- Today's question is all about Statutory Sick Pay.
We've had a number of conversations with clients
on the phone recently who haven't really understood
what Statutory Sick Pay is.
I'm just going to take a moment to explain it.
Statutory Sick Pay is money that is paid by the company
on behalf of the government.
So, depending on the size of your payroll, very often
you can claim back your Statutory Sick Pay, not always.
I do hesitate, not always.
And, the rules are changing, so always check
with HMRC, but it is an amount of money that an employee
is entitled to if they are absent from work
and where either there is no company sick pay
or where company sick pay has run out.
Now, the key to Statutory Sick Pay is that you have
to have it in your Contract of Employment and what it means
is that you don't pay anything to the employee
for the first three days of their absence
before their Statutory Sick Pay kicks in.
Now, that first three days a lot of business owners
don't realise that they don't have to pay their employee.
Now that's quite a useful way of getting people
back to work on a regular basis, who actually
aren't really sick, they just fancy a day off work.
If you continue to pay them for that day off work
on a Friday, or that day off work on a Monday,
then they are going to continue to take
odd days off here and there.
If you've got Statutory Sick Pay in your
Contracts of Employment, then actually make sure
that you enforce it.
Stop pay as soon as somebody is off for day one
because they'll only not have their pay once
before they realise that they're being penalised
for taking a sick day.
If they're genuinely sick and they're off
for a week or two weeks, then their Statutory Sick Pay
will come in, but you can't discriminate.
You can't expose your business
to the risk of discrimination.
So, if your policy is Statutory Sick Pay, even if
it's Statutory Sick Pay within the first year
or within the first two years and then
and then a company sick pay kicks in,
if your policy is Statutory Sick Pay
do not pay people for the single days
that they were off here, there and everywhere
throughout the year.
Duvet days are not sick days.