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Employees taking too much sick leave?

  • Sep Tue, 2016

Employees Taking Too Much Sick Leave

Did you know that the terms contained in a staff handbook can be deemed part of your employee’s contract of employment?!

In the case of the Department for Transport v Sparks, it was decided by the Court of Appeal that an absence management policy has a contractual effect. It was decided by the court that there are two sickness absence trigger points namely when the absence reaches 8 working days in a 12-month period and the second one would be where a total of 21 working days is reached in the same period.

The case focused on a short-term absence policy, which if contractual, restricted a manager’s scope for taking disciplinary action until specific trigger points had been exceeded. In deciding whether or not the staff handbook is to be incorporated into an individual’s employment contract, this will always be on a case by case basis.

Employers should note that it is advised to always keep previous versions of the handbook after making any changes.

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