Sick pay

Our employers want to tighten up on sickness absence and have announced that they will only pay sick pay where the worker produces a doctor's certificate, no matter how short the absence. Can they do this? We thought that you only had to provide a sick note if you were off for more than seven days.

The rules for receiving Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) do state that you cannot be asked to provide a medical certificate for absences of less than seven days.

However, this only guarantees the right to SSP, which in any case is not paid for the first three waiting days of any illness (except in rare cases where absences are linked so that the waiting days do not need to be served again).

The SSP rules mean that someone who is off for up to a week does not need to provide a certificate but will only get at most two days' SSP (if working a five-day week).

If, however, employers offer more than SSP, for example paying full pay from the first day of sickness absence, they can place whatever qualifications they want on the benefit, including asking for a certificate from the first day. An employee failing to provide this would be left with the right to SSP only.

* More information: LRD booklet, State benefits and tax credits 2003. (The 2004 edition will be published in April.)