Bradford Formula anyone know anything about it??

[mummytowillow]

I work a medium sized company who have recently introduced the Bradford Formula for sickness. When I started the job 10 months ago this wasn't in place, I was told at my interview I would not receive any sick pay for the first year, I was happy with that and thought fair enough.

I have only had two days sick (genuine) in the last 10 months and accepted that I would not get paid for those days, however I have received a 'back to work' form and been told they will apply the Bradford Formula to my sick. I'm not worried about getting into trouble because I know I am no where near the trigger point. But here is my argument ... can they apply the BF for sick if your not getting paid for it??

Its a principal thing for me, I don't get paid for sick but they can still apply the BF to me and possibly discpline me if I did hit a trigger??

So wise people tell me your thoughts??

My company has recently introduced this too, You don't work for a certain co-operative do you? Do you know how it works anyway? Someone tried to explain it but it went straight over my head.

The idea is that each occasion of sickness is given a score based on it's duration.
If you have more frequent sickness of short duration then it scores higher than say a week off sick.
This is supposed to highlight absences such as being ill on lots of Mondays and Fridays.
More info here

We use it. I think it's relevant whether or not you are being paid. Someone in my time has had a lot of time off - the odd days adding up - with back trouble. Her Bradford score acts as a prompt to HR to see if there are any reasonable adjustments we need to make at now, before a back issue becomes a disability.

Bradford Factor is easy.

Its number of occurrences squared time number of days in total. Usually over a 6 or 12 month period.

So someone that is ill and has 2 weeks (10 working days) off in one go gets bradford factor of.

1 X 1 X 10 = 10

Someone who has 5 days off as individual days gets:

5 x 5 x 5 = 125

The idea about the score is that individual days off are more disruptive than long spells off that are easier to cater for.

Doesn't matter if your getting paid or not. Having a day off paid or otherwise is still disruptive and what the mgt are trying to stop.