To wonder whether I will be penalized for taking a sick day the day before the strike...

[1Catherine1]

ok, quick one because I need to make a decision.

I've been a little unwell since Thursday but dragged myself into work each day. After having a rough night with it I feel even worse this morning. I have a 5 period teaching day with my 2 worst classes. Really don't feel up to it. Had it not have been strike day tomorrow I would have taken the day off sick today and recovered and not worried about it.

Thing is, I'm worried that management might feel that I'm just taking the piss and not pay me for my sick day. As this is the second time this year I have been ill I know that going into work and "seeing how it goes" doesn't really work out. Last time I desperately needed to come home but wasn't allowed as they couldn't be bothered to find anyone to cover my classes.

I'm prepared to go in if I must but since I can barely talk I doubt I can do much teaching...

Do you think they will not pay my sick day if I don't go in today or am I over-worrying?

i would go in and struggle on

If the deciding factor is whether you get paid or not (as opposed to how ill you really are) then you are well enough to be at work.

If you are ill, you are ill. Seriously. Of course you will be paid your sick day!

Advice: Don't over egg your illness, keep it succint and factual when you phone or email in (if any of my team bleat on about 'never feeling so horrendous before in my whole life' and feel the need to put on an ill voice, I tend to start feeling !!), don't overly apologise, don't mention the strike and don't ask about sick pay!

I think it's very irresponsible to go in to a school when you are feeling ill and possibly spreading germs to lots of other people. There are rules in place and management can't just not pay you cos they think you might be pulling a fast one.

It's tricky ground, I'd go in and risk being sent home if I really couldn't carry on. Think about what you can do that involves minimum talking and a lot of sitting down, adapt what you were going to teach.
You survived last time, so it is possible to teach at death's door. Most SMT types would be suspicious and cross, and the fallout will last a while.

Trois, why is her fretting over the sick pay an indication she's not ill 'enough'?

If you tell them you are sick, surely they have to accept that (unless of course they had clear evidence to the contrary).
The strike does not begin until weds so they cant dock your pay for that reason today.
If you really aren't well (and frankly I'd struggle to manage 5 hours of large groups of teenagers if I felt 100%!) then you need to take a day off. If you are well again tomorrow then technically you should inform them that you are striking rather than still off sick though.

Because if you are that ill, you wouldnt be fretting over pay!

Don't set me off about collegues who have a "touch of the flu" - no, you got a cold. If you had the flu you'd know about it.

I think you should be fine to have today sick, I'd be more worried about tomorrow in terms of people not believing you are really ill. Have today off to recover, go back tomorrow (or strike, whatever you had planned).

Are you worried that if you strike tomorrow, the employer will think you're trying to AVOID losing a days pay by getting Sick pay? I don't think you should worry. Just be honest. If you are striking tomorrow but would be well enough to work again, you must inform them

Trois - oh I agree re 'flu', drives me bonkers. But I don't think worrying about pay means she's not ill. I had tonsilitis a few weeks ago and was in agony for 3 daysm but it didn't affect my mental capabilities or any usual thought processes!

Think yourself lucky you get sick pay....................public sector you are so lucky.

go in

Nikon I'm private sector and get sick pay. Don't start this ridiculous public sector bashing for the sake of it. If you are self employed, you factor things like sick and holiday costs into your overall charges. Nothing 'lucky' about any of it

I'm not going in and striking tomorrow. I'm 12 weeks pregnant and asthmatic. I woke up this morning feeling like I was on death's door, seem to have bad head/chest cold on top of my usual morning puking . Sitting here shivering and aching and coughing and spluttering waiting to call in. I work with children and young people with challenging behaviour and I just can't do my job when I'm like this. I feel dreadful about missing time because I have missed a bit over the last few weeks in this setting due to training days and a few weeks ago I was in A and E with a suspected miscarriage so was off then too. But it would be ridiculous and actually fairly stupid of me to go in while I feel like this, I presume that tomorrow will be counted as a strike day anyway as I had informed of my intention to strike.

As for the public sector bashing malarkey, I wouldn't go in today even if I wasn't going to be paid. That's a good acid test of whether you are well enough to work and it reminds me that today, I'm not.

I'm in the same situation. I've just phoned in sick and I'm on strike tomorrow. When I mentioned to my head yesterday that I had been feeling unwell over the weekend she said that if I didn't go in I would need a doctors note to get paid for Wednesday, not today. I have no intention of getting one even if I am ill as I intend to strike.

I work in a school and we were told if we were ill on Wednesday we would need a doctor's note to be entitled to sick pay.

thanks for the responses all. I decided not to go in after trying to speak and realizing that I could barely do that

RE: public sector sick pay - I was paid sick pay when I worked in the private sector. Usually I wouldn't have considered the pay question but as the strike is coming up it has been at the front of my mind. I don't think it is a good acid test as it really depends on whether you can make the bills or not the next month.

My lecturer told me that the faculty had an email sent to them saying that any sick days on the strike would not be paid for or classed as sick days unless the member of staff had been ill prior to the strike and had evidence from a doctor.

**been ill and absent

When all these people are going on about needing sick notes, what they don't tell you is that is that the sick notes will have to be private and you are going to need to pay for them. The GP has no NHS obligation to give out Med3s (which are to be used after 7 days of absence and only for SSP purposes).

Troisgarcons - you don't think a cold is enough reason not to go in to work?? I have asthma so any cold has the potential to turn very serious. I HATE when people struggle on in to work spreading their germs everywhere. Downright selfish.

Very true Masserrato... If the our second in department had stayed off when she felt ill then I wouldn't be ill right now and wouldn't have needed yesterday off! But she went in with all the tablets she could take and kept going. I on the other hand am still BF so haven't been able to take the range of tablets she can and been stuck on paracetamol and cough sweets.