to work one or two days and the employee has to forfeit the whole SSP then the employee will be worse off.

Obviously any time worked should be paid at the employee's normal rate of pay.
Regarding SSP payments these will only be paid if the normal rules of SSP say they should be paid, though of course if the employer wanted to make any payments to compensate for lost SSP they could.
Without knowing details of days to be worked or what the employee's qualyfying days are it is impossible to say what SSP would or would not be paid. As a guide assuming there is still SSP entitlement, you would need to have at least four days in a row when you were not working to qualify for any SSP and SSP would then be paid for any qualifying days in that period.

ohreally

teajug wrote: »

The first time it was on GP instructions 2 years ago. Then she was off after an accident at work and was waiting for adjustments to be made for her

A few issues here.

Firstly, it is not the remit of G.P's to instruct, they may offer an opinion/ advice, whether the employer takes it is another matter.

If by accident at work you mean an industrial accident causing injury, a discussion around how this progresses should be held with the employer. I wouldn't expect decisions to be punitive especially if there may be culpability issues.

Your granddaughter may require an advocate to speak for her in the workplace to assist with asserting her rights.

Uncertain

ohreally wrote: »

Firstly, it is not the remit of G.P's to instruct, they may offer an opinion/ advice, whether the employer takes it is another matter.

Whilst technically true, the current "fit note" system gives the GP the opportunity to say that a patient is fit to return on certain conditions. If the firm can't or won't meet those conditions then they must treat the person as signed off sick.

If by accident at work you mean an industrial accident causing injury, a discussion around how this progresses should be held with the employer. I wouldn't expect decisions to be punitive especially if there may be culpability issues.

Morally maybe but technically it has no bearing on how their sickness absence is treated. If the firm is responsible for the injury then the OP may well have claim against the firm. Obviously if the OP is off sick without pay as a result, or only able to work part time, then their losses increase and any payout should reflect this. However, given that the firm will (should) have insurance against injury claims but will most likely be footing any sick pay themselves they are likely to want to push as much of the cost as possible towards the insurer.