Employment issues

strawb_shortcake

theoretica said:

It is very standard for employers to warn employees that their sickness record is cause for concern and continued absences above a certain level will move to the next stage of a capability process.  My work, we need to do extra paperwork for anyone off four times in a rolling 12 months (or one longer period), which is slightly more flexible than once every 3 months, but a similar average. 

However, have you been formally given this limit and told what the consequences could be? Was it minuted in the meeting or just something the manager said afterwards? Employers, especially if larger ones, do need to follow their procedures and not just make things up as they go along.

This is very similar to where I work, once you've hit the trigger, and go through the process of excessive sickness (cant recall the proper term) you really are caught in a trap, until those older sickness absences drop out of the 12 months, any additional sickness is just going to keep having to go through the same process. Whilst line managers have some discretion, there is only so many times we can say no further action, and it will become formal warnings.

naaads_xo

theoretica said:

It is very standard for employers to warn employees that their sickness record is cause for concern and continued absences above a certain level will move to the next stage of a capability process.  My work, we need to do extra paperwork for anyone off four times in a rolling 12 months (or one longer period), which is slightly more flexible than once every 3 months, but a similar average. 

However, have you been formally given this limit and told what the consequences could be? Was it minuted in the meeting or just something the manager said afterwards? Employers, especially if larger ones, do need to follow their procedures and not just make things up as they go along.

It is something that she has said after the meeting in the report that she had sent me. It wasn’t mentioned in the meeting. 

clarkyson

one sick day every 3 months, meaning a total of 4 sick days throughout the year. I am pretty sure you can take a total more than that. Check your original contract.

magpies79

Like most have mentioned check your contract and employee handbook it should all be in there so one would assume they are just quoting what’s in there as they can’t just plunk a random number in the air.

my contract which it states in my employee handbook……if i take more then 4 days within a 13 week period or 10 days in a rolling year or more then 4 separate absences in a rolling year I’m subject to a meeting for a potential MFA stage one.

One of the crazy things with our sickness policy is 
If I trigger MFA stage one by going off for 5 nights it’s the same as taking 3 months off you go onto stage one so you can guess what most people do once they have gone off for 5 nights!!!

LightFlare

clarkyson said:

one sick day every 3 months, meaning a total of 4 sick days throughout the year. I am pretty sure you can take a total more than that. Check your original contract.

It most likely won’t make any mention on a contract but is more likely to be covered by a sickness/attendance policy.

If the OP is already on some form of of sickness “management” the policy should make it clear what they can and cannot impose.

To be clear - there are NO legal rights to take any amount of sick leave (as far as I am aware)

naaads_xo

magpies79 said:

Like most have mentioned check your contract and employee handbook it should all be in there so one would assume they are just quoting what’s in there as they can’t just plunk a random number in the air.

my contract which it states in my employee handbook……if i take more then 4 days within a 13 week period or 10 days in a rolling year or more then 4 separate absences in a rolling year I’m subject to a meeting for a potential MFA stage one.

One of the crazy things with our sickness policy is 
If I trigger MFA stage one by going off for 5 nights it’s the same as taking 3 months off you go onto stage one so you can guess what most people do once they have gone off for 5 nights!!!

This is the thing neither my employment contract or handbook go into detail about what happens if you take more xyz number of days and the different stages. Regarding sickness, my contract only says how much you are entitled to be paid when off sick. To summarise in the handbook it says, the company’s policy states that while sickness is an acceptable reason for absence, excessive or repeated sick leave may not be tolerated as it impacts efficiency. The company will assess all absences. In a meeting, I asked HR to clarify their sickness policy, HR said they can
send me a snippet of the policy and my line manager told me to google it.

I am currently placed on Stage 2 of the sickness policy, but without a clear understanding of the criteria or full policy. I therefore would like to have context on how this decision was made. 

naaads_xo

 naaads_xo said:

magpies79 said:

Like most have mentioned check your contract and employee handbook it should all be in there so one would assume they are just quoting what’s in there as they can’t just plunk a random number in the air.

my contract which it states in my employee handbook……if i take more then 4 days within a 13 week period or 10 days in a rolling year or more then 4 separate absences in a rolling year I’m subject to a meeting for a potential MFA stage one.

One of the crazy things with our sickness policy is 
If I trigger MFA stage one by going off for 5 nights it’s the same as taking 3 months off you go onto stage one so you can guess what most people do once they have gone off for 5 nights!!!

This is the thing neither my employment contract or handbook go into detail about what happens if you take more xyz number of days and the different stages. Regarding sickness, my contract only says how much you are entitled to be paid when off sick. To summarise in the handbook it says, the company’s policy states that while sickness is an acceptable reason for absence, excessive or repeated sick leave may not be tolerated as it impacts efficiency. The company will assess all absences. In a meeting, I asked HR to clarify their sickness policy, HR said they can
send me a snippet of the policy and my line manager told me to google it.

I am currently placed on Stage 2 of the sickness policy, but without a clear understanding of the criteria or full policy. I therefore would like to have context on how this decision was made. 

By the looks of it they have plunked a random number from the air, because it’s neither mentioned in my employment contract or employee handbook so I’m not too sure where they’ve got this number from

LightFlare

naaads_xo said:

I’m going to explain the situation very briefly. I was off sick last year a few times, after having a welfare meeting and another meeting to discuss my contract, occupational health, my manager has said that moving forward I can only have one sickness occurrence every 3 months, is this a rule that an employer can put in place? 

just to get some context -- how many days and how many occasions over exactly what time period  ?
(apologies if this has been asked and answered)

naaads_xo

LightFlare said:

naaads_xo said:

I’m going to explain the situation very briefly. I was off sick last year a few times, after having a welfare meeting and another meeting to discuss my contract, occupational health, my manager has said that moving forward I can only have one sickness occurrence every 3 months, is this a rule that an employer can put in place? 

just to get some context -- how many days and how many occasions over exactly what time period  ?
(apologies if this has been asked and answered)

5 separate occasions, 3 occasions was a 1 day absence, 1 occasion was a 10 day absence and the last absence was 21 days (was recovering from complications from a medical surgery)

General_Grant

naaads_xo said:

LightFlare said:

naaads_xo said:

I’m going to explain the situation very briefly. I was off sick last year a few times, after having a welfare meeting and another meeting to discuss my contract, occupational health, my manager has said that moving forward I can only have one sickness occurrence every 3 months, is this a rule that an employer can put in place? 

just to get some context -- how many days and how many occasions over exactly what time period  ?
(apologies if this has been asked and answered)

5 separate occasions, 3 occasions was a 1 day absence, 1 occasion was a 10 day absence and the last absence was 21 days (was recovering from complications from a medical surgery)

Was that in a 12-month period, eg the calendar year of 2024?