Are people entitled to book unpaid leave to have teeth out

Cooper18

I haven't read any more than the original post so I apologise if someone has already said this. I'm surprised at your attitude to this request. Wisdom teeth removal requires an operation and as such should be seen as a "planned hospital admission", requiring sick leave, not holidays or unpaid leave.

Sambucus_Nigra

easy wrote: »

but originally the OP wasn't offering sick pay at all. So no options ...

However, I have asked a contact of mine who knows more about employment law than I, who says that this should be treated as a period of sickness, and should be paid accordingly - at the very least SSP should be paid after the qualifying period, although if sick pay has been specified in the employment contract, then this should be paid.
The employer CAN'T insist that a period of sickness is taken as holiday. That isn't legal.

He isn't insisting anything. He asked whether he had to give unpaid leave and he doesn't. He can offer paid leave if the employee doesn't want to take sick leave. Because he has now realised that the employee should really be off sick, he has gone back to tell them that.

So those are the options.

DCFC79

I took sick leave when I had teeth removed, was better than having it as unpaid leave.

apples1

LannieDuck wrote: »

Apples, I think you've been thoroughly beaten up in this thread. Well done for keeping your cool.

I almost didn't dare log back in when I got home from work. Can't tell you how much I appreciate your posts. Thank you :-)

Dunroamin

Cooper18 wrote: »

I haven't read any more than the original post so I apologise if someone has already said this. I'm surprised at your attitude to this request. Wisdom teeth removal requires an operation and as such should be seen as a "planned hospital admission", requiring sick leave, not holidays or unpaid leave.

Most people don't have their wisdom teeth out at a hospital - I know I didn't. Expecting to take a week off sick is just taking the pee.

dizzyrascal

Dunroamin wrote: »

Most people don't have their wisdom teeth out at a hospital - I know I didn't. Expecting to take a week off sick is just taking the pee.

I would love to agree with you but I had impacted wisdom teeth and had to have them all removed when I was a student. 3 were fine but you have to have stitches and it is very sore. The fourth one turned out to be a bit stuck. One broken jaw, infected stitches and 10 days of drinking through a straw later and it is not something I would willingly go through ever again. (lost a stone though, but didn't need to in those days). I also had a bad reaction to the anesthetic! I think that is called the icing on the cake!
I hope the employee has a better time than I did.

Dunroamin

dizzyrascal wrote: »

I would love to agree with you but I had impacted wisdom teeth and had to have them all removed when I was a student. 3 were fine but you have to have stitches and it is very sore. The fourth one turned out to be a bit stuck. One broken jaw, infected stitches and 10 days of drinking through a straw later and it is not something I would willingly go through ever again. (lost a stone though, but didn't need to in those days). I also had a bad reaction to the anesthetic! I think that is called the icing on the cake!
I hope the employee has a better time than I did.

Oh, I do appreciate that things can get complicated; it's the expecting to need a week off in advance that seems unnecessary.

I had two out at the dentist surgery under a local anaesthetic and that included having to drill one out in pieces! I took the next day off but a week would really have been milking it.

hcb42

That problem of anticipating the time off in advance has possibly been caused by the health authority, not the employee, can think of a few examples of people I have worked with who have a significantly longer expectation of how long they will be off than perhaps might be deemed normal. In one recent example a friend of ours was quoted 20 weeks off after some kind of back operation, he was back to work after about 4-5! Equally I had a minor op about 15 years ago, and expected I would be able to go back to work after 2-3 days (toughing it out of course!) I was in agony and needed well over a week.

dizzyrascal

I think the key here is that they have to be removed at the hospital.
The only comfort I got from my experience was knowing that some of the dental students got to deal with a "worst case scenario" and had a great case study to write up.

StephenM_2

Threads like this make me glad I work for a big company with proper sick pay and no restrictions on when I take my holiday.