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'm staggered by the appalling policies detailed here and some very sad stories. Where are the trade unions? The way workers are treated by some employers just beggars belief.

8 days or 3 episodes over a rolling 12 month period. You then go to a monitoring period for 12 weeks- if you take 2 days or 2 episodes off then you trigger next stage which is another monitoring period for 12 weeks- if you trigger again then you are referred for a review meeting where you can be sacked.
If you are off for 20 weeks you go straight to the final review meeting.

Emma I think that's terrible what if you have a chronic illness or cancer?

You go to review but obviously all would be taken into consideration. I cant actually think of anyone who has been dismissed- more monitored closely and then on return to work begin the sickness monitoring process again from scratch.

As a manager its a headache, however the process we have does support the genuinely ill and is able to tease out the ones who have the 'duvet days' etc

DH and I are both private sector, I work for a small company, DH's quite large

At my company it's discretionary. I work flexibly from home so I've never had to take a sick day (as long as I do a set amount of hours a week, it doesn't matter when I do them). Sickness is paid, but they do keep an eye on people taking the mick and a disciplinary can be triggered if they find people abusing it.

DH's company is 3 instances of sickness per rolling year but they just have a back to work interview rather than a disciplinary. Even if you go over the 3 instances, they're quite reasonable about it. DH had to have an interview last year. He'd had 2 separate instances of D&V (one day off for each one, about 6 months apart) then caught a horrendous ear infection. He had a day off, felt OKish so went to work, then felt utterly dreadful the following day so had another day sick. Because he'd returned to work for that one day in the middle, it was counted as 2 seperate instances even though it was the same illness. It was fine though, he still got paid and they were totally reasonable.

Some of the policies mentioned here are appalling

I used to work in the private sector with paid sickness absence of 2 weeks. Never had a long term absence from any member of staff in the 10 years that i was there.

I now work in an organisation with public sector sickness benefits (6mth full pay / 6 mths half). Lengthy absences (am I'm excluding serious illness here) is a huge problem.

Just saying!

Nhs here to and Echo what others have said.

Currently off sick atm after an operation. Got a HR appointment soon.

Nhs here to and Echo what others have said.

Currently off sick atm after an operation. Got a HR appointment soon.

I don't get paid for the first 3 days sick days then its SSP. If you have 3 absences (meaning 3 days off sick counts as 1 absence or say 6 weeks signed off counts as 1.) then you have a meeting to discuss if there are any issues which you need support or help with. If it's because of maybe a condition you have, they can look at changing your hours or helping you to be able to attend work more.

I get 5 family days a year which can be used for my children, my parents or a family funeral.

I get 6 months full pay and then if you've worked for company for more than 5 years you then get 6 months at half pay so I'm very fortunate. In one previous job, you got 20 days.

Well I've just had 2 x 2 weeks in 3 months as had 2 miscarriages so I'd be stuffed by now! So I'm very very lucky to have such a good employer.

We also work on Bradford factor too to stop anyone taking the piss

Ps I was never on any warning for sickness at my old place and have had 1 day off sick and 3 unpaid parental leave days.

Public sector , they use Bradford as well. Three periods off in 12 months triggers a referral to occ health. I get full pay for six months and half for six. Currently having a lot of sick die to surgery etc but that's life not anything deliberate

Oh and yes socks union xx

6 months full pay, 6 months half pay (less if you have fewer than four years' service). It's very generous.

People did abuse the system quite a lot before, but we now monitor absences, and too many can trigger a disciplinary. This is a bit tough for those with genuine reasons to be off, but it has certainly helped to weed out the regular skivers!

I work for a large institution, we also have 6 months full pay, an occupational health department, etc. I now manage some staff, and have to sign off their forms, to make sure they get sick pay. We're meant to have a 'catch-up meeting' when they get back, basically as part of our duty of care to make sure they are getting the support they need. I can't imagine how it must be somewhere that you get disciplined for being ill. :(

6 months full pay then tapers off. I haven't had a day off sick for over 10 years. Always think I should save it for when I'm really really ill.

We have 6 months full pay, 6 months half. You can be referred to HR for review, but I'm not sure if it's done on Bradford or at manager's discretion or what. From what I've seen, they're generally good, and there is flexibility for people with more chronic conditions (home-working, flexible hours and so on.) There is mostly an attitude of "how can we support you getting back to getting working fit?" rather than, "we need you out." Some of it us down to manager's discretion, and some are more reasonable than others, although not the manager who tried to advise a male colleague not to have a vasectomy, as he was advised to have a week off for recovery. Same manager also complains about men taking paternity leave, so... Obviously some people do pull sickies when they shouldn't, and that should be investigated rather than supported, but I think it's generally assumed as a starting point that people do sometimes get ill, and need support, rather than they're just being awkward.

Some people are more prone to illness than others - one colleague had a stroke, and for 3 or 4 years, seemed to succumb to any passing illness going, including glandular fever which left him hospitalised. It's only been the last year or so that his immune system seems to be back up to full strength. It would not have helped him to regain his strength to have ended up on a disciplinary.

They have terminated people in the past. I only know of one directly, and he'd only managed about two days in the office in a year, and wasn't likely to be increasing it soon.

Our department is spread across Europe, and it's interesting seeing how different countries handle illness. Germans seem to get signed off at the drop of a hat, and will be signed off to the end of the week for things I wouldn't even bother the GP with, and only expect a day or two out of the office (colds and dodgy stomachs.) They also get granted extra holiday if someone has been off with something major, and seem to be better at doing staged returns (building back up to full-time over a period, rather than straight back in to FT) - although I have seen more staged returns over here, too in the last few years. Maybe I am just getting to an age where people are more likely to have had a major illness, so I just know more about it.

god, some employers are bastards, aren't they? I'm pleased to say that in 20+ years of working I've never had reason to even know what my (different) employers policy on this is. No idea. I just get paid for days off sick, don't take many, maybe 5 max in a year, if that?

Can't bear employers who have such draconian policies that the result is buses and trains rammed with coughing, spluttering, sneezing people all spreading their germs over the rest of us, because their bosses are wankers about this.

Sick pay is discretionary at my work.
Generally we get paid full pay and there's no issues, but I've known of two people who had more than typical periods of illness/time off which was deemed excessive and they stopped being paid for time off (other than statutory). That was for a lot more than 3 days or even 3 occasions of being off sick though.

Why would anyone pressure a sick worker to go in to work and infect everyone else?

It depends on the reason. One person I worked with had a couple of days of every 28.

I'm not unsympathetic I spent 1 day a month as a teenager throwing up and it took years for me to get some control finally by taking the pill.

But she would call up on the day, take 2 days off, say how ill she was because she 'needed to take ibuprofen' and then the same next month.

She was sacked for another reason, but I think she should have had an occy health appointment. If she really was that ill then surely it would be in her interests as well as the company's for her to have some better medication or investigations or even planned time off.

I get six months sick pay. We have a return to work meeting after every absence, but unless there is a 'trigger' (ie, every other Friday and Monday; just after every football match etc) nothing normally happens.

I was put on a performance plan thing a few years ago when I cam back from maternity leave. The kids caught every bug going - as did I. They could have gone down the disciplinary route I suppose but never did.

I still occasionally have days off as I suffer from migraines.

(I have seen occ health and the doc)

No paid sick days for me - private company. DH in the public sector gets 6 months full pay. He has had a few staff take the full 6 months too ...

God I've had good employers and workplace conditions . Have never even cosidered the idea that i might not have sick leave available, or that I might be disciplined.

I've had 1 serious illness that involved hospital stays over 6 months (departmental administrator just worked it all out for me, and sent flowers), 1 chronic workplace occupational illness that involved going home (sick) early every now and then over 2.5 years (immediate employer was a complete tool, but the overall employer was great), and have taken maybe 2 or 3 days off per year so as not to spray around cold germs in the constant-sneezing dysfunctional-brain nausea stage of having a cold.

That said, my current workplace is full of people who constantly talk about their minor illnesses (oh my constipation's bad this week - at the lunch table ), and for whom it seems totally normal to have the personal hygiene of a 3 year old (having your nose drip onto your employee's workbook? coughing right in someone's face and spraying their glasses with phlegm and mucus? sneezing into your hand and wiping it on the desk? no problem)... so maybe I take too many sick days off?

But Saltyseabird you wouldn't get the full six months without Doctors notes etc

Work in private sector, small company with only a couple of weeks sick pay. Don't use Bradford factor, in fact have encouraged employees to stay home if in any doubt when norovirus is going around as otherwise it can wipe out whole office which is a major pain. This seems sane and sensible to me. There are some people on long term sick, but we all know they need to be and they'll be back when well, just as committed as ever.

Treating people with humanity and basic decency works.

In previous envs that used Bradford factor, I got ill more often due to colleagues coming in sick. Productivity lower. More stress, more resentment, more fucking faff that everyone knew was a waste of time.