Sickness and Injury Absence Policy

Employees with short-term, persistent or long term sickness or injury must be managed clearly and fairly.

This document defines the company's policy in relation to sickness and injury absence, and procedures that should be followed.

Sections within this policy and procedures include:

• how sickness will be managed (both short-term and long-term absence)
  
• what records will be kept
• how employees should inform and record short-term sickness and injury absence from work (e.g. self certification)
• how employees should inform and record long-term sickness absence
• what steps will be taken to mitigate sickness absence
• the legal basis upon which an employment contract can be terminated in the event of persistent or long term sickness absence
• what will happen to annual leave entitlement during periods of sickness and injury absence
• allocation and return of company property during sickness and injury absence
• how statutory sick pay (SSP) will be calculated
• details of any restrictions or conditions which may result in non-payment of SSP (e.g. receipt of medical reports)
• scheme details and entitlement to company sick pay

During sickness absence company property should not be overlooked.

If your employee's are provided with company property (such as a laptop or company car), a sickness policy is essential if you wish to reclaim property from them during sickness absence. Our policy and procedures includes a clause to enable you to request an employee to return company property (without such a clause, a request to return the property could be seen as penalising an employee's benefit entitlement).