Sick pay in pregnancy?

[Madamecastafiore]

Have just been advised that due to being absent from work for 14 weeks (was paid for some of it) last year I have apparently used all of my sick pay and now won't get paid any sick pay if am off during my pregnancy. Is this right? I have had 2 days off with stomach cramps when thought was going to miscarry and 2 days for appointments at FMC due to high risk of abnormalities.

Just seems a big of a shitty position to take!

Work for the NHS by the way.

Appointments shouldn't count as sick time, you're entitled to them off.

Yes, antenatal appointments should not be sick pay. Also, pregnancy-related sickness should not count towards your sick leave total. You need to go and shout at HR.

The NHS is crappy on this stuff. A friend of mine had to get a lawyer on them about leave issues in her first pregnancy and ended up with a formal apology letter. Second pregnancy, they're trying it on with her again over the exact same issue.

Thanks chaps. I thought that was the case.

Our payroll department which is done externally by a different company is shot but they will jump on you as soon as they think they can save a bit of money.

Will yell very loud tomorrow!

Stiffy is not 100% correct - although pregnancy related sickness doesn't count towards absence trigger points, it is paid in line with normal sickness policy so if you have used up all of your sick pay then it will only be paid as SSP. Appointments are paid as normal pay, they don't count as sickness.

Is that right? That's a pain. Worth trying with HR maybe. What's the NHS sick pay limit?

Oh dear!

Well at least they can't put my appointments down as sick.

Do you work for a foundation trust? I didn't think my trust was this strict, although I suppose I don't really know the fine details of our sick pay policy.

My company allocates employees up to 12 paid sick days a year. I had 25 days sick at the beginning of pg due to complications. My company agreed to extend my paid sick leave to 20 days, anything after that I use annual leave to cover it or just don't get paid (other than SSP).

You're entitled to be paid for any antenatal care. I've had a lot of appointments for this pg. My boss wasn't happy with this and tried to
make me take holiday to go to these but I went to HR and they confirmed I'm entitled to the time for appointments.

I always thought that sick leave and sick pay entitlement got reset at the beginning of the year?

So that loads of sick leave in one year wouldn't count towards entitlement in the next year? Am I mistaken about this?

Lots of places do it on a rolling basis, so they're always looking at the preceding 12 months.

It's pro ratad to how long you have been working there apparently.

Yes it's a foundation trust. Am shocked that they can do this to be honest. Surely making pregnant women go in for fear of not being paid is not a great thing!