Peta Fluendy is employment law consultant at Sutton based De Brett and Co’s http://www.iambeingfired.co.uk/
Estimates for how much money and productivity are lost because of staff taking sickies vary – but what does not seem to vary is that the amount is huge – up to £100 billion a year.
Employers reckon at least 15 percent of absentees are malingerers too, although it is hard to understand how they can know that, unless of course they know never to trust Jenkins about anything.
In April the previous government tried to do something about absenteeism by introducing fit notes to replace the old sick notes handed out by general practitioners. The plan was to allow GPs to guide employers on what work a member of staff may be able to do – rather than dish out the sick notes which excused staff from work altogether for a set period of time. (Read Peta’s previous advice here)
At the time, fit notes were largely viewed as a sensible idea. Several months into the new regime, however, and it seems they are not yet a resounding success. Some employers like them and say they have enabled staff to come back much sooner than would have been possible under the old sick note regime.
Others complain.
One problem reported is GPs’ handwriting is illegible – so employers who receive a fit note are left baffled. Their bafflement is compounded by poor publicity about fit notes which has left both companies and employees unaware of their existence or of what to do when confronted with one….
Another more serious problem is that GPs do not specialise in occupational health and neither do they have any knowledge of individual work places. This means they can only give vague advice – and it is only advice, there is nothing compulsory about what adjustments are needed to reintegrate an employee.
Finally there is nothing in the fit notes to stop skivers.
Employees only need to produce the fit note after they have been absent for seven days. Most sickies only last a day or two, usually around the weekend.
More ambitious scivers also have a wealth of convincing fake fit notes available on line to choose from. For a small fee they can get authentic looking notes complete with GP stamps from their local area to download or have posted. These are very easy to find with a quick search, but sites include bestfakedoctornotes.com, doctorsnotestore.com and phoney excuses.com.
Forewarned is forearmed, so it is better to be aware of these sites. If Jenkins comes in with a finely crafted fit note that says he is only good for sampling computer games or minding the office television whilst at work, you can definitely be suspicious.
Naturally you cannot go around accusing staff every time you see a fit note, and checking with GPs could be hard because of patient confidentiality. But you can make it a clearly publicised disciplinary offence to be caught using a fake one – and hopefully deter shirkers from trying their luck.
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Tags: absenteeism, employment law, Peta Fluendy, sickies
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