‘Seamus Says’ boils down the best bits from Legal Island’s live ‘Employment Law at 11’ webinar into straight-talking takeaways you can actually use. 

Seamus: Well, certainly, a solicitor can provide and assist you in relation to those things.

But certainly, there are lots of resources out there available. Labour Relations Agency is the obvious one. Labour Relations Agency have a Managing Sickness Absence guide. It's stood the test of time. I think August '16 is the date on it. But it's a superb document and it's typical of Labour Relations Agency. It is very digestible, and it does cover all eventualities.

But they also have an absence management policy template available on their website, and you can work through the template. You can remove parts. They've even got it highlighted for the bits that you need to give specific consideration to. For instance, in and around if you don't pay Occupational Health, they have helpful bits that you can take out then of the policy there, and it's highlighted for you.

It's key to have an absence management policy and procedure. I think that what it should do at its basics is it should define the amount of absences within a set period of time that you deem reasonable. And that's a bit broader than having trigger points, but you need to be clear with employees as to what is reasonable.

Now, some employers do hesitate around that, Christine, because they'll say, "Well, if we put that in, then they'll go, 'Sure, then we have seven days a year that we can take without people hassling us about it'." But I think, for the long term and for those that are abusing it, you need to have that sort of period set out.

And also, the time frame and the ways in which employees have to notify of their absence. There's too much now with phones of the text message and, "I'm not well today. I'll not be in". Often that's not an acceptable way. You should be telephoning in and having a conversation.

And often, when managers are busy, they end up accepting a text message, but you really need to deal with that. There needs to be maybe an initial telephone call of, "I'm not going to be in today".

You need to know in advance. There's no point in texting at 9:00. That doesn't help the business in terms of its productivity and being able to get alternative staff. They need to be saying it to you in advance, and that really does need to be enforced. Sometimes I think that that's overlooked.

And then I think also you need to talk about the potential consequences for any employee who knowingly abuses the absence policy and procedure. And whether that's formal warnings or deductions of pay or disciplinary action or whatever it's going to be, I think you need to have that in the policy itself.

Lots of other pieces around, like you do need to be clear about self-certing, how long they can do that for, and GP certification. There's an issue with GP certification because it's really difficult to get a call in with a doctor, and sometimes that can be difficult. But I think most employers are accepting of that, and I think as long as somebody's not deliberately abusing that process . . .

Ultimately, if they don't put in the sick line, they don't get sick pay. That's the sort of formal view that I take. But again, that needs to be in your policy and procedure to set that out.

And even where somebody is on sick leave or there are problems with it, you need to be able to say, "Here's the policy and procedure. Please read it". You need to understand what the company's position is.