Sickness whilst on a plan

[Skyla20]

Hi everyone,

I have been a team leader for several years in the same company, recently been placed on pip, for the 1st meeting given a verbal warning, i previously was off sick last feb 2013 for 4 wks and was fased back to work on reduced hours til may due to a family truma, i feel very stressed which has now made me ill and the doctor is saying to take sick as stress and illness due to work related. I am currently on the second day sick via self certification as i was sent home from work on day one. i guess what i want to know is could they sack me if i go off sick instructed by the docter for four weeks with a sick note and what would happen to the pip or me?

any help would be appreciated thanks all.

[hindsight]

Re: Sickness whilst on a plan

Do you have any sort of occupational health department, or an employee help line to contact. It may be worth having a word with them to see where you stand. I cant see them sacking you for 2 sick periods.
However a lot of companies now rely on the ' Bradford Factor' when dealing with sic leave. May be worth having a quick look on the internet.

[teaboy2]

Re: Sickness whilst on a plan

It depends on how much sick leave you have had in the last 6 to 12 months, as an employer is within their rights to dismiss people on capability grounds, I.e. if your illness is preventing your from carrying out your duties, or resulting in high levels of absentism, despite reasonable adjustments by the employer to help you, then legally you would be deemed incapable to perform the duties expected of you to a reasonable standard. As a result you can be dismissed on capability grounds.

But from what you have said your last sick period was over a year ago, and your now currently signed off for another 4 weeks, so i wouldn't worry about being dismissed.

As PIP payment can be effected by reductions or increases in wages, you should notify them of change in circumstances informing them you have been signed off work for 4 weeks. You may then get an increase in your PIP payments, but you will have to notify them again immediately once you have returned to work. How much increase you get will depend on if you get statutory sick pay or are paid company sick pay (which is usually higher than statutory sick pay).

You could ask your employer to take the 4 weeks out off your holiday entitlement or use part of your holiday entitlement too. Though this likely means no more holidays for rest of the year, it would, for example, reduce your official absents record from 4 weeks to say 3 weeks so far in this year. But it depends on how many days holidays you have left to use for this year and whether the employer agrees to it.

[Skyla20]

Re: Sickness whilst on a plan

how can OH help?

[Skyla20]

Re: Sickness whilst on a plan

Hi sorry for the duplicate post, are you able to give me any information on how Occupational Health can actually help with my situation?

[Skyla20]

Re: Sickness whilst on a plan

It depends on how much sick leave you have had in the last 6 to 12 months, as an employer is within their rights to dismiss people on capability grounds, I.e. if your illness is preventing your from carrying out your duties, or resulting in high levels of absentism, despite reasonable adjustments by the employer to help you, then legally you would be deemed incapable to perform the duties expected of you to a reasonable standard. As a result you can be dismissed on capability grounds.

But from what you have said your last sick period was over a year ago, and your now currently signed off for another 4 weeks, so i wouldn't worry about being dismissed.

As PIP payment can be effected by reductions or increases in wages, you should notify them of change in circumstances informing them you have been signed off work for 4 weeks. You may then get an increase in your PIP payments, but you will have to notify them again immediately once you have returned to work. How much increase you get will depend on if you get statutory sick pay or are paid company sick pay (which is usually higher than statutory sick pay).

You could ask your employer to take the 4 weeks out off your holiday entitlement or use part of your holiday entitlement too. Though this likely means no more holidays for rest of the year, it would, for example, reduce your official absents record from 4 weeks to say 3 weeks so far in this year. But it depends on how many days holidays you have left to use for this year and whether the employer agrees to it.

Hi cheers for all that info the PIP i mean is - Performance Improvement Plan.