Adjusting absence management

As explained above, absence management procedures may need adjustment. The TUC guide, Representing and supporting members with mental health problems at work, says that procedures should allow for separate recording of absence related to a person’s disability, including where the disability is related to mental ill health.

It could include additional disability leave, and helping employees and employers to plan for any regular attendances, such as counselling appointments, that have to take place during work hours. How helpful this is will depend on how the policy is drawn up and how it handles “grey areas” like intermittent conditions.

As part of a new absence management policy introduced in 2016, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) now has a system of Disability Adjustment Leave which provides “reasonable paid time off from work for disability-related assessment, treatment or rehabilitation” (when the individual is otherwise fit for work). However, at the same time HMRC abandoned its previous policy of disability-related sickness absence (DRSA) under which absence could be discounted. Its new Disabled Employees’ Trigger Point (see below) is considered by PCS to be “far less suitable as a reasonable adjustment”.