AIBU to think statutory sick pay is a joke

[Rainysummersday]

I think sick pay is a basic right all workers should be entitled to. I agree workers should have to work for a minimum period before getting it, but it’s shocking some big companies only pay statutory in 2018. Do they want people to come in vomiting as they need to pay the rent?

Statutory sick pay is only about £92 a week and you have to be off for four days in a row to get anything. I very rarely take days off sick, and when I have it’s because I have no choice and aim to return to work as soon as possible. Penalising hard workers for something out of their control (who wants to be sick?) is awful imo.

Yes there are some people who abuse the system, but it’s few and far between.

@bakedbeans47
Massive copy and paste fail tbere!I

Sorry, was meant to have copied panikins post
pannikin

I think if you can't afford to pay employees a decent living wage, and to cover for things like sickness then maybe it's not a viable business

@CaraDeanna glad you're being taken care of.

I know what you mean about wanting the time off after baby is here, I was the same. Unfortunately for me the last three months in work were manic as we were re-branding and having a new website and the re-branding was largely my responsibility! Luckily the sickness had eased from around 22 or so weeks (it was definitely after the 20 week scan) otherwise I'd never have managed.

If I didn't get paid sick leave then I'd go to work when I was sick. A lot of people end up doing this because they simply can't afford to take the time off. Knock on effect of making more people ill.

“I think if you can't afford to pay employees a decent living wage, and to cover for things like sickness then maybe it's not a viable business.”

What a daft comment.

you will find people proudly proclaiming that they've never had a day off sick in their lives, as if a robust immune system and a lack of genetic propensity for any specific cancer is the result of some specific virtue on their part.

Brilliant

It's not a daft comment at all. Why should taxpayers prop up business owners who "can't afford" to pay their employees properly, with housing benefit and all the rest?

Many more businesses would be viable - and make much more profit for their owners - if we didn't have a minimum wage. I hope none of the people rabbiting on about the precious "small businesses" would agree that we should therefore scrap the minimum wage.

Actually, I'd like to add that last week I had 4 days off with Norovirus. I work for a hotel which handles food so I actually would not be allowed in to work.

We are now £200 short this week which has mean my DH has spent the evenings doing cash in hand work to pay the bills.

We earn our outgoings. We don't drink. We don't have Sky. We don't buy takeaway coffees! If he declares the money he's earnt we will be short for the rent. That's the situation it puts people in

Of course I'm not suggesting scrapping the minimum wage. Also I do not pay my employees the bare minimum. They are well paid, I am a responsible employer.

However the fact remains that I cannot afford to pay much in way of sick pay.

We've been successfully trading for over 40 years. Our team are happy and many of them have been with us for 20+ years.

We manage our costs and in turn that keeps our fees and prices reasonable which is essential to attract customers.

I can assure you it simply isn't viable to pay sock pay- not least because when someone is off sick I have to pay someone else to cover their role.....

I've worked in the various parts of the public sector for 30 years and I've never heard anyone talk about taking their winter sick week.

I'm currently in the civil service and if you reach 8 days off sick in any rolling calendar year its triggers the start of formal processes to establish if the illness is genuine.

DMRAT Yes...... it is a daft comment! Do you have any idea how much these things actually cost? Just because a small business can not afford them doesn’t mean for one second it’s not “viable”

I don't get sick pay so never yake sick leave
So any amount is better than nothing

*take sick leave

I live in a country with accrued paid sick/personal leave.

Loads of people take the piss. Two colleagues of mine routinely and predictably wait until they have a day of sick leave accrued and then take it. The managers know that they do this, but because it’s the law, they cannot do anything about it. Of course, these employees never take off more than 2 days in a row because otherwise they would need to provide a medical certificate.

I think either the system here needs to be reformed to stop people from rorting it, or accrued sick leave needs to be paid out to those employees who haven’t taken theirs.

I have chronic medical conditions which is one reason I work in the public sector, so I have both flexibility and sick pay. I'm far from the only one and yes, it's likely I will be taking a sick week each winter. I'd much rather be healthy and working. Also if I got fired for sickness as nearly happened a few years ago, I'd then be claiming ESA and housing benefit rather than paying enough tax to pay some of other people's.

They tried getting rid of lots of disabled/ill staff who had a fair amount of sickness absence. It was a farce as I still did most of my job and my boss knew I wouldn't be replaced if I left, so was very happy for me to 'work from home' when needed, and have a few days when I made it in but was completely off my face on opiates, which you'd think was undesirable... Current office is more reasonable but I was very relieved once my probation was signed off!

I think the poster was implying that they were taking a week off because they could.

I have always been relatively healthy until the last few years when I have developed a tendency to severe chest infections and bronchitis, more common in the winter. So yes its likely that I will be ill in the winter and need a week off (last year it was 2 weeks).

Year before last I had five weeks off after an operation. I must have had about the same in the previous ten months while I was first waiting to find out what the hell was wrong and then waiting to actually have the op. If I wasn't paid full pay for time off we'd have been screwed financially. I'd have had to drag myself in when I wasn't well enough and may have ended up needing emergency surgery and probably a longer recovery period.

When you hear of the way NHS and council workers abuse sick pay, you can see why private companies don’t pay it!

My mum used to work with someone who would book a holiday, call in to say she was ill (while sunbathing abroad somewhere) and get it paid as sick pay instead, meaning she wasn’t using annual leave! Then she’d have another week off ‘sick’ when she returned from the holiday. She did this every year and was never pulled up for it. No idea if they can still do that but I suspect they can!

My daughter works with people (local council) who abuse sick pay for all its worth - they know it inside out.

Then my husband works with people who would absolutely take the mick if they received sick pay because they take the mick even when they aren’t paid it! His company pay discretionary sick pay (they have a system - it’s not just if your face fits) so the more conscientious staff aren’t penalised by the wasters - seems fair to me.

I work in a school and we get sick pay from the first day of sickness. Very few people abuse the system, so generally it works well. Most people will come to work with a cold, I've worked when on crutches, and I've also known staff to come in I've known others to come in when they really should have been at home. The exceptions are for certain, infectious illnesses, such as d+v, we are required to stay at home for 48 hours or so, depending on the condition. I would be very unhappy if the rules changed and meant I wouldn't get paid for tine my employer insists I remain at home, especially when a lot of the time, these infections have been passed on by the children in school.

we could always put corporation tax back up to what it was to enable a proper sick pay policy and help small business pay it that way?

It won't happen though - until recently DPD were fining drivers £150 for calling in sick, I gather?

www.theguardian.com/business/2018/mar/26/dpd-to-offer-couriers-sick-pay-and-abolish-fines-don-lane-death

They should pay it when it’s their fault their employees are off sick. My DH had an accident last year which was the companies fault. He couldn’t work for 3 weeks but had to go back anyway after a week because we would have lost our home if he hadn’t. The injury obviously got worse and he couldn’t work at all.
If they had just bloody well paid him so he could recover they wouldn’t be facing a massive legal bill and compensation claim. Idiots.

Love the ‘get a job that pays better benefits’ like that’s easy in all sectors. Some people like my DH have done the same thing all their lives and couldn’t just toddle off to another role.