Sick Pay

[stephn88]

Hello,

Wondering if anyone can help...... in my place of work we have a policy that states we get 8 weeks full pay sick leave but our contract states 4 weeks..... which one is correct?

Thanks :)

Firstly, focus only on your contract (even if you've compared with other colleagues).

Contact HR and ask them to clarify why there's a difference between the Company's Policy document and your contract of employment.

It may be that the Policy is designed to cater for all staff, all grades, all lengths of service - if you are relatively new to the organisation, they may have reduced the number of weeks for new recruits. Without reading the policy it is not possible to know for certain.

Alternatively it could simply be an error and if so they should correct it.

You are of course legally entitled to SSP for up to 28 weeks, which employers must pay. A company's own sickness scheme is normally more generous. 4 weeks is pretty stingy!

Thanks for getting back to me, we just been taken over by a new company under tupe so will have to see if there hr has any info on the differences....

It does have a scale showing on the policy for number of years service and how many weeks you get. So if you've been there 3-4 years you get 4 weeks and over 5 years is 8 weeks. Could that be why the contract is different?

Thanks again

”we just been taken over by a new company under tupe”

In that case I imagine the policy you are looking at is the new employers policy for pre-existing staff. Under TUPE your previous terms and conditions will continue to apply. Worth asking anyway but the contract is likely to be the relevant document to you.

No the policy is from the previous company..... I haven't seen the new company's policy as yet....

The contract would usually have the basic starting terms. Had you worked there for over 5 years prior to the tupe transfer?

Yeah, almost 6 years, will be 6 years in July and transfer was 1st April 2019

Ok so you need to establish whether the old policy was contractual. As part of the consultation/communication for TUPE, it should have been established what if any policies were contractual and therefore came across as part of the transfer. Do you have communications from the consultation, or a union or other rep who was involved that you can check with?