All businesses suffer employee absence and dread the day when deadlines are missed, clients are left unsatisfied, and staff morale is low as a result of unplanned absence. Employee absence is a significant cost to business, and it impacts everyone in the company.
Measure absence rates
Patterns of absence often emerge as a result of effective monitoring. They are influenced not just by levels of illness, but also by management style, culture, traditions of behaviour and work conditions.
By measuring absence levels, employers can discover why staff are absent and what they can do to ensure they are more likely to be at work in the future.
Get it in writing
Employers should have a comprehensive sickness policy in place. It will help the organisation manage attendance, and can be given to new starters as part of their induction process. It should set out:
Who keeps records of absence and who investigates the possible causes to determine whether the illness is genuine or not.
How absences relating to pregnancy and the Disability Discrimination Act will be treated.
The process an employee should follow when taking time off work due to sickness, including when and who they have to notify, what details they are required to give, and when employees are required to produce a self-certification form or doctor’s certificate.
What benefits/sick pay they will receive and how long they will continue to get paid for.
When an occupational health adviser will be used and/or that the organisation reserves the right to request a report (with the employee’s consent) from the employee’s doctor.
When a return-to-work interview will take place, and the purpose of such discussions.
Whether the organisation has any trigger points. Many organisations have a ‘formal review’ after a certain number of separate periods of absence in a rolling year.
Make the contract clear
Employers should include, as a term of the contract of employment, the express right to require the employee to undergo a medical examination, making it clear that any subsequent report will be disclosed to the employer.
If an employee refuses to undergo the examination, they will be in breach of contract. Assuming the request is reasonable and proportionate, the refusal will amount to misconduct and could form grounds for disciplinary action.
A last resort is just that
If an employer suspects than an employee is not genuinely ill, it should investigate the matter thoroughly. If it still believes that the employee is not genuinely ill, it will become a conduct matter and should be dealt with in accordance with the employer’s disciplinary procedure.
If the employee’s absence is supported by a GP’s certificate, the certificate will not necessarily be determinative. It should be weighed in the balance with all the other evidence available to the employer.
Where the certificate is not detailed, or conflicts with other evidence relating to the absence, it may be reasonable for an employer to ask for a second opinion by requesting that the employee attends an examination with an occupational health specialist.
An employer cannot force the employee to attend this type of examination, but if the employee refuses to co-operate, it is legitimate to proceed on the basis of the information they have.
A decision to dismiss an employee on long-term sickness should only be taken as a last resort, and after the employer has consulted the employee and tried to find out as much as possible about their illness, the likely timescale for their recovery and considered all the alternatives to dismissal, such as changing the employee’s role or hours of work.
Build trust
Duvet days can be an excellent way of counteracting the ‘sickie’ culture. A duvet day is when an employee is allowed to take time off work when they ‘just don’t feel up to it’.
Some employers build duvet days into their terms and conditions; others offer them as part of an employee’s holiday package.
It is thought that duvet days help foster an environment of respect and trust, and can help prevent employees ‘pulling a sickie’ and dragging it out for two or three days to make it look genuine.
Useful links
There’s an online guide on managing sickness and absence on the Business Link website. Click on the ‘Employing people’ tab on the left and then the category ‘working time and time off’ for more information.
You can find information on employment legislation in the ‘Employment Matters’ section of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills website.
berr.gov.uk – The website for the Department of Innovation and Skills. Click on the ‘What we do’ tab at the top and then on the ‘Employment Matters’ link, to find information on employment legislation.
Mark Minns is a specialist employment lawyer with MPM Legal. Minns acts for travel companies of various sizes and deals with the full range of employment law issues.