Saturday, February 13, 2010

The power of sick pay

I was a startled to learn from Economix that The United States stands out as one of the few rich nations in the world that doesn’t mandate any form of paid sick leave.

But then a right to sick pay from your employer may not be quite the all round good thing that we rather assume it to be.

I used to employ someone two mornings a week to clean the house & keep a general eye on the place while I worked away from home.

One week she was too poorly to come in. When I next saw her she did not want to accept all of the two weeks money proffered – she had not done the work so she hadn’t earned the money. I argued, not unreasonably, that since I got paid when I was ill it was only fair that I did the same for her. She accepted but was not completely happy about it.

And when I thought about it I realised why. The relationship had developed into one of real trust & friendship. She gradually took on more intimate kinds of help (such as washing my clothes), organising any routine repairs & servicing & even, if I knew what time I would be home, putting something to cook in the automatic oven to welcome me through the door. These were definitely not part of any written contract, & it could be a slightly delicate matter if ever I felt she had presumed too much.

Paying her when she was sick for a couple of days was one thing; but what if she were ill for longer, when I would definitely need to ask someone else to step in? Or what if she just didn’t feel like working one day, & did not feel like telling me why – by paying for the hours I had presumed too much, too much of a right to know the details of her life.

And so it has proved in statutory sick pay. General practitioners rightly point out that they cannot be expected to judge whether a patient is unfit for work in every case.

There was no reason, other than the socially responsible one of not spreading germs around, why I could not carry on doing my job with a mild to moderate sore throat; a radio presenter obviously could not. Even if unable to travel to the office I could do a fair amount of work – writing, thinking – at home, and in these days of ISDN a radio presenter could do that too. So your line manager has to decide whether they can cope with your absence from the desk.

And some of the tactics adopted to check up on claims for sick leave - often, allegedly on the grounds of concern for staff welfare & well being – are most definitely intrusive.

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