The rate of Statutory
Sick Pay is worked out according to the
employee's normal weekly earnings, this
will determine which band they fall
into.
As from April 1999
the rate of statutory sick pay is £59.55
per week for employees earning not less
than the amount necessary to be liable
to pay National Insurance Contributions.
It is not payable for
the first 3 qualifying days of the
illness, but is payable thereafter up to
28 weeks. After that time an employee
will have to claim state sickness
benefit.
If an employee does
not qualify for statutory sick pay they
may still qualify for sickness benefit
from the DSS.
Statutory sick pay
will be paid by the employer and
reclaimed from the state. Statutory sick
pay is payable at a weekly rate divided
by the number of qualifying days in that
week. The qualifying days usually follow
the normal pattern of working days, for
example Monday to Friday. The qualifying
days can however be less, but there must
be at least one qualifying day per week.
The employer and
employee will have to agree on what the
qualifying days will be and these are to
be included in the contract. If the
contract does not spell out the
qualifying days then if there is a
dispute the court will usually choose
the normal working week. If this varies
the court will choose Wednesdays as the
qualifying days.
For example, if the
employee works Monday to Friday and
those are the qualifying days and he
falls ill on Tuesday he cannot claim
until Friday. If the employee's 4th day
of illness falls on one of the
qualifying days then they can claim 1/5
of the weekly amount of statutory sick
pay for that day of illness.
If Wednesday is the
only qualifying day and the employee
fell ill on Wednesday they could claim
the full weekly amount for that days
illness.
If however, they fell
ill on any other day apart from
Wednesday that could not claim anything.
In reality most employers will pay the
employee their normal pay during periods
of sickness as part of their contract.
The Interactive
Law Group