Following the government’s announcement with regard to the booster vaccines and the worry of surging COVID-19 cases throughout the winter period, measures are being put in place to ensure the NHS does not become overwhelmed. It is thought that some routine medical appointments will be cancelled in order to focus on the government push for the booster roll-out across the UK.
To alleviate pressures further, in an amendment to the Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) Regulations, employees will be allowed to self-certificate for up to 28 days starting from 17 December 2021 through to 26 January 2022. This is a change to the current self-certification period of seven days. The changes in regulations will apply to anyone whose period of incapacity for work commenced before 17 December 2021 (but is not yet longer than 7 days) or any spell that begins within this period of time.
What does this mean for employers?
From today (17th December 2021) onwards, employees will be able to self-certify themselves as being ‘sick’, for a period of 28 days, before needing to submit a fit note to their employer. Given the time of year, this is likely to lead to increased pressures on an employer. There is no guidance on whether this affects an employee’s entitlement to statutory sick pay and therefore we would advise that an employee’s entitlement to SSP begins from the 4th day of sickness.
What is the best practice for employers to manage sickness over this period?
Unfortunately, an employer cannot stop an employee from calling in sick, however, they should manage any period of sickness in exactly the same way as before this ruling. It is understood that this ruling will only be appropriate for absences unrelated to COVID-19 and self-isolation. This is because employees are still able to download a COVID-19 isolate note for this period.
To find out more on how to manage sickness absence, please click here.
What help can we give to you?
As well as providing legal advice on any aspect of sickness absence management, our Employment Law and HR Advisor team includes experienced HR practitioners who can help to implement sickness absence procedures for you, leaving you free to run your business.
Our HR advisors are trained to understand the important HR issues and to make sure sickness absence procedures are compliant from an employment law perspective – giving you the peace of mind that if any disputes arise you will be in the best position to deal with them, with minimal risk of an unfair dismissal or discrimination claim.
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