Absence Management
- Overview
This policy sets out the guidelines and procedures to follow when absent from work. This policy ensures fair and reasonable treatment of all employees who are absent from work as a result of sickness or injury. Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill recognises the importance and value of employees and aspires to be a supportive and fair employer, which includes providing good working conditions as well as good health and safety standards.
2. What you need to know & do
General
Any leave requests need to be communicated to and agreed with the appropriate manager. This means that even in an emergency the manager needs to give either written or verbal agreement to you not being or leaving your place of work. Ideally, any leave requests are put forward as soon as possible.
Sickness
Phone your manager directly at the office (not text or e-mail) at 8.45am. If your manager is not available, speak to another manager.
Inform your manager of how long you are likely to be absent from work. Where appropriate, you will have to agree and ensure you contact your manager regularly to provide updates on your situation.
Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill monitors and records any absences and the type of leave that the absence is classified under. Absence is monitored over a 12-month rolling period. However, if a period or pattern of absence continues beyond 12 months, such previous absence will be considered as part of the ongoing absence review. The guidelines and agreed times off for different types of absences are outlined below.
Holidays
Annual leave requests should be made using the Leave Form to your line manager at least 4 weeks before the leave is to be taken, and no longer than 12 months in advance. Co-worker should raise their leave dates with their immediate line manager and team to check that their request does not clash with other co-workers. Annual leave cannot be taken on co-worker training days. Management reserve the right to decline a request when there is insufficient cover.
Medical Leave
We ask co-workers to make medical appointments outside of working time. However, if you need to attend a medical appointment within working time, you need to make a request to your line manager at the earliest possible convenience. Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill will deal with any such requests, whether one-off or a series of appointments, sympathetically. If you are absent from work for less than 50% of your working day, this will be recorded as a half sick day and any more than 50% of your normal working will count as a full sick day. Medical appointments related to a disability or underlying health condition will not normally be recorded as sick leave. Appointments related to pregnancy or maternity are dealt with under the maternity policy and such leave is paid.
If you are at work, but need to leave due to sickness before half of your working day is complete, this will be recorded as a full sick day. If you leave after half of your working day is completed, this will be recorded as a half sick day.
If you return to work within five days you are required to fill in a self-certification form on your return to work. You must collect this form from the office and complete it on the first day you are back at work. In the absence of a completed form your sick leave will be unpaid.
If you are off work sick for more than five working days then you are required to provide Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill with a doctor’s certificate, which you must send in to the office. This certificate will be kept in your personnel file. All absence beyond the initial five days must be covered by a doctor’s certificate.
If you enter the period of “long-term sickness”, which is defined as one single absence of longer than 4 weeks or comprise of numerous shorter periods of absence for the same medical reason over any 52-week period, you will have to inform your manager about medical appointments and medical certificates issued to you. This is to ensure that the service can manage your absence appropriately for the delivery of the service that you are responsible for. Furthermore, you must co-operate with Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill in arranging for a medical report to be issued to Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill from your GP if requested to do so by the appropriate manager.
When you return to work after any period of sickness, you need to meet with your manager and provide the following information:
* To confirm you are well enough to return
* To update you with any necessary information/news
* To confirm the reason for the absence
* To ask if there is any support Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill can offer, which can include considering different types of work and working options on a temporary basis, as approved by your GP
When you return from work after long term sickness absence (any continuous period beyond four working weeks) you may ask for a Phased Return. If it is agreed that a phased return to work would be beneficial, your manager will discuss this with you. A phased return allows you to return to work starting on reduced hours for a short period and building up hours gradually to your normal full time hours. You will need a GP letter to confirm that this is advisable for you.
When you are absent from work due to sickness, you do not have any contractual entitlement to payment of anything other than Statutory Sick Pay. However, at the discretion of Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill you may be paid above the Statutory Sick Pay. The maximum amounts for that are laid out in your individual contract of employment.
If your absences due to sickness meet any of the following criteria, your manager can request a formal absence review.
* Above average self-certificated sickness within a 12-month period
* a pattern of absence that raises concern (e.g. the same day of the week)
* any disruptive and unusual pattern of absence
The absence review is aimed at exploring the reasons for your absences and determine if there is anything that Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill can do to support you to mitigate the absences. At the same time, the review might result in, e.g. setting attendance improvement targets or a follow-up review with additional management input to explore any grounds for disciplinary action.
Sickness information will be held confidentially, and access restricted to Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill managers and colleagues who have attended the relevant formal attendance reviews. Under the Data Protection Act, sickness information is considered sensitive data and Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill is committed to ensuring that such data is treated confidentially and not shared more widely than is necessary, in accordance with the Act. Please note: prospective employers often ask for this information in reference requests, and if you ask Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill to provide a reference for you, accurate information on your sick leave during your employment here may be passed on.
Dependent Carer Leave
You are allowed time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependent. A dependent could be a spouse, partner, child, grandchild, parent, or someone who depends on you for care. Please note that this time off represents a reasonable and fair amount of time to deal with initial needs and to make care arrangements so that you can then return to work. Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill offers 4 days paid per year and this is pro-rata for part-time co-worker.
If more time is required, you might be required to use some of your annual leave entitlement for the absence or work back the additional time you need to take off.
Dependent carer leave applies to emergencies only, i.e. not for situations such as medical appointments that you knew off in advance. You are required to use your annual leave entitlement for any such situations that you choose to attend.
For this policy, an emergency is classified as any situation that need your immediate attention and as a result, you needing to leave work as soon as possible. This covers sudden illnesses, injuries, assaults, disruption to care arrangements as well as incidents at school that require your attendance.
Parental Leave
Parental leave is unpaid and will need to be requested in writing with at least 21 days’ notice. This type of leave for eligible co-workers is aimed at enabling parents to look after their child’s welfare, which includes spending more time with their children, looking at new schools or settling children into new day/care arrangements as well as allowing for more family time.
Parental leave can only be taken in whole weeks (i.e. 7 days) and up to 4 weeks in a 12-month period per child. The total amount of parental leave that can be requested are a total of 18 weeks for a child (up to their 18th birthday).
co-workers qualifying for parental leave need to have been with Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill in a full-time working capacity for a minimum of 12 months and they must also have parental responsibility for the child.
Compassionate Leave
In the event of death of a close relative or friend, Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill will seek to support you through this difficult time. Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill will pay your full salary for up to five days in case of death of an immediate family member and for one day for indirect family or close friends. Thereafter Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill will consider unpaid leave on an individual basis.
Additionally, Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill might offer you time off to attend the funeral. Requests for funeral attendance will be looked at an individual basis and must, like all other requests, be put forward to the relevant manager.
Sabbatical Leave
The purpose of the sabbatical leave is to provide opportunities for employees of Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill to undertake further education or training, or have experience which enhances their skills base or self-development. The intended outcome will be an increase of quality in the employee’s future contribution to Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill. Offers of sabbatical leave are not a contractual or legal right of the employee.
For the purposes of this policy a sabbatical is any period longer than four weeks of continuous absence from post which is over and above any holiday allowance. Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill will not consider sabbatical leave which results in absence for more than one year.
co-workers eligible for sabbatical leave will have to have been in continuous employment at Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill for seven years. This is also the minimum length of time between any additional sabbatical requests you might make.
Sabbatical leave must be applied for in writing to the Management Group at least three months in advance of you intending to go on your sabbatical. The decision of whether your request for sabbatical leave is granted will also depend on the perceived benefits for yourself and Tigh a'Chomainn Camphill of the sabbatical, general absenteeism and performance, impact on the service delivery that you are responsible for and any other relevant factors. The requests will be dealt with confidentially and a response will be with you within 2 weeks.
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