Sick pay: what you owe and what you choose to pay

Sick pay comes in two layers: a statutory minimum set by law, and whatever an employer chooses to pay on top. Most disputes come from the join between them — somebody believing they are entitled to full pay because that is what happened last time, when in fact nothing was ever written down and the earlier payment was a discretionary decision nobody recorded as one.

What a sick pay policy must state

• Whether anything is paid above the statutory minimum, at what rate and for how long.
• Whether entitlement varies with length of service, which is common and must be explicit to be applied.
• Whether the enhanced element is contractual or discretionary — and if discretionary, that it genuinely is.
• How the period is counted: a rolling twelve months, a fixed year, or per episode, which produce very different outcomes.
• When notification must happen and to whom, stated in hours rather than vaguely.
• When evidence is required, and what counts.

The evidence rules that cause disputes

Most jurisdictions allow self-certification for short absences and require medical evidence beyond a threshold of days. Problems arise in two places: employers requiring a doctor's note earlier than the rules permit, which imposes a cost on the employee and on the health system for no benefit, and employers failing to act when evidence is never provided at all. State the threshold, apply it consistently, and remember that a fit note frequently recommends adjustments rather than declaring somebody unfit — ignoring that recommendation and leaving them off sick is both expensive and, in some circumstances, legally risky.

Enhanced sick pay that is paid repeatedly without a written policy can become an implied contractual term through custom and practice. If you intend it to remain discretionary, say so in writing and exercise the discretion visibly rather than paying automatically — otherwise the discretion quietly disappears.

Running it without creating problems

1. Record every absence with dates, reason given and evidence received, consistently for everybody.
2. Treat absences related to disability or pregnancy separately, since different obligations apply.
3. Hold a return-to-work conversation after each absence, which is the single most effective practice in this area.
4. Trigger support rather than discipline on patterns, and review the trigger before applying it.
5. Keep absence records securely — health information carries a higher bar than ordinary personal data.
6. Separate the pay question from the capability question, because conflating them is how a health issue becomes a tribunal claim.

Ettex Payroll handles the calculation across the statutory and enhanced layers, and the absence record itself belongs with the employee file where it can be reviewed as a pattern rather than as a sequence of unrelated events. What the policy actually promises belongs in the handbook, since that is what will be read back to you.