A member of staff recently fell ill. She visited her GP who issued a sick certificate Med 3 for one week using a black pen. By the time it reached us it was for “2 week” and partly in blue ink. This strongly suggests an alteration by the staff member (who has yet to be interviewed. A week after the certificate was issued another was provided by the doctor for three days. The doctor confirms in writing that the first was indeed only for one week.

The employee has not obtained an advantage since only the one week and three days were taken as sick. We are looking to instigate some form of disciplinary here and wonder if the alteration of the certificate itself is an offence of some sort, even though on this occasion there was no profit in it for the employee.

Any views or opinions would be welcomed.

Trevor Durritt