Unwell staff typically eligible for up to 19.5 weeks’ sick pay – but employers are clamping down on absence around major sporting events
While the recent Employment Rights Act has extended statutory sick pay (SSP) to all employees, in practice many employers improve on this weekly rate of £123.85 (or 80% of average earnings) through their occupational sick pay schemes. A recent study by Incomes Data Research (IDR) has found that, across the economy, employees typically receive the equivalent of 19.5 weeks’ full pay after five years’ service while the median entitlement when starting a new job, following any applicable probation period, is 6.5 weeks. While organisations sometimes reserve enhanced terms for management or head office employees, three-quarters of organisations with occupational sick pay schemes apply the same provisions to all staff.
There is considerable variation between sectors, with the most generous sick pay entitlements typically found within the not-for-profit and public sectors. In the latter, longer-serving staff are often eligible for up to 26 weeks’ full pay and a further 26 weeks at half pay.
IDR’s survey also looked at the extent to which organisations offer health benefits. ‘Despite offering enhanced sick pay, in practice employers are likely to want to try and keep absence to a minimum through other aspects of their employment offering, such as effective occupational health support and incentives to help staff stay well like gym membership, vaccinations or private healthcare,’ says Katherine Heffernan of IDR. On this latter point, the survey found that just under a quarter (23%) of organisations provide private medical insurance for the entire workforce while a further 47% offer it to some employees (such as salaried or managerial staff).
The survey also explored the popularity of newer health benefits such as weight-loss injections or financial support for fertility treatment but employers in the sample had yet to add these to their reward package. Meanwhile just one respondent funds standalone assessments for neurodiverse conditions such as autism or ADHD, although in practice these are often also covered by private medical insurance.
As well as offering health-related benefits, the majority of organisations (92%) have a formal procedure for managing absence to ensure staff are only taking time off when strictly necessary. These procedures are usually triggered by a certain number of episodes or cumulative days of absence over a 12-month period (typically three separate absences or 10 sick days) but patterns in absence, such as around major sporting events, also often form part of such policies. ‘With any future England matches scheduled for relatively sensible weekend hours, hopefully line managers won’t find too many staff falling foul of this aspect of their absence policy,’ says Heffernan.
Note for Editors
Incomes Data Research (IDR) is an independent research organisation specialising in the pay and employment field.
Our research covers pay, benefits, reward practice and HR policy. We provide HR professionals with information, data and analysis to help them make intelligent reward decisions. Our offering includes our quarterly e-bulletin ‘Pay Climate’ and our online interactive tool Pay Benchmarker.
For any queries relating to this research please contact Katherine Heffernan (01702 669549 /katherineheffernan@incomesdataresearch.com) or Ken Mulkearn (07392 018997/ kenmulkearn@incomesdataresearch.com).