{"id":1300,"date":"2022-01-07T04:21:07","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T04:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uk.legalvision.com.au\/?p=1300"},"modified":"2022-06-01T03:49:06","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T02:49:06","slug":"employee-stays-away-from-work-sick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legalvision.co.uk\/employment\/employee-stays-away-from-work-sick\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Do When an Employee Stays Away From Work Sick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As an employer, you have obligations towards your employees when they are away from work due to sickness. For example, you must give your employee sick leave. You must be aware of your employee\u2019s rights when they are sick and take sickness absence, and you must carry out your duty of care towards them. Failure to do so may result in poor staff morale and, worse still, potential tribunal claims for your business.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article will explain what rules you must abide by when your employee is sick, including when your employee takes time away from work as sickness absence and when you can force an employee to leave work due to sickness.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking Sick Leave<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As an employer, you should know that your employees may have a right to take time off work due to being sick. This is commonly k<\/span>nown as sickness absence or sick leave.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your employee only needs to provide you with evidence of their sickness once they have taken more than seven days off work. The seven days includes any non-working days when they continued to be unwell. In these instances, an employee <\/span>must give you a \u2018fit note\u2019 which they can obtain from their doctor.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If your employee is off work due to sick leave for seven days or less, termed a short term absence, they are required to self-certify their time away from work as sickness absence. As an employer, you will have a procedure in place regarding how your employee does this.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

However, where your employee is off work on sick leave for more than four weeks, this is known as \u2018long-term sick\u2019 or as having long term sickness. Being \u2018long-term sick\u2019 may affect your employee\u2019s ability to take their full annual leave entitlement<\/a>. When this occurs, you must allow your employee time to carry over four weeks of any unused annual leave<\/span>. Y<\/span>our employee can d<\/span>o this within 18 months o<\/span>f the r<\/span>elevant year.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When employees fall sick during a time already away from work on annual leave or just before taking annual leave, they <\/span>have the right to replace those days<\/span><\/a> as days taken as sick leave. Equally, where an employee is off work on sick leave, their standard annual leave entitlement builds up.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forcing an Employee to Leave Work Sick<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If an employee is unwell, you cannot force them to take time off as annual leave when they <\/span>have the right to sick leave. This applies even when the employee is already off work for annual leave. However, there are instances when you can require your employee to leave work concerning sickness.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused t<\/span>he introduction of more rules in the workplace regarding taking time off work<\/span>. There are times when an employee must leave work and take time off work to self-isolate. An employee should let you know when this applies as soon as possible. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rules regarding self-isolation change frequently and may change again<\/span>. Therefore, you must keep yourself up to date with any changes. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current rules regarding when an employee must leave work to self-isolate are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n