Any advice on short term sickness processes

[IneedcoffeeinanIV]

Hello! Looking for general advice of absence procedures (I know each company works differently). My partner has had a significant number of sick days since October. Mainly in lumps, so 5 days at the end of last year due to covid, 5 days recently for a severe gastro bug and then colds/migraines in between. He hasn't had his return to work meeting yet but it should be booked in any time soon. I have quite severe anxiety so I'm constantly assuming the worst. He's punctual generally and performing well at the job, gets on well with everyone ect so the only issue I am worrying about is the sick days. We do have a baby that started nursery this year so bugs are rife in the house at the minute unfortunately. In terms of his absence levels, would a process need to be followed in terms of verbal warning, written warning ect before a dismissal would be actioned?

This doesn’t sound like excessive time of sick. Higher than some people but not unreasonable . As your husband is otherwise punctual and performing well I would be surprised if there was any issue. Unless the company has form for letting people go over sickness absence.

if I was his employer I might want to check what he is doing about the migraines if they are a frequent thing. Otherwise it all sounds like bad luck.

in any case they would have to go through a proper process. If he’s been there less than 2 years he wouldn’t be able to claim unfair dismissal though, so it may not give as much protection there as you’d like.

In my company 3 absences within a 6 month period would trigger an absence review meeting. It would be discussed what the absences were for, if he needed support from us, had he seen a gp...
He would be put on an absence monitor and any further absences within a 3 month period and it would then trigger a further meeting to discuss, with the potential for it to go to disciplinary which could then result in a warning.

How many actual absence periods has he had over past 12 months? In many places over 3 will trigger a meeting to discuss it and employee may be told this unacceptably high and if it continues absence monitoring will be instigated.

Ours is looked at as a rolling year. In that rolling year you're allowed 5 seperate spells or 10 days before it's considered excessive. When people go over its looked at why and either HR or reduced sick pay is considered.

How long has he been there? What sort of organisation?

There are no laws about following a strict hierarchy of warnings, employers can jump straight to written warning or final written warning or whatever if they see fit, so there really is no point focusing on that.

I think your partner has a poor sickness record, that is a lot of time off since October and it is worse because it is separate, short absences, a single longer absence would be less problematic. I would expect that his employers have an eye on this.

I worked for a large corporate for over 35 years, they used the Bradford Factor calculator.

https://www.bradfordfactorcalculator.com/

I also think your partner has a poor sickness record.

Another who agrees that partner's sickness record is not that great. Does he routinely go off sick for minor things like colds? A week with gastro as an adult? Migraines should be treated with an action plan as there are drugs that keep them from occurring or stop them from being incapacitating. He sounds like one of those who people who routinely take sick leave and if you have anxiety issues that is probably not helping

Maybe the performing well might save him? Might be they work on a case-by-case basis.

I personally think if the company are one of those who pay company sick pay or those who commit only to SSP may have different views. Equally work from home jobs think you can carry on and cover any minor problem as you work from home.

I went to work in private healthcare a role that is targeted and got told any point anyone calls in sick whilst on probation they face instant dismissal (they just bring your probation review forward to do so) and you have no job, quite a dark conversation was had but don’t think it’s a joke, perhaps there is an unspoken rule be sick/ill in healthcare you’ve had it, a friend in another industry went sick within their first fortnight to attend other interviews, got kept on and ended up worrying about how they were going to get away with not having to work notice a crazy situation if you wanted out to ever begin with. I was just amazed they didn’t already not have a job so early on in employment so not every place is the same fortunately.

@IneedcoffeeinanIV as you say each organisation works differently. A good organisation will have a policy and procedure that they follow. Ask your partner what his employers policy is as this may put your mind at rest.