Latest Information

Long Term Sickness

14/01/2010

Does your business have any employees who are currently absent due to long term sickness?

You may think that these employees are not a cost to your business, but this is not necessarily true.

It is worth remembering that whilst someone remains employed, even if they are on long term sick leave, the following applies:

• With each additional complete year of service the employee gains additional entitlement to statutory notice pay;
• With each additional year of service statutory redundancy entitlements increase - as do unfair dismissal basic awards – subject to a cap of £11,400.00;
• There remains an ongoing risk of discrimination claims - specifically disability discrimination (arising from failures to make reasonable adjustments); and finally
• An on ongoing entitlement to holiday pay (see our update dated 17 September 2009)

For the above reasons if you have any employees on long term sick leave you may wish to take a more proactive approach and look to terminate by reason of incapability in order to bring the above liabilities to an end.

Managing long term sickness can be further complicated where an employee has the benefit of Permanent Health Insurance.

KBL can assist with all aspects of sickness management, including incapability dismissals and drafting and implementing any relevant policies. If your business needs confidential and/or urgent advice about these issues, please do not hesitate to contact our employment team on 01204 527777.

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