Boss…..I can’t come to work today… when is paid absence acceptable….
By Niamh Kelly
2020-03-03
“How do you feel?” … some truths about sickness (and other) absence!
It’s been a very busy couple of weeks at The HR Dept Shropshire, as not only have we dealt with client queries around the Coronavirus (Covid-19), but we also have had a significant number of queries relating to ‘absence due to flooding’! This month, I’m focussing on some of the recent cases we’ve had to deal with.
Travel and Covid-19
One of our clients had a member of staff return to work following a visit to an affected region. He came into work for 2 days but subsequently the Foreign Office advised against ‘all but essential’ travel to that area. As a result, the individual decided to self-isolate for 2 weeks.
The individual was not unwell, had not been advised by a medical practitioner to self-isolate, and the UK government did not require him to be in quarantine unless he showed symptoms. The law says there is no statutory obligation “to pay for time off due to an employee being quarantined or required to self-isolate”. By choosing to self-isolate, this was actually “unpaid, unauthorised absence”. As you can imagine, he was not happy!
There is confusion on this because Matt Hancock (Secretary of State for Health and Social Care) has said that if someone is told to self-isolate by a medical practitioner, then they should be paid ‘sick pay’. This is not the law, this is ‘good practice’ as supported by ACAS. However, companies can’t be ‘forced’ to do this.
The truth is, the law only requires you to pay someone sick pay if you decide to send your employee home on the grounds of health and safety; or they are in fact signed off sick by a medical practitioner!
2 weeks full pay for a small Company for someone who is self-isolating, is a significant cost; and has to be balanced against the Company’s wish not to have their member of staff have any financial difficulties. The solution was to allow the individual to ‘work from home’ for the 2 weeks.
In the meantime, we also had to deal with a member of staff who insisted the Company ‘deep clean’ the building before they would come into work ‘in case the virus had been brought back’. In other words, they refused to come into work! This was very clearly unauthorised absence and we dealt with it first via addressing the rumour mill around the building; but when they still refused…. via the Disciplinary Policy and Procedure.
At the time of writing, we don’t know if things are going to be escalated and Schools closed…. So if you are unsure about what to do check out our free FAQ’s https://www.hrdept.co.uk/services/coronavirus/
Water, Water everywhere…..
If self-isolation wasn’t enough…. we had people trapped in their homes unable to come to work!
Again, the law is quite clear on this… with the exception of absence such as certified sickness absence or maternity or paternity leave (for example), there is no statutory duty on a Company to pay staff if they can’t attend due to flooding (or some other Biblical event!). Had the Company itself closed, then they would have had to pay their staff and/or consider the ‘short-time working’ or ‘temporary lay-off’ provision in the staff contracts.
In this case, the Company did have enough staff to be able to continue working and it then fell to us to have the discussion with the member of staff who couldn’t get in. Quite rightly, the Health and Safety of the individual was paramount and I asked my client to consider a reasonable approach as it was clear this was a genuine absence (and in fact, we later saw the member of staff on the news being evacuated from their house)!
She was absent for a couple of days and so she took one day from her annual leave and we agreed she could make up the other time at a later date. If her absence had continued, then the policy allowed for us to discuss taking unpaid leave and/or working from home or remotely.
The point is, we had a plan in place because we had included a “Severe Weather and Disruptions to Travel” policy in our HR policies and procedures... which meant we could quickly update the member of staff on what we could do to help.
Again, we don’t know what might happen over the next couple of weeks with further bad weather forecast and the potential that staff might have to take time off because schools are closed, or Company premises are shut. Take time now to do your risk assessments and decide how you will handle unexpected absence… forewarned is forearmed!
About the author:
© Níamh Kelly – Director of The HR Dept Shropshire – is an award winning HR professional with over 25 years HR experience at a Senior level in the corporate, public and voluntary sector. Working with SMEs across the County; The HR Dept – Shropshire has rapidly developed a very strong client base of local companies. So, if you have a question about Recruitment & Right to Work; to Resolving Problems; to Redundancy… she’s here to help you!