Staff Handbook Section 6 - Sickness and Injury Payments and Conditions
Index to Section 6
Notification of Incapacity to Work
1. This policy applies to all members of the Assistant Staff. It aims to minimise the disruption caused by staff absence by setting clear guidelines on absence notification, by encouraging regular communication to assist staff to return to work as soon and as safely as possible, and by assisting managers to handle absences due to illness or injury in a fair, consistent and effective way.
This policy sets out the way in which Christ's College plans to deal with absence at work.
TIME OFF FOR MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS
2. Wherever possible, and in order to minimise disruption, staff are asked to make medical and dental appointments either outside of their normal working hours, or at the beginning or end of the working day. However, we do realise that this may not always be possible, particularly with hospital appointments. In these instances you need to produce either a letter from the hospital with details of the appointment or the appointment card. If you need to take time off to attend a medical or dental appointment, you need to notify your Head of Department, giving as much notice as possible. You may be required to make this time up.
If you have an appointment which is not at the end of the working day, you will normally be expected to return to work following the appointment.
NOTIFICATION OF INCAPACITY FOR WORK
3. If you are unable to attend work for any reason, you must follow the procedures laid down in Section 6 of the Staff Handbook. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary action being taken:
a. First Day of Absence: You, or someone acting on your behalf, must notify the College by telephone at the earliest possible opportunity on the first day of incapacity. Notification should be made to your Head of Department or to the next senior person in the department if the Head is not available. You should try to give some indication of your expected return date and notify the College as soon as possible if this date changes.
b. Second and third Day: As for the first day.
c. Fourth day: If you are still unable to return to work you must notify your condition to your Head of Department, The Director of College Services or, if appropriate, the Bursar. At all times on your return to work during this period you are required immediately to submit a self certification form (available from your Head of Department or the College Accounts Office.
d. More than seven days. If your incapacity extends to more than seven calendar days (whether or not they are working days) you are required to notify your Head of Department of your continued incapacity once a week thereafter, unless otherwise agreed.p>
4. Failure to follow these procedures may affect your entitlement to College sick pay.
EVIDENCE OF INCAPACITY
5. Doctor's Statement of Fitness for Work (Fit Notes) are not issued for short-term incapacity of seven calendar days or less. In such cases of incapacity (up to seven calendar days) you must sign a self-certification absence form when you return to work. The College may however require you to provide a medical certificate before the eighth consecutive day of sickness or injury, and in that case the College will reimburse you any expenses incurred by you in obtaining the certificate. Fit Notes will be required as evidence of incapacity when the member of staff concerned has previously self certified more than eight days sick leave within the previous year.
6. If your sickness has been (or you know that it will be) for longer than seven calendar days, you should see your doctor and make sure he/she gives you a Fit Note which you must forward to the College without delay. Subsequently you must supply the College with consecutive doctor's Fit Notes to cover the whole of your absence.
SICK PAY
7. If a staff member is absent from work on account of sickness or injury he will normally receive a payment in lieu of salary, provided the proper procedure is followed. the maximum periods of absence due to sickness or injury for which payments may be made are as follows:
| Period of Unbroken Service | Basic Pay | Half-Basic Pay |
| Less than one year | 8 weeks | 8 weeks |
| More than one year and less than three years | 12 weeks | 12 weeks |
| More than three years and less than five years | 20 weeks | 20 weeks |
| More than five years | 26 weeks | 26 weeks |
8. The qualifying period for continuing College pay in any one year is calculated retrospectively. It is calculated from the first day of your Fit Note, and takes into account all sickness days accrued in the previous 12 months up to the current day. For example, if you had been employed for more than one and less than three years, became sick and had a Fit Note from 1 April 2002, but had already been off work for five weeks during the previous 12 months from 1 April 2001, you would only be entitled to a further seven weeks’ basic pay before College sick pay reduced to half basic pay
9. Where time is taken for uncertified sickness, the College reserves the right either not to pay staff for such periods of absence or to treat such periods as being a reduction in annual leave entitlement. In any event such benefits will be no greater than for certified sickness.
10. The payment a staff member receives is deemed to include all Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) to which they are entitled. In order to assess the amount of SSP during any period of absence through sickness or injury it will be necessary to establish "qualifying days" and for this purpose the College has designated five qualifying days in a week, namely Monday to Friday.
11. Any contractual sickness/injury payments are shown in your contract.
12. If you are entitled to any contractual payments in excess of SSP and your entitlement expires, full or part payment may be allowed at the College’s discretion where it is considered that there are special circumstances warranting it. Such discretion will be applied with reasonableness and consistency.
13. Where the circumstances of your incapacity are such that you receive or are awarded any sum by way of compensation or damages in respect of the incapacity from a third party, then any payments which the College may have made to you because of the absence (including SSP) shall be repaid by you to the College up to up to the amount of the compensation or damages paid by the third party.
RETURN TO WORK
14. You should notify your Head of Department as soon as you know on which day you will be returning to work. If you have been given another Fit Note, you must inform you Head of department how long you have been signed off work, and when the new certificate expires, if this differs from a date of return previously notified.
15. If you have been suffering from an infectious or contagious disease or illness such as rubella or hepatitis you must not report for work without clearance from your own doctor.
16. On return to work after any period of sickness/injury absence (including absence covered by a Fit Note), you are also required to complete a self-certification absence form available from your Head of Department. You should sign this form in the presence of your Head of Department. Upon returning to work you may be interviewed by your Head of Department for the purposes of ascertaining your well-being and any prognosis of your condition.
EXCESSIVE ABSENTEEISM
17. Submission of a Fit Note or sickness self-certification absence form, although giving the College the reason for your absence, may not always be regarded by the College as sufficient justification for accepting your absence. Sickness is just one of a number of reasons for absence and although it is understandable that if you are sick you may need time off, continual or repeated absence through sickness may not be acceptable to the College. The College cannot operate with an excessive level of absence as all absence by employees, for whatever reason, reduces its efficiency.
18. The College will take a serious view if you take sickness/injury leave which is not genuine. Abuse of, or non-compliance with, the College’s sickness absence rules is a serious disciplinary offence which may, in appropriate cases, lead to dismissal. For the avoidance of doubt, a sickness absence is only an authorised absence if you are prevented, by sickness or injury, from carrying out any of the work you are employed to do and you comply with the notification requirements.
BRADFORD FACTOR
19. College has adopted a formula called the Bradford Factor to measure absence levels and to identify individuals with excessive levels of frequent and persistent short-term absence. The Bradford Factor is widely used and is based on the theory that short, frequent and unplanned absences are more disruptive than longer absences.
The Bradford Factor score (B) is calculated as B = S x S x D
where:
S = the number of spells of absence in a specified period
D = the number of days (or hours) of absence in that period.
20. If, at any time, you have a Bradford Factor score of more than 160, calculated over a rolling 12 month period, this will trigger a review of your absence record with your Head of department, and a verbal warning.
21. Examples of absences that could result in a Bradford Factor score of 160 or more include:
| Details of absence | Calculation | Bradford score |
| 1 absence for 160 days absent | 1 x 1 x 160 | 160 |
| 2 absences with a total of 40 days absent | 2 x 2 x 40 | 160 |
| 6 absences with a total of 13 days absent | 6 x 6 x 13 | 468 |
| 7 absences with a total of 14 days absent | 7 x 7 x 14 | 686 |
22. Bradford Factor scores of more than 160, due to continued and unacceptable levels of absence will trigger further reviews, linked to the disciplinary procedures using the following scale:
| Event or Score | Action Taken by the College |
| First instance of absence | Return to work interview and counselling |
| 160 - 275 points | Review and Verbal warning |
| 275-450 points | First written warning |
| 450 - 650 points | Final written warning |
| More than 650 points | Termination of contract |
23. Of course, this is not intended to penalise genuine sickness absence, and exceptional circumstances will allow for specific periods of absence not to be counted. These must be agreed with your Head of Department in order to be excluded.
24. Failure to comply with the notification or certification procedures laid down in the Staff Handbook, or otherwise abusing sickness absence procedures may affect your entitlement to College sick pay.
ACCIDENTS AT WORK
25. If your absence is related in any way to an accident at work, you are reminded of the need to report the accident to your Head of Department and to complete an incident report on the day the accident occurs.
ABSENCE WHILE ON HOLIDAY
26. If you fall sick either prior to commencing planned holiday absence, or during a period of paid holiday, and would otherwise be unable to take at least your statutory holiday entitlement under the Working Time Regulations in the holiday year (including any bank/public holidays taken as paid holiday), you may request that the period of illness during your authorised holiday is converted to sick leave and the holiday be taken at a later date.
27. In this case you are required to telephone your Head of Department on each day of your illness to confirm that you are ill and, if you would be entitled to contractual sick pay during this period, provide a medical certificate covering the total period of your absence. You are asked to note that self-certification may suffice for Statutory Sick Pay but is not regarded as sufficient for the payment of contractual sick pay whilst absent on pre-authorised holiday.
28. If necessary, the College may ask your permission to contact your doctor or for you to be independently medically examined.
29. All records relating to employees’ sick leave are maintained by the College Office.
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