Illness & Absence Procedure

All absences except for:

• approved holiday

• family leave periods (e.g. maternity, paternity, adoption)

• approved compassionate leave or special leave

• pregnancy related absences

As soon as you know you are going to be absent, please call your manager. You must call at least 1 hour before your shift starts (except in exceptional circumstances).

You should call yourself (unless you can't, for example if you're in hospital) and not send a message or email, as your manager will need to talk to you about your absence.

Please tell your manager what is wrong with you and when you think you will be able to return to work.

If you're absent for any period up to and including 7 calendar days (whether you normally work those days or not) you need to complete a self-certification of absence from, which can be accessed through the intranet (see below). Even if you go home early, please complete a form.

If you're absent for more than 7 calendar days, you'll need a note from your GP. Please send this to your manager as soon as possible, but no later than three days after you notify them you are absent. If your absence continues beyond the initial GP's fit note, you'll need to send additional fit notes.

If you don't submit the relevant certification (self-certification or GP's fit note), your absence may be classed as unauthorised, which is subject to our disciplinary procedures.

Yes, its really important you remain in regular contact with us, so we've set in place the following guidelines for contact:

• for absences of 1 - 2 days, please call your manager daily with updates

• for absences of 3 - 7 days, please call your manager the afternoon before you are due to return to work

• for absences of longer than 7 days, please call your manager at least 24 hours before your GP's fit note is due to expire

If you've been absent for more than three days, your manager will carry out a return-to-work meeting with you on your first day back. This is so we can ensure you are fit to return, update you with regards to any changes and see if we need to offer you additional support or adjustments.

Sometimes your GP may suggest you can return to work with adjustments and we'll always do our best to offer these adjustments where possible. Please ask your GP for as much information as possible as to the kind of adjustments that would help you.

Unfortunately, we're not always able to make those adjustments, and if we can't, you'll remain absent from work on the correct level of sick pay (you don't need to get another GP's fit note for this period).

If you are unwilling to cooperate with us regarding your return to work, this may reduce your prospects of continued employment.

Whilst we know the majority of absences are genuine, there are times when people abuse our support by taking days off when they aren't genuinely in need - this puts undue strain on our teams, reduces customer service and costs time and money.

So that we can support those in need, and deal appropriately with those who aren't, we need good procedures and a fair way to manage and monitor sickness absence.

Its important everyone is treated fairly and consistently, but we know that everyone's situation is also unique. Rather than put in place restrictive trigger points and measures, we'd rather work with you to ensure we set some fair attendance levels dependent upon your circumstances.

If you're absent for 3 periods in a rolling 12-months, your manager will invite you for an informal discussion about your attendance. During this discussion please be as open and honest as possible about any health problems you may be having. At the end of this discussion, you and your manager will agree expected levels of attendance for the next 12 months and this will be confirmed to you in writing.

If you have a specific injury or illness that prevents you from working and results in a period of long-term absence, or frequent short-term absences, we'll work with you to overcome the problems preventing you from working. We may conduct welfare meetings with you, consider reasonable adjustments and may obtain medical reports. 

There may be times when, after following our processes, you are not able to perform your duties or there is no indication of when you will be likely to return to work and we may have not choice but to terminate your employment - we'll only do this as a last resort and will use our disciplinary procedure.

We're not medical professionals, so we might need further expert advice on how best to support you. If we do, we'll inform you of the reason we are asking for medical details and who we wish to speak to - this could be your GP, specialist or other medical professional, or an occupational health provider. We need your consent before making any requests and we'll provide you all the necessary information when making our request.

Yes you'll continue to accrue holiday entitlement. If your period of sick leave extends into the next holiday year, or there isn't enough time left in the current holiday year to take your remaining holiday, it will be carried forward into the next leave year, or we may allow you take a payment in lieu. Any carried forward leave not used within 18 months will be lost (even if you haven't returned to work).

You may choose to take a period of accrued annual leave during your absence, payable at your normal rate.

You may be able to take the affected part of your leave later, but you do need to notify your manager on day one of your sickness. You'll also have to provide a medical certificate from day one of your illness (if there's a charge for this, you'll need to pay it).

You need to report this to your manager immediately - any absence related to an injury at work will still be counted as normal sickness absence for the purposes of pay and absence triggers.

We may offer you light/restricted duties whilst you recover. We'll discuss this with you and possibly your GP or an occupational health provider and we'll try to ensure those duties utilise your skills and knowledge. If we offer you suitable light duties, you are expected to take them.

If we have cause to believe the work you are doing is posing a risk to your health and wellbeing, we can suspend you on medical grounds - you'll remain entitled to all your employment rights and we'll keep this period as brief as possible. Alternatively, we may offer you a reasonable alternative to your work to help reduce the risk to your health and safety - if we do, you must accept this work, otherwise you won't be entitled to pay during any period of suspension.

Medical suspension doesn't count towards our absence triggers and you'll be eligible to receive 1 weeks' normal pay for each week you are suspended, up to a maximum of 26 weeks (provided you've been employed by us for at least one month).