Q&A: Managing staff on long-term sick leave
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Long-term sickness absence can create a dilemma: how much support should you give your absent employee and at what point do you have to put your business first?
Acas policy adviser Margaret McMahon outlines your responsibilities and the steps you can take to help employees back into work with minimum disruption to your business.
What constitutes long-term sick leave? MM: There's no actual definition of long-term sick leave, and different organisations see it in different ways. If you're a small business with ten employees, someone being off for three or four weeks will be a problem. If you're working for a large organisation, you're probably thinking about three to four months. What should I do when I have a member of staff off sick for a long time? MM: It's important to find out the extent of their illness, and it's reasonable to make appropriate contact. You then need to get a medical report and find out when the doctor considers your employee will be able to return to work. You have to tell your employee if you intend to seek a medical opinion, because they have the right to withhold consent. What happens if they refuse consent? MM: You may have to look at their absence as a purely disciplinary matter. You can warn them that their future employment may be jeopardised because you are not qualified to make a judgement about their condition and how long it will take them to recover. What should I find out from the doctor? MM: You need to know if there's an underlying problem or a disability, whether they will make a full recovery and how long that is likely to take. You should tell the doctor what that person's job involves, their hours of work, whether they have to travel, and so on. It's essential to get information that will help you make the right decisions. How should I plan for their return to work? MM: You may be looking at 'reasonable adjustments', such as phasing their return, changing their hours of work, allowing them to work from home, reallocating some of their work temporarily or modifying their targets. People left at home may lose confidence, so it's important to maintain contact - and you should have a return-to-work interview to ease them back. What if the reasonable adjustments aren't working out? MM: If it's not working out, then your other option is to offer alternative work. Keep talking to your employee to find out how they're getting on. Should I have a sickness policy? MM: Yes, have a policy that states what you will do to tackle any absences, so everyone knows what will happen. For example, your employees need to know about who they should contact if they are ill, what contact the employee can expect while off sick, when a medical report may be sought, and whether they are going to receive Statutory Sick Pay, or whether you offer contractual sick pay at a higher rate. You'll also need to keep good records to show you've done everything you can to help them back into work. Is that in case I feel I have to dismiss someone? MM: If they've been off for, say, six months, you'll have to make a decision about whether you can continue to keep the job open. The burden to prove a dismissal is fair falls on you, and a tribunal will look at all the efforts you've made and the impact on your business. They'll consider whether you can get temporary cover, for example. Nobody's going to be happy that they cannot come back to work, but they are going to take it slightly better if you've tried everything you can and talked it through with them.
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