Most people will need to take time off work at some point in their working lives, whether through illness, injury or medical treatment.
In 2009 alone, employees took 180 million sick days costing employers an estimated £16.8 billion. Clearly, an employee’s absence can be problematic and costly for their employer, and this is particularly true for small companies. It is therefore important that you follow the right procedure when dealing with sick leave and sick pay in order to avoid breaching the law.
It is a statutory requirement that your employees are given an employment contract and one should be issued as soon as possible when they begin work for you. The contract should include a clear and unambiguous policy relating to absence through illness or injury, especially sick pay, rules for notifying sickness absence and how many days an employee can be absent before a note is required from a GP.
A template of an FMB Employment Contract which includes space for these provisions is available on the FMB website here.
If as an employer you do not provide an employment contract that includes these details and the employee is going to be employed by you for more than one month you must provide a written statement of employment which contains all of the discussed terms and conditions of employment. You can use the Business Link interactive tool to create this which can be accessed here.
SUMMARY
If FMB members have already provided their employees with employment contracts or written statements that do not include all of the items discussed so far, the FMB strongly advises that you expand them to cover these issues. However, if you do wish to change the terms of an employee’s existing contract of employment, or written statement, you will need to get his or her prior consent and provide a written notification before these changes can be made. In summary you must:
- Tell your employees what they can expect from you to help them return to work, as far as your business permits
- Make sure your employees understand their own contractual duties to you, including what procedures you require for absences from work. It is important to have a fair and consistent approach to return to work and for you and your employees and their representatives to be honest and trust each other at every step of the process.
The sooner you take positive action in partnership with your employees and their representatives, the more likely it is that your sick employees can return to work successfully and get on with helping you build your business.
WHAT TO DO IF ONE OF YOUR EMPLOYEES IS ON LONG TERM SICK LEAVE
The Health and Safety Executive has published a good guide on managing sickness absence and return to work in small businesses, which you can see at www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg399.pdf
The guide advises employers to:
- Tell your employees that it's your policy to help them return to work following sickness absence. Explain to your employees that returning to work will benefit them with improved health and wellbeing and with more pay in their pocket
- Record and monitor all sickness absence. You may be well aware which of your employees is off work sick, but it is still important to know the cause of their sickness, in case it is work-related. If it is, you can put in place organisational measures, ie modified work, including reasonable adjustments that will help them and those who are sick in the future to return to work.
For Less than THREE days of sickness absence
- Your employee should tell you why they are absent from work
- When your employee returns to work, welcome them back and have a chat about their absence.
Between Four and 14 days of sickness absence
- Keep in touch with your employee
- When your employee returns to work, conduct a ‘return to work’ interview. This in many cases will be a simple welcome back but you may need to discuss actions to help your employee's performance at work or underlying issues if short-term absence is frequent.
Between 15 and 28 days of sickness absence
- Keep in touch regularly with your employee and identify the barriers that prevent returning to work (many of these will not need a medical solution)
- You may need to consider expert advice, eg doctors, occupational health and rehabilitation providers
- Welcome your employee back and conduct a ‘return to work’ interview
- If it seems your employee is not likely to return to work soon, then talk to them about the need to consider a return to work plan.
After 28 days of sickness absence
- Continue to keep in touch regularly with your employee about their absence
- Put together a plan of actions and reasonable adjustments to help your employee return to work, including seeking expert advice if necessary, and agree these with your employee and others involved
- Welcome your employee back and implement the plan
- Review your employee's return to work progress until they resume their full duties.
Sometimes, even with the best will in the world, it is not possible to return your sick employee to full or even partial employment, but it is important to evaluate the situation carefully.
Most importantly, if you are unsure, contact the FMB Information Services department on Tel: 020 7092 3891, to seek further guidance and avoid the costly implications of failing to comply with the law.
