Sickness absence
Sick pay/sick leave and certification
Entitlement to sickness allowance (sick leave and pay) shall be paid in accordance with the appropriate conditions of employment. The scheme shall apply equally to fixed-term contract employees where they possess eligibility by length of service.
Part time employees are also included in the scheme.
Payment for sick leave during statutory and extra statutory holidays is to be in accordance with the appropriate conditions.
Statutory Sick pay will be payable to eligible employees for the appropriate days, (those days on which the employee would have been required to work).
With the agreement of Human Resources, employees who are absent from work on four separate occasions within any period of twelve months due to sickness and without medical certification may be required to submit to a medical examination.
Action to be taken if prevented from attending work
All employees must notify the Departmental nominated officer at the earliest possible moment on the first normal working day of absence (normally no later than 11.00 am) that they are absent due to illness and provide reasons. Failure of the employee to notify the absence will normally result in non payment of wages/salary.
For most employees this is possible, however allowances will be made for exceptional cases eg where individuals are unable to reach a phone and do not have someone living with them who can contact the University on their behalf.
All days of the week are counted for absence purposes.
On the fourth calendar day or the nearest working day of absence an employee must contact the nominated officer again to certify continued absence, self diagnosis an expected date of return.
If the absence continues beyond seven calendar days all employees must provide a doctor's statement to the University not later than the eighth calendar day and at the appropriate intervals thereafter. Certain employees are required to provide a medical certificate from day one and are notified of this in writing.
Upon the employee's return to work they are required to complete and sign a Sickness Self Certification Form. Normally this would be the university's own self certification form but a DSS form would be accepted.
Employees should be conversant with the administrative procedure for notifying their department in the event of absence through illness or other causes.
An employee arriving at his/her place of work is deemed to have attended for work purposes unless he/she has clearly stated an intention to the contrary.
If an employee attends work prior to leaving due to sickness, it will not normally count as a sick day for sick pay purposes. However in order to accurately monitor sickness absence levels it will be recorded as follows:
- When the employee leaves work during the first half of their working day/shift a half-day absence will be recorded.
- When the employee leaves work during the second half of their working day/shift no absence will be recorded.