Sick pay changes in the public sector

Sick pay has been under pressure in the civil service and other parts of the public sector as a result of austerity policies. From October 2013, new employees at the largest government department, Work and Pensions (DWP), saw their sick pay entitlement cut. They now have up to one month’s full pay and one month’s half pay in their first year of service. This will rise annually to a maximum of five months’ full pay and five months’ half pay in the fifth year and beyond.

By comparison, the Office for National Statistics (also part of the civil service) currently retains its entitlement for sick pay equivalent to full pay for up to six months in any period of 12 months, followed by half pay for six months. However, this is subject to a maximum of 12 months sick absence in any period of four years or less. Thereafter, there is a discretionary payment.

Changes at the DWP (and elsewhere) are one consequence of a wider civil service reform exercise that also affected annual leave, probation and work location. They were influenced by a “benchmarking” report, Current practices on terms and conditions.

The declared aim was to ensure the service offers terms and conditions “comparable with, but not beyond, what a good, modern employer would provide”. But in a bulletin to members at the DWP, PCS described the changes as “politically motivated — part of a more general attack on the rights of workers and trade unions stemming directly from ministers”.

In local government, some authorities have moved away from the sick pay entitlement set out in the NJC Green Book national agreement for local government services staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Pay Matters, a 2013 survey of 14,800 members, public services union UNISON found that 4% of respondents reported cuts in sick pay. In a recent LRD sick pay survey, 21 out of 24 councils still followed the national pattern by paying a maximum of 52 weeks’ paid leave, 26 weeks at full pay and 26 weeks at half pay for employees with five years’ service (Northamptonshire and Caerphilly County Borough councils were among those that have introduced inferior entitlement).