I got a sick note to go on holiday

[Marleymerm]

Last month I worked at least 40hrs of overtime when my boss kept asking me to "stay late" or "just come in a few hours at the weekend" as we had a deadline approaching. I worked it and wrote it all in my time sheet, I work in an office so we don't have clock ins or anything.

Anyway, I got paid last week and got nothing for my OT, I asked my boss who said he only asked me to stay to help, he never actually agreed to pay me for it and he was asking me to "help the company" like we all should be doing.

I thought about fighting it but people in my office are petty and those above me would probably make things difficult for me. So instead I got a sick note from my doctor for 6 weeks for stress and booked a holiday. I've been honest with my work that I've booked the holiday and said it's to help with my stress, now my boss is saying this is clearly out of spite and he'll be giving me a written warning. However if he does that he'd have to formally admit to not paying me OT. I do feel nervous after realising I actually get full pay when I thought I'd only get SSP and now I'm worried my boss is going to take it further.

Op gets paid hourly, presumably if your DHs work included international travel he was paid a salary, a quite a good one.
Op, your Gp gave you the sick note after you told them about what is happening and how you are feeling. Why would a Gp give a 6 week sick note if they didn't think you needed it.
Enjoy your holiday and look for another job, that workplace sounds awful.

I approve. Good for you OP. "Help the company" the cheeky get! Enjoy your holiday.

Those saying raise a grievance like it's that simple. The grievance process is hugely stressful in itself, with employers' tendencies to breach timescales, conveniently lose information, conveniently get confused and often tell downright lies to defend their corner.

OP, your boss would be on shaky grounds giving you a warning about this when you have a sick note. If he has an HR department to take advice from, they would not back him doing this IMO. If anything is going to be taken further it sounds like it would be your sickness record as a whole and there is a legitimate process for this, or should be.

Per se there is not a problem going on holiday whilst signed off especially if it's stress. You'll find a number of articles online from employment lawyers confirming this.

If you are not in a union I suggest you join one immediately although they might not be prepared to help you retrospectively.

I’m astounded that someone is bragging about her family members being foolish enough to allow themselves to be taken advantage of, as if it’s something to be proud of or aspire to.

Currently in the UK on an international posting for my husband’s job and it’s something his company absolute financially compensate for over and above what he is already paid to do. He certainly wouldn’t do it for free, or for the same wage he would get back home, and nor would his company expect him to. They expect him to value his time and expertise.

There is not a universal sickness policy in the UK. Some places have draconian sickness policies.

Your sickness policy doesn't help the OP whose company probably has a very different policy.

Well done OP.

CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP.

Now it's all even.

Don't you dare do another minute of overtime ever!

Mis use of GP time, lying, dishonesty, undermining the struggle to take mental health issues seriously, incompetence of dealing with employment matters in an adult professional way, exploitation of employment laws...
Just what we all need in our society.
And 40 hours sounds such a lot - of course OP is "owed" six whole weeks back, (225 hours - cos that's fair innit!)
40 hours is roughly two hours a day - so she maybe started at 8 instead of 9 and finished at 6 instead of 5.30 and cut lunch to 30 mins instead of an hour to cover a busy period.

If she is on the clock then she should of course be paid for this - as long as it was agreed. (You can't just work a bit late and expect payment - it has to be authorised. Clearly this wasn't.) The boss clearly thought it was give and take - OP didn't. The conversation needs to be had and maybe the boss will look again at all the times OP is a bit late back from lunch or spends twenty minutes on a tricky personal phone call...without making up the time).
Thing is we all pay for this. (See current thread about UK being poor man of Europe) Whether OP works for the NHS or local govt or M&S or EON - it affects
costs. And GPs have nothing else they could be doing of course.

This is a silly comment... take overtime out of the equation and imagine it was just your usual hours of work and your company just stopped paying you.. 'you were willing to do the work until you realised you wouldn't be paid and then suddenly you don't want to do the work anymore.. I know it's frustrating to not be paid but just accept it.. and keep working' .... hmmm

Are you part time OP? 40 hours overtime in a month for a full time Monday to Friday role would be roughly 2 hours a day. I’m not following the missing evenings with family and days off unless it was 40 hours in a shorter space of time?

However, I’d have thought HR would have to do something to make your pay up to NMW. With my employer we have a clause in our our contracts where we agree to work whatever hours are required based on business need with no entitlement to overtime pay or TOIL but our apprentices/ graduates still receive extra pay where they’d otherwise be paid less than NMW in a month.

40 hours free overtime in a month is the equivalent to the OP taking a 25% ish pay cut if she's FT. I don't think anyone here berating her would accept that.

I don’t think they can give you a written warning without accusing the doctor of fraud. Which they’ve got no grounds to do. I probably wouldn’t have mentioned the holiday, but in fact there’s no reason why not, as it’s allowed when you’re off with stress.

The not paying you for overtime is scandalous. It’s ok when people are on good salaries to expect a bit extra (within reason) but not if you’re on an hourly rate, and especially not either that much or when the clear precedent has been to pay you.

"The minimum wage applies to hourly paid work."

It seems to apply to salaried work as well
www.gov.uk/minimum-wage-different-types-work/paid-an-annual-salary

oldbrownjug
Op has been signed off before with stress, the Gp clearly thought she needed this time off.
'Give and take' isn't working 40 extra hours unpaid.

I think the best thing you can do is look for another job. Your boss sounds like an arsehole who treats his staff like dirt.

If you work in an office environment, and get paid lots and lots of money, then meeting deadlines via staying late for a short time, is the norm. If you are paid hourly for your work, then you should be paid for EVERY hour you work. You have been paid OT in the past, and no notice had been made to you that this has changed. They are in the wrong.

I don't particularly agree with the way you have gone about it, but it is your own company's fault. If they treated people a bit better, they wouldn't have stressed out staff.

I'd look for another job.

I get it. I used to work in an office and get paid a lot of money. It was expected to stay late and get the job done. Now I get paid hourly. I am very particular and even a jobsworth over the hours because they are like that with me. I was made to pay back time for a serious medical appointment I had to attend, so when they asked me to work an extra hour, I made sure they paid it back to me in TOIL.

Moving forward you need to be very clear up front that you are only doing overtime if you are paid, or you get the time back, and you want that in writing. Unfortunately your boss has taken advantage of your handwork. Legally he cannot do anything, but he can make your life difficult. Keep all correspondence over this and make sure any conversations are via email. If there is an issue later, you have proof.

Well you must work in a strange place if they consider getting more days off for cancer to be a discretion. And where they consider they can disregard a doctors note and think they know better than someone with 7 years training.

Maybe spend some of your 6 weeks off looking for ways to improve your resilience?
I would feel very angry at being cheated out of the money, and I’d look for another job. But it wouldn’t make me stressed to the point of being signed off.
It sounds quite spiteful and childish - 6 weeks?!
I’d have told HR that I want 1 week (as it was 40 hours) TOIL and taken the holiday then.
If you need 6 weeks to calm yourself, you’re doing yourself no favours not working on your reactions.

I know it's not a universal sickness policy, that's why I said it may be different in different workplaces in line 1.

I was responding to another person commenting who acted like what is the case in her workplace is universal.

The OT didn't make you sick with stress.

Not getting paid was the issue!

Where do you work where time off for having cancer is a discretion??

It’s a Government department. That’s the sickness policy

It’s not about whether it’s a genuine sickness so managers are not saying they know better. That’s just the sickness policy, if you have a serious illness it’s considered discretionary, just the way it is. No-one would get a warning for being off for cancer treatment but the policy isn’t about whether sickness is genuine or not, but how much it can afford to pay out in sicknesses. People do take less sick days if there’s a policy of x number of days if you’re sick in a certain period. That’s quite normal for many big companies / departments. People should be grateful if their place is more generous with sick as many aren’t. It’s very costly to companies

I’m going to go against the grain here and I probably won’t be popular with my opinion….but. I’d have done the same, had I been smart enough to think of it.

Your boss is a dick and you’ve outsmarted him. I’d be bloody stressed if I’d done 40 hours with no pay too!

Enjoy your holiday and take some time to look for another job with a better boss.

I think you’ll find two negatives in fact does make a positive.😂

The OP strikes me as honest to the point of naivety. She wouldn’t have lied to a doctor!
The doctor would have to be very convinced to give a six-week sick note.

True, but that doesn't mean she can claim it back via sick leave.