Pregnancy Related Absence
Pregnancy related sickness does not count towards prompt points for sickness; therefore, this type of absence shouldn't trigger an attendance review. We have created a separate absence category for pregnancy related sickness. Therefore, if a member of your team goes off work due to pregnancy related sickness please select ‘sickness – pregnancy’. For example, they may be unable to come into work due to ‘morning sickness’ this should then be documented as pregnancy related sickness. If, however, a staff member has a sickness bug (and is pregnant) this should be recorded as ‘sickness’.
Do we need the self-certification form?
- No, we now do not need to use the self-certification form if the staff member accepts the absence via the staff database.
What if I work part-time – how do we do a return to work? How quickly do we need to mark someone as back on the staff database?
A staff member should be marked as ‘returned’ on the staff database on the day they return (the staff member can do this themselves or anyone ‘up’ the chain can, as can the people and culture team). This means that we can ensure pay isn’t affected and also if accounts were paused whilst they were off, confirms that these should be turned back on.
Gold standard is then to also have the return to work on day 1, however this can practically sometimes not be possible. If this is the case (especially if the absence is due to something like a sickness bug) then ensure that someone (if you can’t as you don’t work then Senior management can do this / People and Culture Team) ‘checks in’ with the staff member of day 1. And plan a full return to work within the next couple of days.
However, if the staff member has been off for a while, or if their absence is related to work stress, then a return to work does need to be completed on day 1, with short term planning in place and therefore planning with the wider team (including the People and Culture Team) who can do this if it is not your working day is needed. It could be that the meeting is done in two steps, and when you are next back in work you can have a further conversation to check nothing is missed.
If someone has come in and left part way through the day, how do I record this?
- Where illness occurs whilst an employee is at work, after work has been completed, this will not be marked as a day's absence for pay purposes, however, it should be recorded on the staff member's profile. Please record this in the ‘Notes’ section on the staff database as an Absence Note. If there are a high number of occasions where this happens, then this should be discussed in line with the short-term absence process.
Compassionate leave – how do we record this? Does it affect prompt points?
- On the staff database when you start to record an absence you can select the type of absence, compassionate leave being one option, this does not affect prompt points