Sick pay advice

Inmyslippers

I am an employer of 4 staff, paying them on an hourly rate school term time only.

One of my staff will be off sick for about 4 weeks. Do I have to pay sick pay? Her pay averages out at about £126 per week.

It has always been the case that the work is on a casual basis i.e they work when the work is available, similar to supply teachers in schools.

I am confused about the rules and want to make sure I am doing the right thing.

dizzydoll

Inmyslippers wrote: »

I am an employer of 4 staff, paying them on an hourly rate school term time only.

One of my staff will be off sick for about 4 weeks. Do I have to pay sick pay? Her pay averages out at about £126 per week.

It has always been the case that the work is on a casual basis i.e they work when the work is available, similar to supply teachers in schools.

I am confused about the rules and want to make sure I am doing the right thing.

Why don't you ask them to book their sick leave out of term time.? :cool:

Takeaway_Addict

dizzydoll wrote: »

Why don't you ask them to book their sick leave out of term time.? :cool:

Any need for this? The OP wants to know what their legal position is rather than guess.

OP, have you looked at the GOV website as it should have the qualifying information for SSP.

You could always pay her anyway if she is loyal even if she doesn't meet the requirements?

Inmyslippers

ThanksTakeaway addict. I never understood why people post on here when they have nothing to contribute. Unfortunately she cannot book her urgent operation in her holidays!!
It was a genuine question about my legal responsiblities. I was just unsure of the situation. Would only pay if I was obliged to. No problem with the employee.

Inmyslippers

I have read lots of information but just wondered if any MSE business people had any experience of this.

Savvy_Sue

It's a bit alarming that any employer - even a small one - does not know what their legal responsibilities are wrt SSP, but do you use a payroll service? I'd ask them to do the calculations.

Also the HMRC website has a step by step guide you can follow. You will probably find that some of the SSP you pay is offset against your HMRC bill. And it will tell you what to do if your employee is not entitled to SSP.

BTW, the reason why it's alarming is that if you don't know, how do you know you're complying with the law? Do your staff have contracts? Do you know what their entitlement to paid leave is? Yes, even for 'casual' staff.
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Inmyslippers

Thanks. That's all true which is why I'm trying to sort things out now. Long term sick has not happened before. Just wanted some info from others. I'm going to ring my accountant today.

Savvy_Sue

Inmyslippers wrote: »

Thanks. That's all true which is why I'm trying to sort things out now. Long term sick has not happened before. Just wanted some info from others. I'm going to ring my accountant today.

Good, that's sensible. Obviously you don't have to know everything about employing staff, although there is a lot of information out there on the HMRC and .gov.uk websites, granted it's not always easy to find exactly what you want.

You DO need to have a 'reliable' source of advice - 'reliable' as in you can sue the pants off them if they get it wrong. From the Employment board it's clear that too many small employers don't keep up to date with changes in legislation, and / or assume it doesn't apply to them because they are small or they only employ part-time or casual staff, and / or assume that their staff won't know any better or dare to do anything about it.

I've always found my payroll service to be very good at checking things with me, eg someone left after having taken more leave than they were entitled to, I said "please deduct £x from their final payment" and I was asked if we had a clause in our employment t&c to say we could do this. We did!

tripled

This information might help:
https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay

It would seem that if they don't ask for it, you don't need to pay it.