MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I'm not knowledgeable about this kind of thing. My wife was off work for 2 days last week and has not been paid for them. She is paid hourly working at a nursery. On returning to work they made her fill out a form. I said if they aren't going to pay you why bother with a form. The bit in her contract doesn't really say about being paid or not but does seem a little weighted to the employer.
What was the form for?
It's the HMRC statutory sick pay form.
Haven't you got to be off for 4 consecutive days to get stat sick pay?
As for no pay at all that's pretty standard practice. No work no pay when on hourly.
Yeah her manager said it has to be a week. If it's fair then okay, but she wasn't explained this. I told her not to go in and make everyone else ill, in the future I won't.
Its not really "fair" and good employers will look after their staff but its not sustainable for a lot of small businesses.
I'm on salary so I get paid rain snow or blow but all those extra Saturday's where I just "nip in" come from me for free. Swings and roundabouts I suppose.
Basic entitlement won’t see her paid for that unless it’s in the contract. To be fair, you’ve got to side with the employer there - people would just take the piss left right and centre if they could have a couple of days off sick for no reason. Especially as now the sick pay comes from the employer rather than the govt. They should allow it to come out of holiday though, if she’d rather be paid for it.
The form will likely be internal as part of her staff record, although IIRC they can’t make an employee fill one in.
Same for my wife, who also works in a nursery.
The upside is that our 18mth old goes there, and we get a 10% discount and free food, and they don't charge us for the day if she's sick (as they would other parents).
Nurseries are run so close to the bone cost-wise, that they'd go out of business pretty quick if they had to pay for days off sick.
The govt funding for the 'free' hours is laughably low. I'm frankly amazed that most nurseries haven't gone bankrupt yet.
yup, mrsdoris works for a company that doesn't always pay sick pay. 'discretionary', apparently.
nickdavies
Subscriber
To be fair, you’ve got to side with the employer there – people would just take the piss left right and centre if they could have a couple of days off sick for no reason. Especially as now the sick pay comes from the employer rather than the govt. They should allow it to come out of holiday though, if she’d rather be paid for it.
The tory is strong in this one! 😆
I don't really see how that's ^ tory. She has a contract, it lays out her entitlements.
I used to work for a mate landscaping. Right at the start he said to me that I could be paid X pounds an hour, with a sick pay package.
Alternatively, I could choose to be paid X + 4 pounds an hour, with nothing but statutory sick.
I chose the higher rate. There'd be no point me bitching about no sick pay if I had got sick. It was my choice.
As others have said, these businesses run on a knife edge very often. There's no magic money tree to cover everything.
That said, it's a shite situation. Low pay with no sick is totally normal in many jobs. It would be nice if the work environment was a bit more human, but that needs to come from government, not small businesses. Can't see it happening any time soon..
Wife also works in a nursery and I don't think she gets paid sick pay unless she is off for 3 or 4 days I think. I can see why as well to be honest.
At my work we get paid for one day but if you have more than 3 absences in a 12 month period then you get investigated. As you can self certify for up to 5 days there is little point being sick for one day and trying to struggle back in - you might as well take the rest of the week off!
people would just take the piss left right and centre if they could have a couple of days off sick for no reason
and welcome to public sector world
Not in my bit of the public sector.
Sick ..what ?
Does not compute ..
Self employed for the last 22 years ..
While on the subject ..what is this holiday pay people talk about ..? 🤔
don't worry hodgynd, the folk who get that sort of thing don't get to write-off all sorts of personal purchasing shit against tax, so it all works out in the end 😉
don’t worry hodgynd, the folk who get that sort of thing don’t get to write-off all sorts of personal purchasing shit against tax, so it all works out in the end 😉
You'd need to be putting through some pretty major stuff for it to even out!
I don't want to encourage turning this into an us and them sick pay bunfight...but
I once looked into covering myself against accident and sickness to an equivalent level with a cop, nurse etc.
It's impossible, the level of cover just doesn't exist. But even getting close to it is going to cost you four figures. That's a month, not year!
I have nothing in place, I made paying off debts my priority and keeping a bit of money in the bank for a rainy (sick)day.
I'm happy enough with that, I'm a self employed one man business. I can control where my money goes.
The folk I feel sorry for are those like the OP's wife who are in low paid work without any safety net.
You’d need to be putting through some pretty major stuff for it to even out!
Most of the self-employed folk I know seem to take the piss big-time. Cars, "business" trips, meal bills, dividends, ...
I know some of it's probably bullshit being spouted in a "playing the game considerably better than yow" pissing contest but the overall rate of tax they claim to pay is ****ing embarrassing
Nurserys are in a real squeeze right now, government funding falling and minimum pay rising, makes offering government funded places barely affordable and most parents can't afford a fully private offering.
mrsdoris works for a company that doesn’t always pay sick pay. ‘discretionary’, apparently.
It's discretionary where I work too. But being paid is the default, a manager would have to justify not paying it rather than paying it.
Does not compute ..
Self employed for the last 22 years ..
... probably offset by you earning double what your average salaried employee earns. (-: