DH not being paid whilst sick

[flissypix]

It’s quite long and complex but I am really worried.
My DH works for a free school (who are totally appalling employers) currently he and several of his teaching colleagues are in a pay dispute with the school and there have been several weeks of strikes. The strikes are official union strikes but the school refuses to recognise the union so won’t negotiate at all. They also called the police and then changed the locks on the school. Sent out emails to non striking staff thanking them for not being selfish and for being professional.

A week before the strikes began in early October the school suddenly announced the need to make redundancies which has been a long process 2 people took
voluntary but the school still needs to decide on another which is still an ongoing process.Dh was going to go as voluntary as well just to get out of the place. Unfortunately during this time my DH discovered a lump and has had to have several days off for tests/biopsy etc this culminated in a large surgery 10 days ago. This has all been very rushed 3 weeks from finding lump to surgery. My DH is now signed off sick until mid December with still more surgery planned.

So the major problem is this there is no official sickness policy(or any others really)He has worked at the school for 4 years and in that time if he or any colleagues have been off sick be it short or long term they have had 6mths full pay then SSP. His bosses haven’t spoken a word to him since he has been off. He has sent his sick notes and kept them informed via the admin team. His payslip arrived and he’s been given ssp. He’s tried callin/ emailing everyone including the governors the head the finance team all of who ignored him for several days.
He’s now got an email back stating that sick pay is decided case by case! What on earth do we do?

Get a copy of his contract and the sickness policy and see what it says.

If there’s no written sickness policy, then the employer is within its rights to pay SSP only.

There is NO sickness policy no absence policy. Nothing specific in his contract.

Agent even if other colleagues in the same position have had full pay previously? and this stance is being taken in the middle of strike action?

He’d need to argue that the 6 months’ full pay had become established terms and conditions by custom and practice. Difficult, because presumably there haven’t been lots of people off that long. But if he can say that consistently every single time anyone has been off, they’ve had full pay, he can argue that has become contractual.

We are hoping he won’t need 6 months off but yes in the 4 there have been several long term sick issues including some off for a full school year. He had a minor surgery a few years ago was off for 4weeks and got full pay. There is currently another teacher (non union and therefore not striking) off sick on full pay for 2 weeks which is the same as dh.

Have they adopted the school teachers pay and conditions document or ever made reference to it? It may be in his contract.

Was he on strike with his colleagues? Presumably he wasn't paid when he was on strike.

No they haven’t adopted teachers pay and conditions that was what they were striking for.
The strikes are 2 days per week, he was on strike the first week then went off sick before the next set of strikes. He was paid by his union for those days but not anymore as he can’t strike whilst off sick.