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

One particularly awful former boss of mine deducted two days from my pay when I was off with a D&V bug even though I worked a full week’s worth of unpaid overtime that same month.

I get generous sick pay, but after your second period within two years you get put on a disciplinary pathway. We can't WFH, so unless you are proper ill (d&v, unable to lift your head off the pillow, type thing) you go into work.

I have had to take sick periods (my examples above) as annual leave. My 'clock' restarts again in New Year, maybe I should have waited until after then to injure my elbow as I could have then had sick leave, rather than forcing myself to work and causing more damage.

I’m in the public sector, if I got long term sick then right now I’d be entitled to 6 months full pay and 6 more months half pay - as it stands I’ve not had a sick day in over 3 years, and it was 1 day for norovirus which you really can’t work with. Not everyone takes the piss with it, I can only think of 1 person I work with who does

If it’s important to you then you should have asked before you signed your contract.

That’s ridiculous - no one should have to take annual leave for illness - if you’re ill you are ill. There’s always other employers out there with better T&Cs.

The poster who works at the local authority already said that her employers are struggling to recruit and is only staying because she needs to be local while her children are young and is moving on as soon as she can.

But if they are sick they should get sick pay - not have pay deducted on days they are sick.

Statuary sick pay is only £109.40 a week 🫤

I can't say what the posters are meaning specifically but I have come across people taking the mick. I work in the NHS and its always the same folk (usually the laziest team members) who go off on the sick for a few months, then when their sick pay entitlement is running out, they come back. Then they work for a period of time until they're eligible for full sick pay again, then off they go again for a few months. They're well known for it.

Of course, they could be genuine, I've never asked what's wrong with them, none of my business, but I do believe that some people take the biscuit with the generous sick pay offerings of the NHS.

Wow. I mean, I believe this is normal if that's what PP's say, but it's pretty bad. I mean, hopefully we all would usually only need a couple of days off- say for severe flu or norovirus or something. So the days we actually need off, wouldn't be covered at all.

Unless stated otherwise, you get the legal minimum. I assume you read your contract?

No theyre lazy. And have to make an attempt to keep up the pretence of being sick.

I think it's disgusting that SSP is only £99 per week ( rising to £109 next April )
How are people who are off work for a while with something serious supposed to manage on that?
For most people it wouldn't pay their monthly rent / mortgage, let alone food etc.
I'm fortunate that my company gives full pay when sick, but a large percentage of the working population don't.
Imagine a single person having a serious car accident say, which leaves them unable to work for a few weeks due to serious injuries and all they get is £99 per bloody week!
They must be more sick from worry than from their injuries!
Disgusting how the UK treats it's workers!!

I did and was told that it’s on the company intranet and they offer enhanced sick pay- which they do just after probation

All the places I have worked pay sick pay. My current workplace is generous and pays up to 6 months full pay off sick, after that I haven’t a clue.

Totally standard and it’ll be in your contract

I presume it is written in the contract/paperwork on taking the job

It’s not, just detailed where to find it on the internal systems

This is when I realise that however shit I feel about my actual job (I'm a teacher and am constantly stressed!) I do at least benefit from great sickness policies. I get 100 days 'full pay' in any year (April to April) before they start to apply SSP.

I feel for anyone who has a poor sickness policy.

I have worked in the NHS for years and come across dozens of people who view their 6 months full pay sickness as a benefit to them to use up across the year and then accumulate again the next year too, having loads of time off. One job I had the woman I worked with had 3 months off sick every year for 10 years AND her holiday time too. My friend worked in NHS payroll some years back and people would phone up to ask how many sick days they had left in their entitlement. Even with Bradford scoring they would get a knuckle wrap but nothing done about it long term so they carried on.

A lot of places would go bankrupt if they had to pay sickness from day 1 and also cover the work as they end up double paying

If you’re going to be off longer than a few days you can apply for UC which also triggers some other benefits. It’s still not much though 🫤

I've worked in 7 companies since being in HR/Payroll the last 16 years. All were SSP only in probation, and probably half of them only had SSP after probation too.

Fairly normal

Yes, it's completely legal and utterly rubbish!

I used to work in the public sector and had used up the six months full, six months halfpay and went onto sick pay at pension rate. I moved to the private sector and we had 10 days company sick pay, but with the same first 3 days not paid like SSP. That was used up, and SSP is just rubbish. I saved 10 days holiday one year to help cover a major operation!

But, I've never taken a day off sick unless I was either in hospital or at home recovering from major surgery. I was just unlucky enough to develop a serious illness that has so far required 13 operations.

then I'm not surprised that you assumed you would get full sick pay from the start.

This thread is quite an eye opener for me though. There seems to be this assumption that if you get paid sick pay then this will be abused.

That has not been my experience in over 35 years of work.

Maybe I have only worked at places which treat their staff well and so no need to have extended periods off work.