to think 3 sick days a year before disciplinary isn't good? how many sick days are you allowed? do you generally take?

[sarahighseas]

Hi, this is about my employer who only pays 3 sick days a year and more that this and they reserve the right to have a disciplinary.

Does anyone else get this? How many sick days are yo allowed? He many do you take on average?

Thanks

I've never worked anywhere that had a stated criteria. He has kept an eye on it I guess and stepped in if people had dodgy sickness patterns.

Does disciplinary mean that, you are automatically disciplined ie told off and a note or official warning on your file to the effect that you have had disciplinary proceedings against you?

Oh and you do have to be in service for some time to get the above benefits. Can't remember how long, could be anything between 26 weeks and 2 years depending on which benefit.

I don't think that there is ever a usual. I have had zero sick days in the past 12 months (lucky me - not been ill in that time) but my most ever is 6 weeks in a year.

tbh op if what you mean is someone who has 3 Mondays off in a year, then that is fishy to me so yabu. If it's sometime who's had 3 consecutive days off for a tummy bug yadnbu.

Oh and a lot of this is utterly unreasonable to me. We're human beings not robots, sometimes we get ill.

Spotting patterns and shirkers is one thing, reprimanding people and taking disciplinary action against them because they were off sick for 3 days out of a whole year is preposterous.

My DD is just about to have a disciplinary because she has been in hospital for a week then signed off for 2. As a result of a serious random stranger street attack and has had it made quite clear to her she is likely to get sacked.

She works for a huge well known company who have just refused to pay someone's PA their bonus because (and yes they were told precisely why) them having time off for cancer treatment has changed their performance from outstanding to poor

Name and Shame on here please sock that is disgusting.

I hope your daughter is recovered also. How awful.

That's terrible sock I would name and shame if i t didn't have any repercussions on the outcome of you daughters disciplinary.

Sock

I don't work in the UK and I work in a traditionally cowboy dominated industry (TEFL) but I think my sick pay conditions are quite good.
In this country you need to have a doctor's note for any absence from day 1 and then your pay decreases for each sick day...down to about 70%. But my employers let us self certify for the first 3 days so we effectively have 3 days sick pay. But this could happen more than once a year. So, for instance I could be off for 3 days 3 times and not lose any pay. If you are signed off then after a while you have to go and see the mutua, which is like the employer's health insurance and obviously your pay is reduced as explained before.
Last year I was off for a total of 6 days but didn't loose any pay. They are reasonably flexible, within reason and treat us like people, not numbers.

Socks is your daughter in a union if so I would contact them straight away for advice as that is disgusting.

My mum worked for the NHS and when she was having cancer treatment she had a year on sick leave half on full pay and half on half pay. She also had phased return when she returned to work.

I also work for the NHS and they do monitor sickness absence but not known any one be disciplined if they have actually been sick.

Maximum for nhs is 6months full pay 6 months half but our trust hauls you over the coals very quickly for absences. I had planned major surgery which resulted a formal attendance warning and a d&v bug 5 months later so now on stage 2.

Also a teacher I am entitled to five months full pay and five months half pay. I have regular time off due to Crohn's disease and am just sat in my gown waiting to be wheeled down to surgery for another bowel op.
I am incredibly lucky with my job and my supportive head and I know that. I fully disclosed my health etc though when I applied for the job.

That is awful sock.
My brother was attacked and nearly died and was left with a fractured skull and traumatic brain injuries.
Fortunately his employer was fantastic. He got full pay for several months, then he went back part time before going back full time
I think they have been amazing they even paid for taxis to and from work for over a year as he coulnt drive as the dvla had taken his licence because of the head injury. He lives 30 miles away from work
Hope your dd gets a better job

Socks that is horrible but it doesn't surprise me if she works in the private sector. It's disgusting how much people are seen as economic units and not humans. I'm very lucky as nhs policy is 5 episodes of sickness or 15 days sick in 12 month rolling period before you get a sickness warning. We also get good sick pay thankfully so my mum who is also nhs hasn't had to rush back to work following cancer treatment.

I'm also in the NHS so very generous sick pay. Our policy works something like this: 3 periods of sickness of any length in 12 months trigger a meeting with my manager and sickness being monitored, 2 periods of sickness in the 12 months you're being monitored will get you an occupational health referal and further monitoring depending on the outcome of occupational health (reasonable adjustments etc.) further sickness could lead to you being let go.

I don't know anyone who's ever been fired for sickness absence, although I'm sure it must happen.

Jesus, Sock, that's awful. Hope your daughter recovers quickly.

Employers like that make me furious. Whatever happened to an employers duty of care to their employee, and to basic compassion?

Yes I agree essexgirl I do know someone who was dismissed due to her sickness and absence but her attendance was terrible usually not certified and she didn't give a shit she thought as she had a child she could take time off as and when she felt like it due to childcare issues her Child was eight and our off duty was done at least a month in advance and she had many warnings before she was dismissed!

I've had many private sector jobs and they have all had very generous such provision.

It's not as simple as private/public but the sector within that and the role even.

Mandatory ,m NHS and the person I described above was a colleague but as I said she as an exception.

I don't think the private sector is always worse. I have 6 months pay in private sector. When I worked in teaching (public sector) people tended to bitch about any time off people had.

That's insane. Various places I've worked have had various levels of paid sick days, ranging from nothing to a few days each for sick days, mental health days, caring for a seriously ill family member... I've never worked anywhere where taking too many sick days was cause for a disciplinary hearing. Never even heard of such a thing. Why would anyone pressure a sick worker to go in to work and infect everyone else?

I get 10 days paid then ssp - at my old place you had a benefit pot so could choose benefits as suited you - you got a minimum group income protection of 50% or could pay up - I had 100% pay for 6mths down to 75% for the next 6 mths then ssp - but we had an absence matrix which monitored occasions absent against days taken - at certain points you got verbal, written and final warnings which could lead to dismissal and it operated in a rolling 12 mths were absences would no longer be considered after 12 mths from your return date. People with specific health conditions or disabilities were not considered for the matrix when absent for that condition and were given more time off for appointments etc and would have occupational health workers if necessary. It cost something like £4 per month and you could cover your partner too.

I am an employer in a small company. Our official policy is that paid sick leave is discretionary, but in practise it is always paid.

But our staff don't mess us about - there's a bit of moaning if someone takes a day off for something trivial, and they generally don't like to let colleagues down.

Dh is public sector just asked him. He gets warning notes and things if they have more than one sick period in 13 weeks.