sick pay

[Tongil]

My company sick pay is on a 12 month rolling basis, sick pay is not paid in the 1st year.. my 2nd year started 16th July 2025.. I was off sick in the August but wasn't paid.. when I queried this i was told that because my entitlement is 144 hrs and I've been off 178 hrs im not entitled to pay.. however i have never been paid for any of the 178 hrs sick as these were in my 1st year and not entitled.. Does anyone know if this is correct ?

When were you previously off? You won’t be entitled to sick pay (except ssp) until that has cleared 12 months. 178 hours is about 25 days which is a lot,

Sounds like you need to separate out tenure years and rolling years. Sickness is paid up to 144 hours per rolling year (am I right?). Except that any of those hours falling during the first year's tenure are unpaid. Look at the last day of your latest period of sickness. Go back twelve months - that's your rolling year. When did you reach 144 hours sick in that twelve months? Any of the first 144 hours that fall in the first year of tenure are unpaid. Any of them falling in the second year of tenure should be paid. Any hours over 144 are unpaid, whichever year.

All of the 158 hrs were in the first year i have a chronic illness so am and potentially be off more often than the usual employees.. my concern is im waiting for a date for surgery and could be off or approx 3 months.. So what I need to know is when will my 144 hrs (6 weeks) reset in full so I can plan the surgery as I can't afford a full 3 months of just ssp. Thx

Sorry to hear about your health problems. I think you should ignore whether your hours sick were in your first year of tenure or not. Forget about whether they were paid. That makes no difference to when your hours reset.

Your 144 hours will reset in full a year from the last day you were off sick.

Thanks for your reply brickbiscuit.. will it have to be the full year before entitled to anything ie after 6 months ill be entitled to half of my allocation ie as days/hrs drop off i get them back ?

No it only resets after 12 months. Your full entitlement to paid leave will only begin 12 months after the last day of previous absence but you may start to get it back on the one year anniversary of the first time off. Maybe ask your hr to clarify as it depends on how the absence was taken. Are you planning to be off sick again? Bear in mind it is not an entitlement to leave to eb used like additional holiday. Within two years employment they can ask you to leave if your absence record is poor and it is not due to protected characteristics like disabilty.

If I have understood the policy correctly, I think you are right to say "as days/hrs drop off I get them back". However that will not mean you get half your allocation back after 6 months. It depends how slowly or quickly you use up your allocation.

Go back twelve months from today. Call that Day 1 (which means today is Day 365). Then look at the first day you were off sick on or after Day 1. Let's call that Day X. Count up your hours sick from Day X to today. If the total is less than 144, the difference is your 'allocation' between today and a year from Day X.

You really need to be asking your own HR or payroll

If it’s a chronic illness it may count as a disability for employment purposes and entitle you to additional support/flexibility. Get some proper advice and also check your understanding with HR. Good luck.

You need to be not sick for a full 12 months from the last day of your last absence for it to reset so your sick entitlement will start again. It's quite standard in the charity sector

That’s a massive amount of time off sick ?

It’s a contractual issue so no one can advise properly without seeing your contract. Seek proper advice eg from a union, ACAS etc.

As per previous poster the key is whether your chronic illness would be covered by the disability act - if it is then any absence including planned surgeries should be classed as paid disability leave not sick leave

It doesn't have to be paid. But it means it could be treated differently in a high absence investigation, which is still important.

So you were a job less than year have taken a lot of time off due to chronic health problems and you want to be paid full pay.

what the fuck is wrong with people. Take your medical certificates to the benefits office and get them to pay you. Why should your employer pay you and someone to cover your work. Shame no one can say this anymore . It’s all bloody tea and sympathy while some poor sap at your work is covering your absences

you've been in your job a year and had 177 hours off sick? working full time that's approx 25 days, more obs if PT. Most companies would be putting you through formal disciplinary proceedings for absence at this stage.

Where I work we have similar, you have to here a year to qualify for company sick pay and then it’s on a 12 month rolling basis. We had an employee who had a lot of time of sick and I had to query with our hr consultants.

essentially if an an employee is sick in year 1 it is unpaid (or ssp if conditions net). However I don’t record it in in our rolling 12 month tracker.

only once they hit 12 months and qualify for paid sick do they get added to the rolling tracker.

I don’t think your previous unpaid sick should stop you being entitled to paid sick now you’ve hit the year. The rolling 12 months is for PAID SICK of which you actually haven’t had any yet!

You need to clarify with HR, different companies do things differently. But that is a huge amount of time office, then you’ve had more time off sick in August and you want another 3 months off soon! That’s huge, be careful.

Have they discussed absence management processes with you. I'd not just be worried about sick leave pay(i think you already have the answer above about the rolling 12 mths not being back at zero yet), I'd be worried about them saying you're not the best fit for the role if you can't maintain your attendance. Someone this early in a job with this much time off will be flashing some red flags. I hope you aren't in that situation, but if I were you I'd read up throughly on their absence management policy, the steps they'll take,and potentially look into whether your absence is disability related (plus what reasonable adjustments they can make, which may include an increased amount of absence compared to their average expectations). I'm surprised they've not already referred you to occupational health tbh. Sick leave isn't an entitlement, and companies will normally have a level of absence that they'd use to kick start absence management processes (where I've worked previously it'd be 3 short absences in a year or an absence of more than 14 days in a year - so you'd be way over that already). Better to be prepared, rather than just focusing on the paid elements. I hope you get better soon and they're a supportive employer.

yes thats correct the rolling period starts from last year and if you get paid starts from August

She has chronic illnesses
i had more than that off, I’m immunocompromised and have higher sickness triggers because I can’t not get sick
disabled people need to work too