Temporary extension from 7 to 28 days before employees are required to obtain notes from their doctor to present to their employer

12 comments

  2. I really struggled with the wording of that title.

    > Employees must give their employer a doctor’s ‘fit note’ (sometimes called a ‘sick note’) if they’ve been ill for more than 28 days in a row and have taken sick leave. This includes non-working days, such as weekends and bank holidays.

    > If they started their sick leave before 10 December 2021, they must give proof if they’ve been off work for more than 7 days, including non-working days.

  6. Excuse my ignorance but how does this work if you don’t get paid for time off sick. A mate in the hospitality industry gets no pay for the first 3 days, full pay for the next two weeks and then half pay for two more weeks..

  7. Am I right in saying this overrules any employer’s own company policy?

    For example my company policy for sick leave states the 7 day or more days rule requiring a doctors note. If a doctors note was not provided after 7 days (but the total absence was less than 28 days) would they legally be able to mark an employee down as ‘unauthorised absence’ purely on the basis of no sick note or would they have to mark it as ‘sick leave’?

    I ask because I made a flexible working application to my employer earlier this year to condense my working week from 5 days to 4 days (same number of hours per week). My employer refused because of a company policy stating you can’t condense more than 3 hours per week into fewer days. I argued against it but the [goverment guidance](https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working) states “Employers must deal with requests in a ‘reasonable manner’” – lot of wiggle room for employers so I had to back down.

    Whereas “you cannot ask an employee for a sick note before 28 days” is very clear, right?

  8. Because it takes 28 fucking days to get through to a GP because of how busy they are. Hell, I’ve not even seen my doctor since registering and was meant to have an appointment as part of the registration process. That was in 2020. It’s good that it’s been increased but I think, people will probably just go “Fuck it, i’ve tried for two weeks. I feel well enough, i need the cash.” and go back to work. Oh and if you’re on zero hours, you’re fucked.

  9. The government may not be willing to do anything about the pandemic, but they can sure tackle the admin…

  10. Oh god, thank goodness this one bloke at my workplace left before this came in, because he’d take the absolute piss.

    He used to take up-to 6 days off, come in for one day and spend it “Checking up on emails” and then take another 6 days. I have no doubt he’d take 27 days, come in on day 28, and then go off for another month. I partially blame the company policy though since you got full pay unless you were on long-term sick.

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