Duration of entitlement

While SSP can be paid for up to 28 weeks, the duration of occupational sick pay varies enormously from scheme to scheme, making this a key pay negotiating issue. Workers in government-owned Scottish airport group HIAL’s security company, AMSL, recently won a six-year battle for equality. AMSL members had received just five half days sick pay a year, in contrast to around six months’ full pay for the staff who managed them and in the wider group.

Taking all paid leave into account— whether paid at 100% or 50% — seven out of 10 agreements in a 2013 Workplace Report survey eventually provided a total entitlement of up to 52 weeks’ leave. At the middle of the range, median entitlement was 16 weeks after one year’s service, 26 weeks after two years and 52 weeks after five. Some employers go further with standard occupational sick pay that eventually builds up to more than a year’s entitlement.

Where rights to occupational sick pay at different levels accumulate with service the number of steps up to maximum entitlement is a key negotiating issue. Public sector sick pay schemes tend to have more levels (combinations of a particular service requirement with a particular pay level) than most private sector agreements. However, motor manufacturer Bentley has six levels:

Standard sick pay at insurance company Aviva (within a 24-month rolling period) starts at two weeks full salary for staff with less than six months service, rising to four weeks at full salary, followed by four weeks at 75% of full salary. For over two years and up to 4.5 years’ service it is 13 weeks at full salary, followed by 13 weeks at 75% of full salary; and for 4.5 years + service it is 26 weeks at full salary, followed by 26 weeks at 75% of full salary.

In the wake of union successes winning the Living Wage, some contracting companies have also improved their sick pay. UNISON members who are cleaners working for Ocean Integrated Services at Birkbeck College have recently seen sick leave improved from the statutory minimum to between two weeks’ and six months’ pay, depending on length of service. That replicated a deal achieved at the School of Oriental and African Studies a few months earlier with a different contractor (ISS Facility Services) and was repeated for Ocean’s contract at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Some employers extend sick pay beyond the maximum on a discretionary basis. At BAE systems, where an employee runs out of company sick pay and continues to be sick, pay may be extended subject to the sole discretion of the business, for example where:

• the employee has been diagnosed with a terminal illness;

• the prognosis is they will return to work in a relatively short period of time (normally within two weeks) in order to preserve pay continuity, where beneficial;

• they are in the process of being considered for an ill health or incapacity benefit (including Medical Retirement pension) or have applied for and are being considered for Group Income Protection benefit, as a result of membership of one of the company’s pension schemes;

• they are part of a phased return to work programme; or

• other exceptional mitigating purposes.

At Wealden District Council, sick pay policy follows the six months’ full pay/six months’ half pay local government model, with the option in particular circumstances that the second six-month period can be paid at full pay.

Insurance-based schemes can also be used to extend income beyond the period of occupational sick pay. This is usually known as Permanent Health Insurance. A scheme applies at the RSPCA animal charity for employees on sick leave after six or 12 months (depending on service).