Sloppy use of sick notes costing small firms, says FPB

The FPB, which represents 25,000 small and medium-sized businesses in the UK, has called for reform of the way cover notes are given to workers to sign them off work, saying the information contained in the notes is insufficient to allow employers to work out whether a worker is justifiably absent.

What our members are telling us, said FPB Campaigns Manager Victoria Carson on the day of a Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) consultation event on Statutory Sick Pay in London, is that the sick notes they get are of limited use in calculating sick pay, because they canít tell whether or not a worker was genuinely able to perform his or her job. For example, they get many notes citing ëback painí ñ a vaguely-worded complaint which does not tell an employer whether, for example, a clerical worker is unable to sit at a desk.

Miss Carson went on: There are also some health complaints that donít stop a worker from being able to do his or her job. Someone with a twisted ankle is perfectly capable of sitting at a desk, or, if a manual worker is unable to do physical work, he or she may still be able to swap with a workmate for a day and do clerical work. Unfortunately people seem to be getting signed off work for the vaguest of reasons, and hard-working business owners have to pay them Statutory Sick Pay when they donít really know if they should actually be off work.

For smaller businesses it can be a real headache, as one worker can constitute a large percentage of the workforce, and having to pay him or her when he or she is not producing anything is a real cost burden. Miss Carson stressed that FPB was not asking sick or injured workers to work when they were not capable, but asking for some balance and common sense.

Owner-managers always have to get on with it, knowing that the business does not earn profit if they do not work. So if they have a problem, they have to work out exactly what the problem stops them from doing, and what they can still do. It would be useful if employees, and the doctors who sign their cover notes, would take the same responsibility, she concluded.