Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Pay & benefitsSick pay

Discussions online

by Personnel Today 26 Jul 2005
by Personnel Today 26 Jul 2005

Our longer-standing employees (those employed before January 2004) receive company sick pay as part of their contract. New employees do not receive this company sick pay in their contract (agreed by the union). One employee on the new contract has refuted this, claiming equal pay/discrimination. I cannot find anything that helps me on this one. I am keeping my stance that he signed the contract with full knowledge of no sick pay, so he must live with it until I can find out otherwise.

We stopped sick pay for new starters as a cost-cutting solution, as the sick pay scheme was, and is still, costing us a fortune. Any suggestions?

Answer 1: It is always possible to claim either on equal pay or discrimi-nation. Discrimination would arise if you had a disproportionately male ‘older’ group and a predominantly female or ethnic minority ‘newer’ group of staff. The claim would be indirect discrimination, and you would then have to justify it (fairly easy, I would suggest).

The trickier option would be equal pay, where someone can virtually pick their own comparator and you then get into the statistics game again.

Stick to your guns. All sorts of people use the word discrimination without knowing what they are talking about. Just avoid sacking him for asserting his statutory rights.

Answer 2: I do not believe there would be any equal pay/discrimi-nation implication for not offering sick pay to all new employees. For someone to claim this, they would need to show that another new employee of the opposite gender (or different race) was being offered access to sick pay. This could arise if you were to use management discretion to offer this to some new employees but not to others.



Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
Half of workers say stress in the workplace is serious problem
next post
Protecting the innocent

You may also like

Employees resigning in 2022: Survey shows ‘great resignation’...

24 May 2022

Statutory sick pay reforms would save £4bn

19 May 2022

How should HR handle the highest inflation in...

18 May 2022

Wages fall 1.2% behind inflation as cost of...

17 May 2022

‘Small spike’ in minimum wage underpayment among 20-24...

13 May 2022

BBC awards pay increase as pension scheme review...

12 May 2022

KPMG offers pay rises of £2k or £4k...

6 May 2022

Pay transparency: How organisations can break the taboo

5 May 2022

Survey reveals public desire for CEO pay restraint

4 May 2022

Law firm says staff can work from home...

3 May 2022
  • The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls PROMOTED | The Great Resignation continues unabated...Read more
  • Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022, and beyond PROMOTED | Cornerstone OnDemand conducted a global study...Read more
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+