Paying back shifts after you have been off sick

Own_My_Own

Hardupandfedup wrote: »

we still do the same amount of hours, but i dont think its right that you have to make up the missed late shift.
Surely if you are off and miss a shift its up to the boss to sort out.

Sorry you are not making a lot of sense. Do you get sick pay when you are off ? Does the person doing your shift also get paid for this shift ?

So you can take Monday sick and get paid sick leave for it, then cover a shift on Thursday and get paid for it .
That means you earn more the week you are off sick.

Or do you not get sick pay ?

dancingfairy

Techincally I would assume that if you were sick, then you'd be sick and would get sick pay (if you qualified for it in your company). It would then be down to the company to arrange cover (and possibly have to pay them overtime).
Is it customary for people to help out to cover shifts if someone is ill? Is it a big deal to do one extra shift as a thank you for someone that covered for you when you were ill? Is it worth causing ill feeling over this?
Do check your contract to see what it says though.
df
Edit: It might help if you could explain who gets paid what ie does the person covering the shift get paid, do you get sick pay and when having to cover this other person in future do you get paid or them?

elliesmemory1

we get full sick pay. If you are off sick when you are due to do a late shift someone else will do it. we dont get paid extra for the late shifts we get time in lieu off.

Its just that when you go back to work you are expected to do extra late shifts to pay the person that did yours when you were off back for doing yours whn you were off.

Sorry if it does not make sense, but thats what happens and cant put it any other way.

patator

Just to clarify - you're paid for late shifts as if they were any other shift, but you're not paid anything extra on account of them being late, and you get time off in lieu after doing them to recompense for working late?

So is it just an informal arrangement whereby somebody covers a shift that falls on unsociable hours, then you're asked if you'll cover their shift doing equally unsociable hours so that they get the time off they would have had, if they'd not covered your shift? Sounds pretty fair to me... It does sound like you'd have the opportunity to say no as it's not actually being enforced, but if you did that you'd probably make yourself pretty unpopular with everybody you worked with!

Sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick - I'm still a little confused

Own_My_Own

It is this time in lieu that is confusing things.

Op, forgetting the time in lieu, do you get your normal hourly rate for this late shift ?

As I said before if you are off sick, get paid for it, then cover another shift and get paid for it, you are better off going sick once a week.

That does not make sense.

elliesmemory1

Ok, we get paid a monthly wage. part of your normal hours are to go back after a full days work and do another couple of hours. This is done on a rota system. you do approx 2 a month.
we dont get paid for these shifts we have the time off the next day. Because if you are off sick someone else does a extra shift in place of you they may do 3 a month not 2. they will still get their time back next day. they wont lose time or pay.

We get full sick pay.

If you are off sick and only do 1 shift in that month, you will be asked when you come back to cover a shift for whoever did yours when you were off. you wont lose time or pay either.

Its just that if you are off sick and miss a shift I dont feel you should have to make it up. If you are sick you are sick.

Own_My_Own

Why ?
If someone else has had to do an extra shift for you, would it not just be nice to do one of their shifts.
Your way, if someone disn't like doing the bit extra they could just go sick 2 days a month.
Would you not get annoyed if you had to do someone else's late shift and they didn't want to do one of yours for you, or moaned about doing it.

patator

Hardupandfedup wrote: »

Its just that if you are off sick and miss a shift I dont feel you should have to make it up. If you are sick you are sick.

From the sound of things, you don't HAVE to make it up - you're asked to, it's expected but not enforced. It does seem like it would be a good idea to just do it, else you'd end up upsetting the people you work with - if you're the only person who doesn't cover the shift of the person who stepped in for you after being off sick on a late shift, you'd be the only person who makes your colleagues do more than their share of late shifts!

This doesn't sound like you're being made to 'make up the time', it sounds like you're being asked to help out your colleagues by covering their late after they've stepped in and done it for you (probably at short notice).

It's up to you if you want to say that you're not doing it...but people would likely think that you were being unreasonable, which I'm sure you wouldn't want

elliesmemory1

yes I can see the point of it being nice to cover the shift of a collegue, my point is that really its up to the manager to sort the rota out and if nec do the extra shift themselves. They get paid more than we do.

Also you would not get awy with being off sick often. Im talking about genuine illness.

patator

The manager IS sorting the rota out by finding people to cover unexpected absences when somebody is off sick, then asking somebody else to do the person that covered for them a favour.

Most people in management positions, if it was totally necessary, would step in and do an extra shift to cover staff absences...but why should they? Yes, they're paid more...because they have more responsibilities and duties (usually that's the case, anyway)...but if someone covers your shift due to sickness, meaning you only do one late shift one month, surely it's fair to say you'll cover one of theirs for them? How would it be fair for a manager to have to do additional late shifts EVERY TIME one of their staff takes a late shift off sick?

I'm really sorry - I always try to see where people are coming from, but here all I can imagine is how your manager would react if you go to them complaining that sorting the rota is THEIR job and it's not YOUR job to do one of your colleagues a favour/cover a shift after someone has done it for you. I can imagine the words "team player" or similar would feature heavily in any review you had...

Really, unless you want to make yourself very unpopular, I'd just do as you're being asked and do your two late shifts a month, even if (due to illness) one of them is on a different night to the one you were expecting!