1 in 10 employees admits to ‘pulling a sickie’ or faking an illness to avoid work. These sickies can be a nuisance at the workplace and are tricky to manage due to the contention involved in accusing someone of lying. Employers are also potentially on thin ice taking on the task of proving the employee was or is not ill. But now there is good news for managers struggling with this issue: from a legal standpoint pulling sickies is legitimate grounds for dismissal. Of course, certain criteria must be met to justify the dismissal but the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has found that an employee who pulls a sickie can be dismissed for gross misconduct. Continue reading
Tag Archives: pulling sickies
How to: Pull a sickie
Every company has employees that pull sickies. It’s a given. However, it’s the excuses that have really caught our attention. Continue reading
Occupational Health is not a dispute mediation service
XpertHR published an absence related employment tribunal case study (Beastall v Ministry of Defence ET/2404242/14) to do with an employee who fraudulently used sick leave to perform as a medium. He had been signed off on two separate occasions and it was found that during both episodes he had appeared publicly as an advertised medium. When he didn’t return to work as planned after his fit note ran out, he was suspended under investigation and later dismissed for gross misconduct. Continue reading
Employers should do more for employee health
A survey of over 2000 UK full and part-time workers, commissioned by One4all workplace benefits company, found that employers should be doing more to help employees stay healthier – and that such efforts would be welcomed by the majority of employees. Continue reading
Rome’s police pull mass sickies into the New Year
Over 750 of the 1,000 police officers scheduled to work New Years Eve in Rome reported an absence, leaving the city full of party-goers without any police supervision. Continue reading
Unloved employees pull the most sickies
According to research by Investors In People, 54% of full time employees feel that their employers simply don’t care about their health or wellbeing. They feel that their employer’s only priority is whether their work is done or not, not their health as a result. Other research outlines that over a quarter of workers still receive no workplace benefits at all. The consequence? Lots of sickies.
How to tackle duvet days
At this time of year when it is cold and wet outside staying home becomes more and more attractive and employees are more likely to rack up the duvet days. Dealing with short term absences in the winter months Continue reading