No sick pay

betterlatethannever

chrisbur wrote: »

T Was the employer informed of the sickness and were any forms that they required filled in? Also the seven days before an employer can ask for a doctors' certificate are seven consecutive days not seven days you would normally work, not sure from what you have said exactly how long sickness lasted.

Hi- employer was informed of the sickness and given an update two days later.
She was actually sick from Saturday until the following Thursday, during which time she would have had daily shifts. She would have been off then from Friday until Monday, but the boss went and covered her Monday shift- even though he'd been told she expected to be back by then.

betterlatethannever

Uncertain wrote: »

Having said all that, give that SSP is not paid for the first three days we are talking about a very small amount. She has not (quite) been employed for long enough to have protection from unfair dismissal so is it wise to rock the boat?

Yes, we worked it out and it only comes to about £25, and they have been an excellent company to work for (so far)

betterlatethannever

clairec79 wrote: »

Did she inform them that she was fit to return from that Friday? Even though she wasn't due to work she has to tell them she is no longer off sick

She called work on the Saturday saying she'd be well enough for next week, but limited on things such as lifting.
She then got a text message on the Monday saying her shift was already covered for that day!

Seems a bit wrong that they covered a shift she was due to do

betterlatethannever

mazza111 wrote: »

And when they say sick note, do they mean a fit note or a self certificate? A self cert would cover for the first 7 days of illness.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/sc2.pdf

Sorry- should have multi quoted here:o

They asked her to go to the doctors and get a note, so that would be a fit note.
She hasn't filled in any forms for the first few days off.

skibadee

For the first week you can self certificate yourself, as has been said you need to work out her average pay.

zzzLazyDaisy

betterlatethannever wrote: »

She called work on the Saturday saying she'd be well enough for next week, but limited on things such as lifting.
She then got a text message on the Monday saying her shift was already covered for that day!

Seems a bit wrong that they covered a shift she was due to do

Does her job normally include lifting? If so, the employer is not obliged to make adjustments to her normal duties to enable her to return to work (unless she is disabled under the Equality Act?).

mazza111

Definitely fill out a self cert for the first week anyway. Link above gives the form.

betterlatethannever

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Does her job normally include lifting? If so, the employer is not obliged to make adjustments to her normal duties to enable her to return to work (unless she is disabled under the Equality Act?).

Really!! I didn't know that.
Yes, it does involve lifting.

Thank you everyone for the help- you've all been amazing. :beer:

Still tipping the place upside down trying to find her contract:o

Think she'll have a chat with her boss and her doctors, and take it from there but we really don't think its worth making too much fuss about it...this time.

zzzLazyDaisy

As someone else has said, it is worth her putting in a self certificate for the time she was off sick.

This is because is she is off sick again within the next 8 weeks (that is 56 consecutive actual days, not working days) the new period of sick leave would be a 'linked' period of absence so she would not have to serve the three waiting days again.

chrisbur

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

You need to check her contract - she does have a written statement of her terms and conditions, doesn't she?

It is not how many hours/days she normally works that counts, necessarily, it is what her contract says.

So, say her contract just says she is employed to work saturdays, but she actually often works more days than that - the three 'waiting days' would only be her contracted hours - so she'd need to miss three saturdays before she became entitled to SSP.

On the other hand if she has a zero hours contract, or a contract that says hours are flexible as the needs of the business dictates, and they vary from week to week, then it is the average of the past 12 weeks that counts.

So what does it say in her contract?

SSP is a bit more complicated than this. The days that count for SSP and waiting days are known as Qualifying Days and they can differ by agreement from the contracted days and if actual pattern of work is significantly different from contracted or agreed qualifying days then actual qualifying days may be different to both. From the employers' guide page 1....

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/helpsheets/e14.pdf



"They are usually the days of the week your employee normally works; their contracted working days.


You can decide not to use the contracted working days if, for example, your workforce operates a varied or alternative working pattern each week. For simplicity you may want to have the same days each week as the QDs, but you must first reach agreement with your workforce or their representative(s) about which days will be QDs. You cannot use different QDs than the actual work pattern without agreement with your employees.

There must be at least one QD in each week runningfrom Sunday to Saturday. Bank Holidays and other non-working days do not alter the normal pattern of QDs.

An employee’s QDs for SSP must be based on the days that are ordinarily worked by that worker. It may be, for example, that a worker’s initial contract states that there shall be one qualifying day a week for SSP purposes. SSP can only be considered on a one day per week basis if that accurately reflects the actual work pattern of the worker. Where, for example, an employee regularly works five days per week, this regular work pattern displaces the original terms of one day per week, and the QDs must be assessed using five days per week."