losing my childrens holiday after sick leave

[mummyisinahurry]

I've been away from work for 8 weeks with pneumonia. I hope to return soon, but am really not yet recovered enough to work full time. My GP recommends a gradual return starting with half days, I'm keen to do this, but my employer is insisting I use my annual leave entitlement to make up the time. Can they do this? I thought the sick note would cover the time not to be worked. I want to be able to take my children away in the summer holidays but will not be able to at this rate. It is the policy in my work place but I thought it was illegal to make employees use annual leave for what should be sick leave? Is it different for a phased return?

If you are back at work on a phased return you are no longer off sick.

What is your employers reason for not allowing you to just reduce your hours? Do they not want the hassle of payroll changes?

Are they saying they will refuse the phased return unless you stay on full pay and use up holiday?

perfectly acceptable in the range of options available, some kind employers take the hit, some will do a sort of give and take on this, so you use some leave they give some time and pay you, the alternative is you take unpaid leave whilst you get back to work.
another alternative is you stay off sick until you are capable of getting back full time however in this case this would look very like toys out of pram to your employer (not me) or if you aren't people facing some working from home which you can factor travel time in order to "up" your hours, however this might not be the best advice from me not knowing your case and job.
on the plus side this will keep you sick time down as it doesn't count and if you are getting toward to the end of it (2 months is very generous on full pay), you will get back to work quicker than if you wait to be "100% fit" as 100% fit never happens, a good phased should be no longer than 4 to 6 weeks.

If it where me I would take the hit on pay as I only get 2 months full pay and as it is rolling if I got ill again in the next year I would be down to half straight away.

I speak from working in Occ Health and if you have, get a referral as what a GP states on the fit note does not always fit with what your job entails, I quite often have to recommend that a person actually stays off a bit longer due to the nature of there job in which case your fit note is used for your ssp

but always be aware you don't know what is round the corner, so keeping sickness down can actually help you keep a job if in 11 months you end up off sick again for a long period, as sickness is rolling.

sorry to sound so blunt, but your employer is not being unreasonable but sometimes employers don't think of all the other options, hopefully you can find a good option for both.

Caveat on this, I don't work in HR/payroll, so I don't know if ssp can still be claimed whilst on phased return, if it can then even if not legally wrong, then it is morally wrong from them to claim this whilst you are working even part time and making you take leave.

I know my employers once you are on phases or modified duties you no longer need the fit note, they only ask for one with the GP's continued advice of phased return if they can't actually accommodate it, so the person stays off sick, so they can claim ssp. (hope that makes sense?)

That's interesting and I can see why it would be use of A/L. I'd never thought about it.

nor did I aftermay until I worked in OH, I have to say if I feel that phased is the only option at the beginning of a leave year I will be a hard nosed XXX with HR and say if they can't accommodate it and pay I advise the added stress of loss of leave could have a detrimental effect, blah, blah, and If they can't play nice then the phased should become sick, this normally focuses minds, as work is not being done, even half a job is better than it not being done at all.

end of leave year, mostly people have so much leave they will lose it anyway so I am less hard nosed about it, win, win as HR to date haven't noticed my change of tune, (I say this I think they might have, but I find in my present job, the HR are lovely and are looking to me to get them out of a policy dilemma) but I only use it in special cases, and it works mainly :) I have no real power really but I do have a bit of elbow room

If you are back at work you are back at work albeit on reduced hours on a temporary basis. But you don't get to be paid for working full time hours. So you either get paid for the hours that you work and take the hit on pay or else you use up your annual leave.

thanks so much, that is really helpful, albeit not what i wanted to hear! I hadn't viewed phased return as being fully back at work, but rather as half on sick leave, half at work, so it is useful to know this isn't the case officially. my gp clearly didnt realise this either when he suggested phased return as an option, but now I've told my boss I'm willing to do this I'm kind of stuck with it, arent I? I'm the only wage earner for the family, so can't afford a wage cut, and am concerned about what happens if I'm unable to cope with full time hours for an extended period due to ongoing illness and use up all my holiday. my work's sick leave time allowed on full time pay is generous so I now feel foolish to have offered to return on phased return without knowing the implications, when if i hadn't i would still be able to be off on full sick pay. I wouldn't feel guilty about this as I am still not well, not able to cope with the journey to work, cant concentrate for long, and need to sleep for a lot of the day. It's getting me down.

You can talk to work and talk to your GP. Say it's not working and can you get back to sick leave. Things happen, there is some flexibility. Good luck.