Employer told me to isolate for 10 days, but no legal requirement to do so? Now marking as "off sick

joenitro1

tooldle said:

The OP was not paid SSP for the isolation absence.
Subsequently the OP has taken an additional period of sick leave which takes him over the company limit for paid sick pay. In isolation, absence one is ok, it is the combination of both absence that cause the problem. 
Is it still company policy to isolate in the circumstances described? If it is, it would be worth asking how a second and third isolation in any twelve month period would be handled. 
Several possible explanations here, including those processing the payroll are unable to differentiate between sickness and isolations. It could also be that the impact on pay from further sickness after a period of isolation was never considered, or the employer has considered all permutations and confirms the payment of SSP as correct. 

You are correct about the initial order to isolate not really being an issue - My sickness record is excellent and I’m almost never off sick and certainly not for long periods of time.  So at the time, having it marked as “sickness absence” wasn’t really considered as an issue.  It’s only an issue now as ironically I HAVE had an ongoing issue preventing me from working (lower back pain, almost certainly caused by lifting heavy items at work and doing ~50k miles a year).

im going to email HR back this morning and correct their opinion that I was in close contact with the infected person, because is absolutely was not.  And also say that I believe I was medically suspended by them and not off sick, so should not have any detriment to pay or sick days used for the period of isolation. 

joenitro1

Well, it didn't go as I'd hoped it would...

I emailed HR as I said I would, but the Head of HR has come back with the below. I've redacted the names for privacy:

"We received notification that from [Your line manager] and that you had been in close contact with someone with Covid-19 would need to self-isolate, we subsequently checked this with our external H&S Consultants who advised the same. [Your line manager] then informed us that you opted to take the leave as sickness. I do not agree with your comments below re medical suspension. We didn’t receive any notification from you at the time that you didn’t believe this was correct so I am a little unsure why this has been queried now.

I hope this clarifies the situation, but if you have any further queries I would suggest it is easier to arrange a call, please let me know."

Apart from their awful grammar(!) I'm not sure what to do now.  I think I did "opt to take it as sickness" at the time, but I have an extremely good attendance record and am almost never off sick, so didn't think it would be an issue. And I certainly did not appreciate the consequence of taking it as sickness.         On the other hand, I still don't believe that it was sickness as I was not sick!

 

Jeremy535897

If you had already reached the 4 week limit for contractual sickness pay at the point you "opted to take the leave as sickness", surely that should have been pointed out or at least raised by your line manager.

joenitro1

Jeremy535897 said:

If you had already reached the 4 week limit for contractual sickness pay at the point you "opted to take the leave as sickness", surely that should have been pointed out or at least raised by your line manager.

Sorry for any confusion - Prior to the being told to isolate, I'd had no sick leave in the 12 month period.   However, since the start of September, I have had a totally separate medical issue and been off for over three weeks.       The reason this has all come about, is because due to being asked to isolate by HR, and having taken it as sickness, I have now gone over my 4 weeks paid sick leave in a 12 month period.    

My apologies, did not make this clear in the original post

sheramber

 that you had been in close contact with someone with Covid-19 would need to self-isolate, w

Seems you need to arrange that call and stress that your line manager had misunderstood the position. You  did not have close contact with someone who had covid. 

I think by notifying them you have muddied the waters.

What did you expect to happen when you notified them?

joenitro1

sheramber said:

 that you had been in close contact with someone with Covid-19 would need to self-isolate, w

Seems you need to arrange that call and stress that your line manager had misunderstood the position. You  did not have close contact with someone who had covid. 

I think by notifying them you have muddied the waters.

What did you expect to happen when you notified them?

I didn’t “expect” anything to happen, I merely wanted to call in and ask the question and confirm that they were happy for me to come in to work and visit customer sites etc!    I certainly didn’t think I’d be able to get some free time off work if that’s what you’re suggesting.

Jeremy535897

I think your problem is that at the time you were advised to self isolate, the decision to take the time as sick made sense, as you had taken no other sick leave and rarely did take sick leave, but subsequent back problems have now caused you to reach the 4 week limit. I don't see how you can realistically revisit the earlier decision (which is why I had assumed the onset of back pain preceded the self isolation). Whether you have a case under health and safety rules regarding the back pain is a separate question.

joenitro1

Jeremy535897 said:

I think your problem is that at the time you were advised to self isolate, the decision to take the time as sick made sense, as you had taken no other sick leave and rarely did take sick leave, but subsequent back problems have now caused you to reach the 4 week limit. I don't see how you can realistically revisit the earlier decision (which is why I had assumed the onset of back pain preceded the self isolation). Whether you have a case under health and safety rules regarding the back pain is a separate question.

You are exactly correct in your thinking.   The only reason it's an issue now is because of the salary deduction.  I'm querying them telling me to self isolate because I don't believe I needed to. Of course I probably should have done so at the time, but the only other option was to take it as annual leave! I didn't think that was fair of course, so this was the easiest option, or so I thought!
Obviously this has only become relevant now because of my current period of very uncharacteristic sickness.
Given that our HR department harp on constantly about employee's being our most valuable asset etc and our physical and mental health being extremely important, I suppose I hoped for a lot more support from HR than I am getting.
However, I am probably being a little naïve in that hope.  It's become increasingly clear that HR are not there to help / protect the individual, but there to protect the company :-(

Jeremy535897

joenitro1 said:

Jeremy535897 said:

I think your problem is that at the time you were advised to self isolate, the decision to take the time as sick made sense, as you had taken no other sick leave and rarely did take sick leave, but subsequent back problems have now caused you to reach the 4 week limit. I don't see how you can realistically revisit the earlier decision (which is why I had assumed the onset of back pain preceded the self isolation). Whether you have a case under health and safety rules regarding the back pain is a separate question.

You are exactly correct in your thinking.   The only reason it's an issue now is because of the salary deduction.  I'm querying them telling me to self isolate because I don't believe I needed to. Of course I probably should have done so at the time, but the only other option was to take it as annual leave! I didn't think that was fair of course, so this was the easiest option, or so I thought!
Obviously this has only become relevant now because of my current period of very uncharacteristic sickness.
Given that our HR department harp on constantly about employee's being our most valuable asset etc and our physical and mental health being extremely important, I suppose I hoped for a lot more support from HR than I am getting.
However, I am probably being a little naïve in that hope.  It's become increasingly clear that HR are not there to help / protect the individual, but there to protect the company :-(

HR have only ever existed for the benefit of the employer.