Hi All,

Last month I was signed off by the doctor for 5 days - yet came back into work for part of that time.

On seeing my pay today, it is very low and I have been told the company only pay 3 days of sick pay in any one year.

This may have been in my contract when I first started, but I wasn't made aware of the fact (admittedly, that is my fault and I need to take the responsibilty for reading my contract).

My question is whether they can actually do this? What if I were to get run over etc and be out of work for a month. Would they just not pay me?

This has essentially knocked 25% of my months wages off and I'm disappointed to say the least.

Thanks for your help,
=============
Any Company pay whilst sick would be a contractual matter and would be dealt with under the contract wording.
But you have the right to SSP payments for the PIW after the first 3 days are discounted (qualifying days) of course the above applies assuming you qualify for SSP.

Any information you need could be found at the below link.
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/lifeevent/benefits/statutory_sick_pay.asp
=============
Some employers pay generous sick pay packages, some pay nothing above statutory sick pay.Typical contractual terms tend to vary from industry to industry. No contractual sick pay at all is quite common.

Everyone is entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) of about ?5/week, BUT SSP only applies to sicknesses of 4 days or more. Furthermore the first 3 working days in any sickness receive zero SSP, unless the sickness is within 8 weeks of an earlier sickness (are you getting this and taking notes? Can you tell that SSP was designed by government officials with nothing better to do with their time?)
=============
Yeah, that's right... you don't have any legal right to ANY sick pay from your employer.

If they are generous then they'll give you some Contract Sick Pay. We give 20 days per year.

Other than that you can get Statutory Sick Pay (from the government but paid to you by your employer) after the first 3 days of being ill. It's about ?5 per week.

So the most you'd have got of SSP is 2 days, which assuming you normal working week is 5 days, would've been ?0ish....not very much.
=============
Not all firms are able to reclaim sick pay, it all depends on percentages with NI payments.
=============
Thanks all for your help. I'll have to get over it I suppose.

In honesty, I am more concerned if something severe were ever to happen, how I would support myself? I basically wouldn't be able to.

Cheers
=============