Sick leave entitlent

[JulieK31]

Hi, I have a dilemma. In May this year I was off sick for two months due to stress related illness. The charity I work for, only allow 2 months full pay & then it drops to half pay.
I wasn’t well enough to go back, but myself and my GP agreed on a phased return to work for financial reasons.
This has been in process for two months and things have got no better.
Now I find myself back on the sick again.
Am I entitled to full pay for a further two months, or is that the whole of the entitlement for a year? I fully understand if I’ve used all my sickness and entitlement in May, but I didn’t know if it works in individual sick periods or just one in the year, I’m wondering if you could help, please

At my work, sick leave counts over a “rolling year” so sick pay won’t reset until you’ve worked 10 months after your 2 months sick leave

Thank you that’s really helpful

You’d have to check your employment contract, some employers it is annually, some it is per illness/per time.

It is usually over a rolling 12 months.

Rolling 12 months usually

Check your works policy

Ours is a rolling 12 months, everywhere I have worked has been but DH’s contract is per calendar year.

I work in HR. It's usually based on a rolling 12 months period from the date of your 1st sick day - so 12 months from your first day off in May. So if you are off sick again now it will have dropped you to half pay. but as others have said - check your employment contract.

Sorry you are going through this. If its your workplace contributing to your stress/depression its best to work with your employer to see if there are any ways they can reduce that for you. Moving to a lower stress role for example - or if its an individual or manager) who is causing the stress there may be a possibility of moving teams - but that will be dependant on your employer how flexible they can be.

I just wanted to say that I really sympathise with you...

I also work for a charity and work stress was a contributing factor in me having a complete breakdown last year. I had to be under the care of the mental health crisis team as there were concerns about suicidal ideation.

I also went back before I was ready (after a month and a half) for financial reason as I don't have a partner who could share the burden.

My work was not supportive at all when it came to reasonable adjustments. I was asked to ignore the GP's recommendations on my fit note stating that I could come back to work as long as reasonable adjustments were put in place. In the end Occupational Health had to be involved to remind them of their legal duties when dealing with someone with a long term health condition so home working was put in place with infrequent visit to the office. I had 4 months of weekly counselling session through the NHS.

The stress has continued through. I also have been treated differently since coming back with me being excluded from meetings and people trying to undermine me. So I am job hunting for something fully remote.

Many charities, I have found, treat their staff very poorly...

Take more time off if you really need it. Also ask if you could reduce your hours or/and have reasonable adjustments in place. But ultimately if your work is causing the stress then long term you need to look at finding a new employer.