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How long can you be sick until your employer can legally dismiss you?
Satellite John
Posts: 1,881 Forum Member
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How long can you be sick (with medical certificates) until your employer can legally dismiss you?
Can they sack you after the 28 weeks of statuary sick pay end?
Can they sack you after the 28 weeks of statuary sick pay end?
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http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/nm/e_sickness_at_work.pdf
Most companies are reasonable about sickness, so if you are genuinely ill and have followed your company's sickness reporting procedure , I wouldn't worry too much.
I really don't think you can be sacked for being off sick but you can be paid off.
Was she being paid during all that time?
You can be dismissed for being unable to do the job, as others have said, ie. due to ill health. The organisation needs to ensure they have followed a fair process, checked no other jobs might be suitable (checked disability issues, ie whether any reasonable adjustments can be made to the job), ensured that they know as much about the prognosis for the job etc. The employee would have a right of appeal also.
There is no immediate link with sick pay though, ie when SSP runs out.
I just rang work to let my boss know I'm not well (I have ehm, a dicky tummy, and that's being polite).
Meaning to say either "I'm not very well" or "I'm a poorly bunny" I got mixed up and went "I'm not poorly".
Now she's REALLY gonna believe me!! Doesn't help that work have a bee in their bonnet about my absences - I have had 8 days this year, 4 covered by a hospital sick note (I had wisdom teeth out under a general anaesthetic), 2 covered by a doctors note (yes I know I don't need a GP note until it's after 5 days, but they gave me such a hard time over it that I actually paid the doc for a note to prove I was ill - I had that winter vomiting thing at the start of the year) and a couple of days from what I've got now, which is essentially IBS made worse by the time of the month.
I *didn't* take time off when I got back from hols with a bleedin' sea urchin spine in my foot - I couldn't walk too well and I had to visit A&E to get it removed, but no, I still worked... But you can bet they will give me grief when I get in tomorrow.
But not all company's pay sick leave or will just give you say 5 or 7 days in a year. After that you have to use SSP.
Not that it's much of a bonus, cos it's achieved by meeting factory production targets - which us office staff have little or no input towards. But if we go off sick for even just one day in a month, we lose bonus for that quarter. A lot of staff are wise to how their system works and will come in, work an hour or so, and then go home "ill" because it doesn't count then.
I don't think I'll get anything this year, but hey-ho..
A lot more employers are doing that these days it seems!
Yes they can sack you.
God, why don't some folk realise that depression is a debilatating and disabling condition, not just when you 'feel a bit low'.
It makes me mad when folk try to milk the system in this way.
Anyone who has had depression will understand - if you haven't, believe me you don't want it.
Why is it acceptable to feign depression, but not fybromylagia or ME (2 other disabling conditions which also cannot be easily detected) ?
Surely they can't sack you whislt you're off sick?