Sickness absence

14.3 Employees absent from work owing to illness will be eligible, subject to the conditions of this agreement, to receive sick pay in accordance with the following scale (see Section 12 for provisions governing reckonable service):

• during the 1st year of service – 1 month’s full pay and 2 months’ half pay
• during the 2nd year of service – 2 months’ full pay and 2 months’ half pay
• during the 3rd year of service – 4 months’ full pay and 4 months’ half pay
• during the 4th and 5th years of service – 5 months’ full pay and 5 months’ half pay
• after completing 5 years of service – 6 months’ full pay and 6 months’ half pay

14.4 In the event of employment coming to an end, eligibility to sick pay ceases from the last day of employment.

14.5 The definition of full pay will include regularly paid supplements (regularly paid supplements means any enhancements you attract from working your contracted hours) including any recruitment and retention premia. Sick pay is calculated on the basis of what the individual would have received had he/she been at work.

14.6 Full pay needs to be inclusive of any statutory benefits (so as not to make sick pay greater than normal working pay). The combined addition of statutory sick pay to half pay must not exceed full pay.

14.7 Sickness for any reason resulting from an accident at work will not count for the employee’s sickness and absence record, however, the period taken will be recorded as a separate sickness due to industrial injury once it has been proven the injury is a direct result of an accident in the workplace.

14.8 The sickness allowance will be calculated in the number of working hours for the 12 months preceding the first day of sickness and the full pay/ half pay allowance calculated pro rata.

14.9 The period during which sick pay should be paid and the rate of sick pay for any period of absence is calculated by deducting from the employee’s entitlement on the first day of sickness the aggregate periods of paid sickness absence during the 12 months immediately preceding that day.

In aggregating periods of absence due to illness no account will be taken of:

• unpaid sick absence
• injuries or diseases sustained by members of staff in the actual discharge of their duties through no fault of their own
• injury resulting from a crime of violence not sustained on duty but connected with or arising from the employee’s employment where the injury has been the subject of payment by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Panel
• injury sustained as above, but which has not been the subject of payment by the Board, on grounds that it has not given rise to more than 3 weeks’ loss of earnings or was not one for which compensation above the minimum would arise

14.10 Sick pay paid to an employee under this scheme, when added to any statutory sickness, injuries or compensation benefits, including any sickness allowances for adult or child dependants, must not exceed full pay.

14.11 Full Time Employees

An employee contracted to work 37½ hours per week who has 5 years continual service is entitled to 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay. This results in the employee being:

• Contracted to work 1957½ hours per year

This is then broken down into:

• 978¾ working hours sickness at full pay
• 978¾ working hours sickness at half pay

Example

An employee who is on sickness absence for a working week who has had no sickness in the previous 12 months will have 37½ hours deducted from the full pay sickness allowance. This will then leave them to take a further 941¼ hours at full pay and 978¾ at half pay if they fall sick again within the following 12 months.

14.12 Part Time Employees

An employee contracted to work 30 hours per week who has 5 years continual service is entitled to 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay. This results in the employee being:

• Contracted to work 1566 hours per year

This is then broken down into:

• 783 working hour’s sickness at full pay
• 783 working hour’s sickness at half pay

Example

An employee who works 3 days of 7 hours, 21 hours per week, who is on sickness absence for 2 of the 3 working days, and who has had no sickness in the previous 12 months will have 14 hours deducted from the full pay sickness allowance. This will then leave them to take a further 534 hours at full pay and 548 hours at half pay if they fall sick again within the following 12 months.

14.13 Term Time Only Employees

A school year contains 40 weeks a year. An employee working term time only will be contracted to work 1500 hours per year. This would result in a full time employee during term time ie. working 37½ hours a week for 40 weeks of the year, being eligible to the following:

• 750 hours sickness absence at full pay
• 750 hours sickness absence at half pay

Example

A full time, term time employee who has had 760 hours sickness in the previous 12 months and is on sickness absence for 3 of their 5 working days in a week will receive the following:

Will have previously received

• Full pay for 750 hours
• Half pay for 10 hours

Therefore 22.5 hours deducted from the remaining 740 hours at half pay

Resulting in remaining allowance of 717½ hours of half pay

14.14 Phased Return to Work

Where an employee is on a phased return to work following a period of sickness absence the phased return period is not counted towards the sickness absence record.

14.15 Falling sick on Duty

Where an employee becomes sick on duty, and as a result cannot continue to work that duty period, the hours in that duty where they are unable to work will count towards the employee’s sickness absence entitlement. If this occurs for sessional/ bank employees they will be paid for the hours completed on that duty period.

14.16 Annual Leave and Sickness Absence

Where an employee is on a period of annual leave and becomes unfit for duty during the leave, the period of sickness will be counted towards the employee’s sickness record, only if certified by a Medical Practitioner. The equivalent annual leave days compared to the period of certified sickness will be re-credited to the employee’s annual leave.

Example

An employee has two weeks annual leave (10 annual leave days, 4 rest days assuming that the employee works 5 days with 2 rest days at the end of each week) and receives a medical certificate stating the employee is unfit for duty for the 10th to 14th day inclusive of the annual leave period. The employee will have 3 days worth of annual leave hours re-credited and 3 days worth of sickness absence recorded.

14.17 Employees will not be entitled to an additional day off if sick on a general public holiday.

14.18 The Departments have discretion to extend the period of sick pay on full or half pay beyond the scale set out above in exceptional circumstances. Please refer to HR for guidance.

14.19 To aid rehabilitation, the Departments have discretion to allow employees to return to work on reduced hours or to be encouraged to work from home without loss of pay. Any such arrangements need to be consistent with statutory sick pay rules. Please refer to the Return to Work policy.

14.20 Sick pay is not payable for an absence caused by an accident due to active participation in sport as a profession, or where contributory negligence is proved.

14.21 An employee who is absent as a result of an accident out of work is not entitled to sick pay if damages are received from a third party. Employers will advance to an employee a sum not exceeding the amount of sick pay payable under this scheme providing the employee repays the full amount of sickness allowance to the employer when damages are received. Once received, the absence shall not be taken into account for the purposes of the scale set out above.

14.22 The Departments may at any time require an employee absent from work due to illness to attend an examination at Occupational Health, at a mutually agreed time with the option to be accompanied if they wish. Furthermore, employees do not need to be on sickness absence to be referred by their employer for a medical.

14.23 After investigation, consultation and consideration of other alternative posts, and where there is no reasonable prospect of the employee returning to work, the Departments have the option to terminate employment before the employee has reached the end of the contractual paid sick absence period, subject to the Department’s agreed sickness absence policies and procedures.

14.24 Notification procedures and payment of sick absence pay when injuries are connected with other insured employment can be found in the Management of Sickness Absence Guide.

14.25 Please refer to the Management of Sickness Absence Guide for what to do regarding keeping in touch.