Sickness rules,are they fair?

[fishtank]

any updates on this fishtank thanks.

Nothing yet but then the guys i've emailed don't do weekends or even friday afternoons apparently.
The life of a full release bod is obviously tough.

[michael61]

lol

[Poorly]

If someone worked 1 day a week then they could potentially have 13 weeks off without triggering a stage 1. Does that seem fair?

No that isn't true.
The trigger is 14 days or 4 separate absences.

The counter argument would be if someone only worked a saturday and was ill on two saturdays in a row they should be classed as having 20 days sick absence and be issued with a stage warning despite only being off 2 days.

Why isn't it true? Under the OP's suggestion, if someone on a 1 day a week contract is off for 13 continuous weeks then it would be 13 work days, so they wouldn't trigger. They wouldn't be separate absences. If you want to go down the route of separate single day absences then that will have a knock on effect on sick pay. You would effectively negate the employee's entitlement to statutory sick pay. Company sick pay at 183 days in a 12 month period, suddenly becomes 183 weeks at full pay! There is more to consider here than just stage warnings.

A part timer who works Saturdays, if they have 2 Saturdays in a row off should be recorded as having 8 days absence not 20. I don't know where you get 20 from.

[fishtank]

A part timer who works Saturdays, if they have 2 Saturdays in a row off should be recorded as having 8 days absence not 20. I don't know where you get 20 from.

The point i was making is that the guidance states.
Absence is counted as continuous from the first day of absence until the employee returns to work
For someone working saturday only having two saturdays off in a row that would be 15 days not 8 as is the case now (i don't know where i got 20 either but in my defence i was tired).
That would trigger a stage for what is in effect 2 days sick absence.

I'm not sure if this is an actual change in policy or just a poorly worded guidance document but if Royal Mail are going to count non-working days after the last working day of sick absence up until return to work this would unfairly penalise all members working less than 5 day weeks.
I have no problem with counting non-working days that are straddled by sick absence,on that we may have our wires crossed,although i do believe it's unnecessarily harsh on Saturday only staff and could be resolved by a stand alone set of standards for the small number of staff affected.

[Poorly]

Totally agree, if the non-working days after the last working day of absence are included then that would be very unfair, especially for part-timers and people who work unusual patterns like Wallington weeks.

[thefemalepostie]

This could only happen in Royal Mail!!

In any other job I have had and indeed in my new job. Sickness is calculated for your time off. So for example I work mon-fri now with weekends off. I also work term time. So I go off sick on the Thursday and Friday before a half term. That's 2 days sick. Royal Mail it would seem would count this as 11 days off!!!!! Even if I got better by the Monday but as term time only got the week off!!

It's a joke. They should not count Sundays at all as it not a working day. I can sort of understand the day off being counted but to count a national non working day is a bloody joke.

Feel so sorry for you guys getting caught up in all this. It is very poor.

[POSTMAN]

You mean there is something in an agreement/procedure that is open to interpretation!

Have emailed some people.

And they will say,we know it means......then you get the managers............we know it means.

But what it really does mean is that the negotiators and the PEC who ok it are as thick as s**t that is really f***ing thick.

Tossers.

[Poorly]

It's a joke. They should not count Sundays at all as it not a working day. I can sort of understand the day off being counted but to count a national non working day is a bloody joke.

The problem is that Sunday is a working day for some people. There are loads of different working patterns in RM very few people work a regular mon-fri pattern so it would be a complete mess to operate on an individual basis which is why they go for a blanket 7 day pattern.

[Lincox]

Their answer would be to cut the 14 day limit per year down to 10 (ie 5 working days x 2 weeks rather than 7 week days x 2 weeks)