Bradford Factor 1/2 days sick.

smarttart

Hi there,

Does anyone know if half days count on the Bradford Factor.
I went to work Friday feeling rough then got progressively worse as the morning went on, at 11.30 I reported sick and came home. When I called HR to say I was going home she told me that a half day "shouldn't" count against me. Yet a couple of people I work with think they do.
If I don't phone back in to report myself well on a Saturday to go back into work on the Monday but wait until the Sunday to do it then I know the weekend is also added to my sick absence. I'm still not feeling 100% and my job is quite physical so my dilemma is ... does the half day I went sick on Friday count, if not then I can call back into report I'm ok today (Saturday) for work on Monday but if I'm still not feeling ok then I can phone in again Monday to say I'm not coming in but I don't want it to go down as two separate sick absences I might as well wait until Sunday to see how I'm feeling but on the other hand if I do feel better Monday then I have added two extra days to my sick absence when I didn't need to. If it's any help my last lot of sickness was 2 years ago. Sorry for the waffling and I hope that all makes sense.

Kynthia

None of us can know whether your company records the fact you went home sick as an official sick day (or half day). Where I work if you are sent home sick it is not recorded on the system and therefore doesn't count, although line managers monitor if you do this often as a way of avoiding having official sick days. Therefore if I was still sick the next day I would need to call in and report as sick and this would be the first day.

browneyedbazzi

It's down to your organisation's policy. I've worked at a couple of places that used the Bradford Factor, if you turned up to work and then became ill and went home it didn't count as sickness...we did work flexible hours though so you only got credit for the hours you were actually working before going home sick and the 'sick' time was effectively taken off as 'flexi' (either taken from existing time credit or you would have to make up the time later).

Also, as I recall the organisations I worked for only used lost working days in their calculations (if you don't work weekends then friday/saturday/sunday =1 sick day).

smarttart

Thanks for the replies, even though Saturday and Sunday are not part of my working week they get figured in as well, which doesn't really seem fair to me.
I know years ago in my company if you went home after 10.30 it never got counted as sick leave but a couple of people I work with said that it does now count although H.R. said that it "shouldn't" and the word "shouldn't" is a bit ambiguous to me, sounds like it's down to the managers, why is nothing ever straight forward :cool: So as I am still feeling grot I think I'll leave it and see how I am feeling Monday.

savings_my_hobby

It should say in your staff handbook or employment contract.

I dislike the Bradford factor, I have sympathy with your dilemma, I think the Bradford factor punishes sick people who try to go back to work after an being off if they then realise that they can't make it through and need to have more time off, you will then accumulate alot more "points" than you would have had if you'd just stayed in bed.

My overall advise is don't go back unless you feel well enough to return. to hell with the points,unless you are on your final warning.

if you get any crap from them just throwback what HR said.

PETIE

Company I work for currently uses bradford factor too,

Although I believe being sick Friday to Monday is better than being sick just Friday and just Monday,

The way they explained it to me, is its better to have 1 whole week off than say a Monday and a Thursday counting as 2 sick periods vs the whole week of just 1

savings_my_hobby

Also if i were you I'd get HR to give you a letter stated exactly what constitutes a "sick day" (assuming your contract does not tell you).

I've known people to take emergency holidays to avoid points.

TELLIT01

I've not heard the term 'Bradford Factor' before. Where I work, if you go off sick in the first hour it's counted as a full day; more than 1 hour but less than 1/2 the working day counts as half day sick; last out half your day and it doesn't get counted as sick.
That's why we have people dragging themselves into the office and spreading the plague for a couple of hours before going home again. That, and the stupid, arbitrary rule on the number of sick days per year.
We currently have on lady on our section who has been told she will be put on an attendance warning because she was off for 2 weeks when her father died!

clairec79

I've always been under the understanding that less than an hour in work is a full day sick, 1hour to half way through a half day sick, and if you make it over the half way mark then not counted at all

theoretica

I know employers can have stringent policies about absence, but this is the first absence for two years so surely, surely, the question of how they score it is fairly academic?

TELLIT01

How sickness absence is dealt with is entirely up to the employer.