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Sick pay policy & disability discrimination

Summary of postings

Sick pay policy & disability discrimination	SC	18 Oct 07
Re: Sick pay policy & disability discrimination	Andrew Southwell	18 Oct 07

Details of postings

Sick pay policy & disability discrimination	SC	18/10/2007 11:07
We have an employee who suffers from recurrent migraines. We are satisfied that the problem is genuine. Generally when the employee has a migraine during work time she takes one day off work and then returns. Our sick pay policy is to not pay any company sick pay for the first three days of absence. The employee has now questioned whether this is discriminatory. I understand that migraine is covered under DDA, and by it's nature it generally results in recurrent short-term absence. But is it discriminatory to withhold pay for these absences? She is claiming that if she did not have migraines then she would not have this time off sick and therefore not have the pay deducted. Other than absence for migraines, her attendance and performance are good, but she is saying the deductions are causing her financial hardship because of something over which she has little control.

+ Re: Sick pay policy & disability discrimination	Andrew Southwell	18/10/2007 15:52	andrew@ appartnership co uk
I would suggest that this is a similar scenario as to that in the recent case of O'Hanlon v Commissioners of HM Revenue and Customs, whereby (in brief) it was held that it was not a reasonable adjustment to continue to pay an employee contractual sick pay for absences that were related to her disability where the right had expired. As such, the contractual provision not to pay for the first 3 days of absence in this instance would not appear to be discriminatory. Otherwise, it could be argued that where an employee had been forced to move from full-time hours to part-time hours as a consequence of a disability, they should continue to be paid a full-time salary/wage – patently not reasonable.