EBS Human Resources

EBS Human Resources - Management Guide

Don’t let your Company Sick Pay Scheme become a blank cheque

Not being clear about what you will pay employees when they are off sick risks major costs. Look at two common examples:

A business states quite clearly in their employment contract that only Statutory Sick Pay will be paid, but then carries on paying people fully because they are sure that the absence is ‘genuine’ or for a short period only. But what if a staff member breaks a leg or suffers from a major illness? By having paid people fully before, the business may have created a contractual obligation to carry on paying them, regardless of how long they are off sick

Another business has defined a Company Sick Pay Scheme of, say, ‘10 days per year’. Is that ‘year’ a specific 12 month period (i.e. January to December) or a rolling year? For the former, what should they pay if someone is off for the last two weeks in December and then the first two weeks in January?

Poorly executed or poorly drafted schemes like these can create as much confusion as having no scheme at all and will lead to the risk of having to pay more than planned.

We also need to consider that many companies might want to offer their staff more than the statutory scheme but need to protect themselves from staff taking advantage - by treating their ‘sick’ entitlement as additional holidays perhaps.

To help you overcome the uncertainties in this area, Barry Rees, our Director of Human Resources Services, has written a guide to drafting a Company Sick Pay Scheme. This will help you by-pass the pitfalls of a poorly drafted scheme and it also includes a way to retain some discretionary means of paying key people once they have used up any allowance that they may have.

This guide is completely free and downloadable from here ... MANAGEMENT GUIDE.

Give it a read and then make sure that your Company Sick Pay Scheme rewards loyal and hardworking employees whilst protecting your business from dangling blank cheques.

In addition to its standard packages, EBS also offers a range of specific Human Resources services:

Dispute Resolution Programme - Managing grievances fairly
Exit Management - Dismissing employees fairly
Getting Age Right - Avoiding age discrimination
Performance Management - Taking action on employee poor performance
Recruitment Audit - Helping management recruit more effectively
Recruitment Plus - A fully managed service to recruit more effectively