One of our employees was recently injured and had to take time off work following a road accident in works time when a vehicle hit the back of her car at a junction. No fault was attached to her.

Our contract says that only SSP will be paid, however as the lady was in desperate need of money and had put in an insurance claim, we paid her the full amount of her wages so that she would not have to wait to recover the sum.

A letter has now arrived from her Solicitors which says:

"If you paid our Client while absent from work, please confirm whether or not you wish us to attempt to recover the net monies you have paid. Please note that for us to be able to recover the monies there must be an appropriate clause within our Client’s Contract of Employment with you."

We wish to recover the sum we have paid including irrecoverable SSP, the additional Holiday Pay accrual and Employer’s National Insurance which will then place us in the position that we would have occupied had the accident not occurred.

Do we need a clause to allow us to reclaim the moneys, if so what should it say? In future should we let the employees suffer for something that is not their fault to make their lawyers happier?

Thanks for any help

Paul