Calling in SICK

DAVID WRIGHT

Short-term sickness is one of the greatest causes of angst for salon owners. It often results in disruption to clients and a huge headache for managers faced with last-minute staffing. Many salon owners’ knowledge of sick pay rules is vague but it’s fundamental to understand staff’s entitlements.

The basics

To be eligible for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), an employee’s average weekly earnings must exceed £113 (rising to £116 from April). The weekly payment of SSP is £89.35 (£92.05 from April).

Employees don’t receive SSP for the first three days of illness (called waiting days). However, these three days don’t have to be the employee’s working days. The only exception is if the employee has been absent in the last eight weeks and already had one or more waiting days.

In these cases, the periods of absence are “linked”. After seven consecutive days off, an employee must submit a medical certificate from their GP, historically known as a sick note but now called a fit note. To work out the daily rate of SSP for partial weeks, divide the weekly SSP rate by the number of days the employee worked per week.

SSP is payable for a total of 28 weeks in any three-year period. Employers are no longer able to recover the cost of SSP from the Government. If an employee isn’t eligible for SSP or is about to exhaust their entitlement, the employer gives them an SSP1 form and they may be able to apply for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

The finer detail

If an employee reports for work then goes home unwell, even if they are only in work for one minute, it does not count as a sick day for SSP purposes.

At the end of the period covered by their fit note, the employee doesn’t have to go back to their GP to be signed as fit for work. The GP has already given their opinion as to the duration of absence.

When SSP entitlement is exhausted, an employer can’t simply dismiss the employee; all that happens is they stop paying SSP. Any decision to terminate employment on health grounds should always be based on medical advice from the employee’s GP as it might be that the employee will be fit to return in a matter of weeks. I read a case of a salon owner who had tried to argue – unsuccessfully – that an employee who was absent for seven weeks due to a broken foot could be dismissed for gross misconduct.

Employers sometimes give managers or longserving staff a period of occupational sick pay – full pay rather than SSP. It isn’t a legal requirement but some salon owners use it as a retention or reward tool. Of course, it’s a big potential cost if abused.

It’s also important your contract is explicit. For example, if you give up to 10 days a year; is that per calendar year? Would you give full pay even if the employee had 10 single days off? Of more concern are contracts saying occupational sick pay is “discretionary”, because non-beneficiaries are likely to view that as “discriminatory”.

Return to work

With the introduction of fit notes, GPs were able to “help employers” by indicating, for example, that David is unfit for work for two weeks but could come back sooner if the day was limited to four hours and he could remain seated.

This advice is just that – advice. You’re free to accept it or decide the adjustments don’t work for you.

An employee can return from holiday and advise they were actually sick for a number of days and ask for their holidays to be, in effect, reinstated. Remember the employee has probably already been paid holiday pay so would be required to refund this and have it replaced with sick pay. PB