We have an employee who has worked with us for 6 months. He resigned in early February (during a meeting with me and his manager where we were going to extend his probationary period). He asked if he could reduce his notice period as he wanted to take some time out ASAP. We said that we’d look into this (we are a client-driven organisations) and when it became clear that we would not be able to accommodate his request, he produced a sicknote signing him off with stress for two weeks.
I subsequently arranged for him to have an OH appointment which was rescheduled. I contacted him via telephone about the rescheduled appointment and confirmed the new appointment details; I subsequently followed up our discussion with an email to confirm the details. The employee failed to show for the appointment and said that he thought it had been cancelled. I’ve rescheduled the appointment for today.
The employee has taken 4 weeks of paid leave in January of this year (our holiday year is January to December so he’s used his entire entitlement) and so we have to be mindful of ensuring that we make deductions from his last salary payment (due at end of March – he is due to finish in mid-March). My boss has asked that we hold his pay for February (he’s only worked a couple of days of Feb and we’re contractually not obliged to pay him as his full rate – i.e. we can pay him statutory sick pay). Are we within our rights to withhold his February pay pending the outcome of the OH appointment?
