zero hours and sickness

c00lbeans

Asking for the wife here.

So the situation is: zero hours contract, have shifts agreed until end of may. Last week a sprained ankle meant not being able to work (job is mostly on feet) informed supervisor of shifts that would be missed following the company sickness guidelines, no problems so far.

Planned return to work today (still within self certification period)

Supervisor phoned and informed she could not return to work until a doctor had been visited and she had been assessed as fit, this runs contrary to the company sickness policy.

Earliest drs appointment wont be for a few days, which means two more missed shifts.

Acas are of the opinion that they are puting her on medical suspension, as they are chosing not to accept her self assessment, and she should be paid for the agreed shifts, zero hours or not.

Also they should be sending her to occupational health if they have an issue with her health not insisting on a gp appointment.

They also claim she is not eligible for SSP, despite fulfilling the hmrc requirements, as she is Zero Hours.

Any thoughts?

Undervalued

c00lbeans wrote: »

Acas are of the opinion that they are puting her on medical suspension, as they are chosing not to accept her self assessment, and she should be paid for the agreed shifts, zero hours or not.

Also they should be sending her to occupational health if they have an issue with her health not insisting on a gp appointment.

They also claim she is not eligible for SSP, despite fulfilling the hmrc requirements, as she is Zero Hours.

Any thoughts?

Keep in the that the initial ACAS helpline is just a call centre staffed by people with limited training. It is no substitute for proper legal advice.

That said I would agree that this could be interpreted as a medical suspension. However, that may be irrelevant with a zero hour contract as generally they would be under no obligation to offer her work on a particular day. She would need to study the terms and conditions of her employment carefully to see what notice (if any) they have to give to cancel a shift.

Within the self certifying period a GP is quite entitled to charge for any certificate demanded by an employer. Also, they do not normally provide a return to work certificate. There is information about this on the .gov website.

By "they claim" do you mean the employer of ACAS? The SSP situation is based on earnings and not hours as correctly stated by BB above.

c00lbeans

There is nothing mentioned in the contract about cancelling shifts, the claim over ssp was made by a supervisor.

I think her main annoyance is the Fact it was decided in the self assessment time she has to get a drs note and they waited till the dayvshe was due to return before informing her

Undervalued

Well if they can cancel shifts with minimal notice and are not under any obligation to provide a minimum amount of work then ACAS's point about medical suspension is completely moot!

In other circumstances it would be important as she would be entitled to full pay whilst medically suspended.

As mentioned, SSP entitlement depends on average pay over a period of time so the zero hour aspect is irrelevant.

Theoretically dismissing her for making a fuss about a legal entitlement (i.e. SSP if she qualifies) would automatically be unfair regardless of length of service. However, she needs to keep in mind she has no guarantee of work from day to day so upsetting them may not be a good move.