Inform or not?

[Beauregard]

Advice needed please,i am due to return to work next month from mat leave and was told by my senior manager to write with my date of return so she can notify the payroll .Unfortunately my depression has been very bad and i may not be able to return to work when i had planned to,my doctor said if im no better then she will sign me off.Do i still need to write with the return date i had planned or should i leave it until i know for sure and should i notify occupational health?? TIA.x

I had a similar situation - I informed them of my intended return date, and then a couple of weeks before contacted my bosses and HR to inform them that my GP said I was not yet fit to work my normal hours but I was willing to work part-time for a few weeks - HR were awful and insisted that they would dock my pay if I did this (and at the time I was paying out for 2 lots of nursery fees which came to more than i earnt on my nomal hours so I really couldn't afford to pay the nursery and not earn at least what I normally earnt - and if I dropped the nursery places it would be months before I could get childcare again) - so in the end I stuck to my original return date, was signed off sick for 2 weeks by GP and got full pay for them...then went back for my usual hours.
I know of 2 colleagues who have done part-time hours but with full-time pay (and other hours as 'sick') due to back problems but HR wouldn't let me because it was depression. Occupational health may have been helpful, but at the time I was in no fit state to travel to them, let alone talk about my depression to yet another bunch of people.
Best wishes to you, hope you get better soon, and that you get plenty of support.

Thanks blue bear.x

If you are at the end of your mat. leave period (either ordinary or additional) you don't need to advise your employer when you are returning to work they should assume you will be back at the end of the relevant period. If you are returing early you should confirm your date, with at least 28 days notice. Your normal sick leave arrangements would then kick-in and if that involves you advising occupational health then you should do so and if not then don't.

If you have not used all your mat. leave entitlement and then go straight onto sick leave you might be on a stickly wicket.

Actually not sure that helps at you all, just lots of waffle.

In essence, confirm your date of return and then supply a sick note from your first day.