RAVENSBOURNE COLLEGE OF DESIGN AND COMMUNICATION

SICKNESS AND ABSENCE POLICY AND PROCEDURE

1. It is an important condition of your employment that you comply in full with the College’s
sickness absence rules and procedures. Failure to do so may result in the College
withholding statutory sick pay / any College sick pay, and can also render you liable to
disciplinary action. These rules and procedures contain important rights and obligations
and you should read them carefully. All of these rules and procedures are incorporated
into your contract of employment.
Any member of staff with a disability should refer to the ‘Disabled Staff Policy and
Procedure’ for further information in this area.

2. If you are prevented by sickness or injury from carrying out any of the work you are
employed to do, you must contact Human Resources as soon as possible on the first
day of absence from work and in any event by 10.00am. You must then keep the
College informed on a regular basis of your progress and when you expect to return to
work. A relative or friend should telephone if you are unable to do so. Failure to comply
with the above procedure will result in the Disciplinary Policy being invoked.

3. If you are absent from work through sickness or injury for any period of less than 7
calendar days (including sickness absences of short duration, for example, of half a day
or one day’s duration) you must complete a self-certification form. A copy of this form
can be obtained from Human Resources and must be returned, duly completed, and
countersigned by your line manager before handing it to Human Resources. No sick
pay may in any event, be paid unless and until Human Resources has received a duly
completed self-certification form.

4. Before counter-signing the form, your line manager will hold a return to work
discussion with you. If the nature of your illness is confidential, the HR Officer will
hold this discussion with you instead. The HR Officer will then seek from your line
manager only such information as is necessary to make the appropriate
management decision in connection with your absence.

5. If you are absent from work through sickness or injury for more than 7 calendar
days, you must promptly submit a doctor’s certificate to Human Resources. You
must submit regular medical certificates to cover prolonged absence and keep the
College informed of your condition, progress, and likely date of return to work. At the
end of your absence the College may ask for a doctor’s certificate confirming that
you are fit to work. Failure to provide either a self-certificate or doctor’s certificate
will result in the Disciplinary Policy being invoked.

6. It is your responsibility to inform Human Resources by 10am on the date of your

return to work of your return to work after any sickness absence, so that your
sickness record is accurately maintained. Failure to do so may result in loss of pay.

7. Should you have more than three absences (or more than six working days) in any
one year, the HR Officer together with your line manager will meet with you to
discuss the level of attendance. The meeting is intended to investigate reasons for
absence with the aim of working with you to reduce the chance of further sickness
absence being taken.

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8. The College reserves the right to require you to undergo a medical examination by
its nominated medical advisor, or provide such evidence of your medical condition
as it may reasonably require, the cost of which will be met by the College. You may
for example, be asked to authorise your doctor to discuss your medical condition or
history with the College medical advisor or a doctor nominated by it, or to provide a
formal report for the College.

9. The College reserves the right to contact you at home during a period of sickness
absence. At a time reasonably convenient to you a member of Human Resources
may arrange to call to see you or, arrange for you to come into College or, arrange
to meet with you at a mutually acceptable venue.

10. The qualifying days for statutory sick pay are Monday to Friday (inclusive). The first
three days of sickness absence are normally waiting days in respect of which no
SSP is payable.

11. Abuse of, or non-compliance with the College’s rules and sickness absence
procedures, is a disciplinary offence and can in appropriate cases lead to dismissal
(see disciplinary procedures). In particular the College regards unauthorised
absence from work (including conduct incompatible with an alleged sickness or
injury or other abuse of these rules and procedures) as gross misconduct.

12. Without prejudice to its other rights in these circumstances, abuse of, or non
compliance with the College’s sickness absence rules (including unauthorised
absence from work) may result in the College withholding SSP / any College sick
pay. Any payment made to you may be recovered from you.

13. It is necessary for the efficient operation of the College that all employees attend for
work regularly. If an employee is unable to achieve this, the College may not be
able to continue his / her employment. An employee’s situation is regularly reviewed
during any absence from work through sickness or injury and the employee will first
be warned if the College considers the employee’s level of absence may be putting
his/her job in jeopardy any decision to dismiss will only be taken after due
consideration of all information relating to the employee’s, regardless of whether or
not the employee remains entitled to statutory sick pay.

14. It is your responsibility to claim direct through the DWP any benefit for which you
may be eligible and to inform Payroll of any such payment. Any College sick pay will
then be adjusted accordingly to take account of any DWP benefit you are in receipt
of.

15. Without prejudice to its other rights in such circumstances, where you are absent
from work through sickness or injury for one month or more, contractual paid holiday
entitlement shall cease to accrue until your return to work. If you have been unable
to take all of your contractual entitlement to annual leave by the end of the leave
year due to illness, any unused leave will be forfeited and your annual leave
entitlement will begin to accrue with the commencement of the new leave year. You
will however continue to accrue any statutory holiday leave to which you may be

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entitled during any such period of sickness absence. If you have any queries in
relation to any such entitlement please contact Human Resources.

16. Normally, if an employee is absent through sickness in excess of one month s/he
may not take paid annual holiday entitlement until the expiration of one month after
the date of returning to work. The College will however, consider each case on its
merits.

17. Extra-statutory / discretionary holidays awarded by the College as part of the

Christmas closure week or a Bank Holiday or other statutory holiday in England can
only be taken at those times. If an employee is ill on any those days s/he will be
unable to request that the day(s) be taken at a later date.

18. If you are taken ill whilst on annual leave, the College will continue to count this as
annual leave. In exceptional circumstances, i.e. in case of hospitalisation, the case
will be reviewed, at the discretion of the Director of Human Resources.

19. If you are prevented by sickness or injury from performing any of the work you are
employed to do, and provided you fully comply with the College’s sickness absence
rules and procedures, the College will pay any SSP to which you are entitled.
Continued salary payment (at whatever rate) during any such sickness absence is at
the sole and absolute discretion of the College. Any payment of College sick pay
that is made will include any SSP to which you may be entitled, and any social
security benefit for which you are eligible (regardless of whether you are claiming it).
No payment of sick pay (whether SSP or otherwise) will, in any event be made if you
fail fully to comply with the College’s sickness absence rules and procedures, or
abuse them.

20. Without prejudice to the College’s right to terminate an employee’s employment at

any time during a sickness absence, nor to the College’s overriding discretion with
regard to whether to continue salary payments during such an absence, and if so for
what period and at what rate, College sick pay will normally be paid as highlighted in
the attached payment tables (although, this does not imply any entitlement to any
such payment): -

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SICKNESS AND ABSENCE POLICY AND PROCEDURE

Sickness Payment Table - Applicable to Academic staff employed as at 31 December

1999

Period of continuous Maximum potential

employment with the payment period and
College maximum potential College
sick pay
1 month full pay (and after
during the first year of service completing 4 calendar
months’ service) 2 months
half pay
less the aggregate of
during the second year of 3 months full pay all
service 3 months half pay period(s) of sickness
absence during the
immediately preceding
period of 12 months
less the aggregate of
during the third year of 4 months full pay all
service 4 months half pay period(s) of sickness
absence during the
immediately preceding
period of 12 months
less the aggregate of
during the fourth and 6 months full pay all
successive years 6 months half pay period(s) of sickness
absence during the
immediately preceding
period of 12 months
Sickness Payment Table - Applicable to Support staff employed as at 31 December
1999

Period of continuous Maximum potential

employment with the payment period and
College maximum potential College
sick pay
1 month full pay (and after
During the first year of completing 4 months service)
service 2 months’ half pay
less the aggregate of
during the second year of 2 months’ full pay all
service 2 months’ half pay period(s) of sickness
absence during the
immediately preceding
period of 12 months

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less the aggregate of

during the third year of 4 months full pay all
service 4 months’ half pay period(s) of sickness
absence during the
immediately preceding
period of 12 months
less the aggregate of
during the fourth & fifth years’ 5 months’ full pay all
of service 5 months’ half pay period(s) of sickness
absence during the
immediately preceding
period of 12 months
less the aggregate of
after 5 years’ service 6 months’ full pay all
6 months half pay period(s) of sickness
absence during the
immediately preceding
period of 12 months

Sickness Payment Table applicable to all staff employed from 1st January 2000

Period of continuous Maximum potential payment

employment with the College period and maximum potential
College sick pay

6 months or less nil

less the aggregate of all

more than 6 months but less 1 month (at full basic salary) period(s) of sickness
than 2 years absence during the
immediately preceding
period of 12 months

less the aggregate of all

2 years or more but less than 3 3 months (2 months at full basic
years pay followed by 1 month at half
pay)
3 years or more 6 months (3 months at full basic
pay followed by 3 months at half
pay)
period(s) of sickness
absence during the
immediately preceding
period of 12 months
less the aggregate of all
period(s) of sickness
absence during the
immediately preceding
period of 12 months

Sick Pay will not normally be paid where your period of continuous service with the College is 6
months or less.

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SICKNESS AND ABSENCE POLICY AND PROCEDURE

SELF-CERTIFICATION SICKNESS FORM

IN ALL INSTANCES OF SICKNESS ABSENCE THIS FORM MUST BE COMPLETED BY

THE EMPLOYEE AND LINE MANAGER AND FORWARDED TO HUMAN RESOURCES
ON THE DAY OF RETURN TO WORK.

Failure to comply with the College’s Sickness and Absence Policy and Procedures
(including proper completion of this form) may result in one of the following:
o The College withholding statutory sick pay
o The College using its discretion in relation to sick pay
o The College taking disciplinary action against you

1. This form must be completed in full, countersigned by your line manager, and returned
to the Human Resources Officer for all periods of sickness. No payment in respect of
such an absence may, in any event, be made unless the Human Resources Officer has
received the completed form in respect of your sickness absence.

2. A medical certificate must be submitted to the Human Resources Officer for any
sickness absence exceeding 7 calendar days.

3. Complete the form below. The date(s) you give should be actual day(s) of sickness,
even though any such day may not be your normal working day, ie Sunday or Public
Holiday).

Name: Job Title:

From: Date: …………………. To: Date …………………….

Time ……….. am / pm Time ………… am / pm

Date of return to Work?: ………………… Total of Days absent from Work? ………
(ensure you notify HR by 10am of date of return) …

Did you see your GP? YES / NO Did you attend hospital? YES / NO
(please delete as appropriate) (please delete as appropriate)

Confidential
Did you receive a certified absence form If you consider that the nature of
from your GP/Consultant? your illness is confidential please
(please delete as appropriate) tick this box, then complete page
YES / NO three of the self-certification form.
All pages of the self-certification
form should then be sent to
Human Resources.

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4. Details relating to the illness

Please give details of the sickness or injury which has prevented you from attending
work; please be specific, descriptions such as ‘sickness’ and ‘feeling ill’, or other vague
wording is not sufficient.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
I confirm that the information given above is an accurate summary of my sickness absence
for the period as outlined:

Signed ………………………………….. Date ……………………………..

Line Manager’s Section

Please tick appropriate box

I confirm that I have conducted a return to work discussion and am satisfied that the
employee named above has complied with the College’s Sickness and Absence
Policy and is sufficiently recovered to have returned to his/her place of work.

Date of Return to Work discussion: …………………..

[OR]

The nature of the employee’s illness was deemed by the employee as confidential in
nature and therefore, as a result, I have requested that the Human Resources
Officer conduct the Return to Work discussion.

Line manager’s signature: ………………………….. Date: ………………………

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SELF-CERTIFICATION SICKNESS FORM

Only complete this section if there is any medical information that you consider to
be confidential and do not wish your line manager to know

Confidential (to be passed to Human Resources only)

Name: ………………………………………….. Job title:…………………………………

Nature of illness:

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Please detach this part of the form and pass directly to the Human Resources
Officer. The first part of this form must be completed and forwarded to your line
manager for signature before it is forwarded to Human Resources

Human Resources Section

I confirm that I have conducted a return to work discussion and am satisfied that the
employee named above has complied with the College’s Sickness and Absence
Policy and is sufficiently recovered to have returned to his/her place of work.

Date of Return to Work discussion: …………………..

Signed by HR Officer: ………………………………….

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