I have a team member who has been with the company 5 years.
There has been a lot of stress in the team and this team member has complained about unrealistic delivery promises and the associated stress. It was felt they were demotivating the other team members from trying to meet the deadlines.
Management told the team member they were concerned about their stress levels and asked them to take sick leave for 3 weeks. However, the company has no contractual sick pay.
Essentially they seem to have used this as a workaround for suspension to ensure they don't have to pay the person.
Can they do this? I've never heard of it.