As the sneezing and wheezing of the flu season slowly gives way to the sneezing and wheezing of the hayfever season, it is worth noting that sick notes are changing. Those sick notes that staff bring in signed by their GPs, to excuse themselves from turning up to work, are going for good. From April 6th they will be replaced by fit notes.
Employers will still not know who is really ill and who is just work shy – but the new notes are intended to save the economy £240 million over 10 years in days lost to sick leave. This is a fairly modest saving considering over £1.6 billion is lost annually to absenteeism, according to the CBI.
At present staff have two options. They are either off sick, or they are not. The new notes are intended to give staff, their doctors and employers the option of being fit for some duties.
This does not mean doctors will simply spell out in the fit note, “Jenkins is fit for work provided he confines himself to sipping coffee and reading the paper.” In fact there is may not be anything so specific.
There will be four alternatives to staying home. These are a phased return to work, altered hours, amended duties or work place alterations. It goes without saying that GPs will not be able to make a full occupational health assessment for patients and their employers, so employers will be left to fathom for themselves what to do.
They will have to ask themselves whether they want to pay Jenkins in such circumstances or whether it is worth bothering to make the necessary adjustments. There is no obligation upon them to do so. If they are reluctant, then the fit note will just stand as a sick note, and Jenkins can stay off work altogether.
It remains to be seen whether employers will start trying to use the fit notes as an excuse to impose contract changes and cuts in hours on the sick. They would be ill advised to do so, however. There is nothing in the new fit notes to absolve employers from contractual obligations and employment law.
Peta Fluendy is employment law consultant at Sutton based De Brett and Co
www.debrettlaw.co.uk
employmentlawconsultant@gmx.com
Tags: absenteeism, employment law, Peta Fluendy, sickies
This post has been commented 2 times
1
March 7th, 2010 at 7:07 pmDavid Tilley says:
This is a good move to reduce the risk of unnecessary absence problems some companies may face,however we need to consider the current ruling of self certification for 5 days because the current measurement of injustrial injuries (accidents at work) is that they become reporatble to HSE and used in health and safety statisics if the person has longer than 3 days off work due to an accident at work. If a person can self cert for 5 Days then this measure is may be affected purely on the judgement of the the perosn not a profssional.
2
March 8th, 2010 at 2:43 pmtom says:
not a bad thing if you see some of the people off work. around the country. if it can save us money then that a good thing. but wear do we
draw the line on this. at the end of the day the staff member should allways come top the list. with out them the country will not run as good