Pay during a phased return to work

An employee who agrees to a phased return to work on temporarily reduced hours will lose out financially unless an agreement can be reached to pay sick pay for the working hours the employee is not yet fit to perform.

DWP Fit Note Guidance says: “If your employee returns to work on reduced hours, you should consider whether your employee may be financially disadvantaged. In such cases, you may decide to pay sick pay for the hours not worked, or to pay full pay despite the reduced hours”.

The problem of loss of income from returning to work on a part-time basis arose in the case of a radiographer at Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Other issues were involved but the EAT rejected the idea that this could be a “reasonable adjustment”, because the financial disadvantage would be equivalent for a non-disabled person (Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v Bagley [2012] UKEAT 0417_11_2303).