Can my employer do this? Is this even legal?

[Stroggle]

have the first 3 days sickness unpaid? Then ssp? So if I get a sickness bug I’m going to lose 2 days pay? I’ve never encountered this and I’ve worked in some Mickey Mouse places

For the first 6 months? Seems fine.

A friend of mine was gobsmacked that he got paid anything at all when off sick. He is originally from a country where if you dont work you just dont get paid. This is why we are told to always have 6 months pay in savings.

@Stroggle

no YOU should have checked your package relating to sickness, holiday, pensions etc before you signed any contract

Yes I know it does but first 6 months is probation

@panca better hope you or anyone you care about is never in such a position then, personally I think people work better when their employer is more compassionate because they feel safer

Yes. That’s how SSP works. OSP is not a statutory entitlement and many companies chose not to offer it particularly in the first year of employment.

Yes of course they do. But they aren't going to spend on someone in their probation

Im in my first job where I get the first 3 days paid and I have noticed people phone in sick a lot more.

People who want to phone in sick for a hangover or a football game would think twice about a sicky if you don't get paid. It's a shame for those who are genuinely ill though.

I've always got paid when I'm sick I didn't know this was a thing.

Used to be the same with unemployment benefit as well. They were called 'waiting days'

Do you know that SSP isn't even your full wage, so if that's what they pay then even after the 3 days it's very little money.

I am now retired. In my last job I was only off sick once. I had a stroke. I worked 3 long days per week. No pay for the first 3 days sickness, so no pay for a week.
Quite normal in my experience.

Nor have I, and I've worked when I really shouldn't have because SSP is 1/5th of my income.
How the fuck that's supposed to do anything I do not know.
The knock on effects of illness, emergency surgery and then recovery was a couple of years long. Got into debt, into trouble, put on an improvement plan at work (I mean I probably asked for it when they asked me how I was going to 'manage' further absences and I said I wasn't planning on regrowing my appendix so it should be fine).

And some of the most pressure I've had from employers around going to work when ill (and not getting paid for 3 days and then approx 1/5th of my income) even with something contagious - have been working with food and elderly, vulnerable people.

That's why being paid for the first 3 days happened with COVID at the start - because so many people would have had the choice between losing their income or going into work knowing fine well they had COVID and were spreading it around. Which means the government knows that it's no where near adequate.

Its the legal minimum, why would they advertise it? Its not a benefit, but then I hate when companies advertise the legal minimum leave or pension as a benefit...its not a benefit you HAVE to offer that

It’s quite standard especially during probation. My employer had the first 3 days unpaid but this was renegotiated during Covid and it is now paid. Fortunately we have not seen an increase in sickness but I’ll be interested in seeing the statistics over a longer period of time.

Sick pay isn’t in my contract, holiday, pension, working hrs all are but sickness, emergency leave and maternity leave aren’t in the contract- it’s only now when I’m looking on the system.

I’ve never had a job post Uni where I wasn’t paid for being sick. Even in my probation. Have heard others say it not often

It's rubbish but hard to know where to draw the line.
We run a small family business and used to offer full sick pay. However people just used to take the mick. It got to a point where a large majority of staff would call in sick on a Monday or Friday. Obviously for a long weekend. Or they'd take full sick pay for whatever made up illness until that ran out, then holiday then leave....

That I understand because as a small local business you might not have the resources (financially and people) to fund an enhanced sick payment but this is a big big company. And I’ve never not had sick pay. It’s making me really contemplate my future here and I’ve just joined.

I absolutely hate this mentality where people seem to think we’re lucky to be paid the bare bloody minimum.

People shouldn’t have to force themselves into work whilst they’re unwell just so that they can pay their bills.

I work in public sector and we get 6 months full pay, then 6 months half pay.
This is not a stealth brag - it’s completely ridiculous and totally unsustainable for the public purse. I’m sick of people being off for any little thing, especially when they’re wfh, and the long term sick followed by phase return is insulting to those out there on MW/LW scrapping their council tax together every month.

Same here. I have seen a few people - not many - absolutely take the piss as a result. However my experience is also that people WFH take less sick leave than when working in an office

Interesting that you also mention emergency leave. What’s your expectation there?

Our team has a few usual suspects who call in sick two or three days a month. This impacts the team, our productivity and also morale. If they were paid for their sickness/hangover days it would be extremely unfair to the rest of us.

The new joiners at my office keep moaning about this. For years and years, the first six months you don't get paid sick leave, only SSP. After six months the sick pay is very generous.

I'm fed up of people not reading their contract before they join and then complaining that they agreed to a very common bog standard policy that many employers use.