To think 10 days paid sick leave a year is not very much?

[patandjess]

I’ve been offered a job that gives 10 days paid sick leave a year, then after that you’re on statutory sick pay (£109 a week as far as I can tell).

It’s a senior role in a creative industry.

Is this usual? I’ve been self-employed for a long time so forgive my ignorance. What happens if someone gets a serious illness or is signed off with e.g. stress? Do they have to live on £109 a week?

I had Covid at the beginning of the year and was ill for over a week, so that would have been about 6 days. Then a few other illnesses dotted throughout the year and there goes your 10 days.

Curious to know what other workplaces offer and whether this is usual or not.

DP, similar seniority, gets 6months full pay, 3 years at 75%. Never taken more than 7 days per year. Has been with employers for 15 years.

That's more than I've taken in my entire working life.

Mine is min wage job - 65 days full pay, 35 days half pay then SSP
It starts at 15 days full pay then SSP but goes up with length of service

Which is great but stuff happens. I herniated a disc, needed 8 weeks off waiting for an op as couldn't work due to the pain then another 8-10 weeks recovery
It's not some kind of badge of honour to not be sick. My life exploded 8 years ago with a diagnosis and age 30 I wasn't thinking about critical illness cover
Now I can't get the cover as my diagnosis is classed as a critical illness

I would expect more than that in a professional, salaried role.

I’m a teacher and get 3 months full pay and 3 months half pay before going to SSP.

We get six months full pay, six months half pay. I have only ever had short amounts of time off (days) for eg flu/covid/IBS flare up, never long-term, but it’s good to know it’s there.

Depends if they have insurance or discretionary sick pay for serious illness. Generally 10-20 days is not unusual in the private sector

I have never had 10 days off in 25 years in my job. 10 days is not generous but it’s not dreadful either. What’s your salary? A high salary would compensate for poor sick pay. Just save as much as you can?

6 month full, 6 months half. Technology company.

Another with 6 full and 6 half. Unless you have a fat savings pot only getting 10 days would really worry me.

Average annual sickness absence from a FT job in UK is 6 days.

My private sector employer gives up to 4wk paid 4wk half pay dependent on service and would add discretionary if it was a serious illness / surgery etc. A recognised formula is used to spot persistent random days rather than genuine conditions too. Our allowance is plenty enough. A blanket generous scheme merely invites people to routinely call sick when they want a duvet day or have something better to do, whilst everyone else picks up the slack and expense

We’re professionals, conscientious, and wouldn’t be impressed by a candidate who can’t cope with a month per year in paid sickness for ‘colds&bugs’. Fgs that’s nearly a day every fortnight.

I work in the pharm industry and we get generous health related benefits. So as well as private healthcare, dental care, free flu vaccines, physiotherapy, councilling sessions, and lots of health initiatives we get 6 months full pay sick pay and 4 months full pay maternity pay.

People don't take the piss because work uses a variation of the Bradford formula to identify worrying patterns of absence (a single period of long term sickness is not considered worrying, multiple Fridays or Mondays off would). We do 'return to work' interviews after any sick leave to identify and discuss any worrying sick leave patterns and occupational health works with doctors and employees to determine an appropriate phased return to work after long term sick leave.

Crappy. Admittedly mine is very good, 12 months full pay from day 1 of employment. I've never taken more than a few days in my whale career, but it's good to know its there if needed. I think 3-6 months would be the norm

Whole career*

Although a whale career does sound cool

i get two paid sick a year, for a well known so called ethical retailer
After those two days, you don't get paid AND get put onto attendance monitoring. Someone I know just got sacked for having three attendance meetings even though they didnt pay her sick days
I am thinking of joining a union because of this

🤨

SSP only where I work.

so to me, ten seems insanely generous and would seem open to many who would take the proverbial

These policies usually operate via insurers. The first X amount of time is covered by your employer, then it often moves to long term sick pay scheme that is in fact insurance and pays out usually a year at 50-75% pay. Then you can be terminated but I imagine it's very discretionary.

I'm a supervisor / manager at a large company and I only get SSP. and then only after the 3rd day of sick.
So if, like last year, I get something sharp in my eye in the night, and have to see a Dr in the morning and have a migraine for the next 36 hours because of it, so I was off work for 2 working days, I got NOTHING.
SSP not kicking in for 3 days is so much of a pain you end up happy for the scraps of lose change they throw you when it does start.

Amazed people are saying this is standard for private. Possibly for amaller companies but its hardly "generous" - especially as you can get insurance to cover it!

Have always worked in big finance companies, the minimum is 6 months.

Currently 6 months full, 18 months 65% and cheap CI via the company. No expectation to take annual leave for medical appointments.

Wow, how the other half live!

I'm a domiciliary care worker on a zero hours contract. If I don't work, I don't get paid.

I caught Covid from work in the height of the pandemic in summer 2020. I had to stay off for 11 days until I had two consecutive negative test results.
Meanwhile, my friends were able to stay home and safe on full pay furlough.

I still haven't recovered financially.

It’s not generous. It will probably be fine. Unless you’re unlucky and get unexpectedly seriously ill. Is the pay good? If it is it will likely more than make up for the lack of wick leave

I could see it being abused by many whose route is to always find a way to game the system. It would be a great temptation for some people. And one can always find a doctor who will "ok" it, using something or another.

My DH had much the same as you, they could accrue sick days to an unlimited amount, but when they retired, they could get 120 days of sick leave paid back to them. They lowered it quite a bit now, as there were so many retiring with the 120 days.