This week Nadia Hoosen, senior solicitor at Clarkslegal LLP and Helen Badger, an employment law expert at Browne Jacobson present their ideas on how to manage the communication of sick pay rules.
The question:
Is it enough for me to place a copy of the document or booklet that contains the information regarding Company Sick Pay in a communal area (staff room), or should each employee have their own copy of the booklet or document to refer to?
For the particulars of any terms and conditions relating to incapacity to work due to sickness or injury, including any provision for sick pay, can be found in (name of booklet or document.)
The answers:
Nadia Hoosen is a senior solicitor at Clarkslegal LLP 
From a legal perspective, if employees have easy access to any documents and it is specifically stated in the terms and conditions of employment that details are available in the “staff room”, an employer can provide copies of sickness policies in a communal area for all employees.
From a practical point of view however, it is always best practice to ensure each employee has a full copy of any such documents/booklets referred to in the terms and conditions of employment.
The delivery of such information will depend on the type of company and the resources available. In some companies this can be easily achieved by uploading a copy on the intranet allowing employees to access this information at any time, whereas in others employees do not have easy access to computers, which can make it more difficult.
If you refer to policies which form part of the overall terms and conditions, an employee should be entitled to consider these policies prior to signing the terms and conditions. If you do not provide personal copies or easy access to such information, employees could argue at a later date, that they were unaware of certain company practices and procedures and therefore should not be bound by them.
This could cause you difficulties because copies of documents/booklets could go missing from communal areas and you will be unable to prove whether an employee is aware of a particular term of your sickness policy.
In order to protect your position, if you do not wish to supply personal copies of documents/booklets, we would recommend that you ensure employees read any document or booklets referred to in the contract prior to signing the contract and you obtain proof of this fact by including a separate document to be signed, in which they confirm that they have read and agreed to the terms of any additional documents/booklets which should be read in conjunction with the terms and conditions of employment.
Nadia can be contacted at: nhoosen@clarkslegal.com
Helen Badger is an employment law expert at Browne Jacobson
There are certain particulars of employment an employer must give to employees according to the Employment Rights Act 1996. These should be set out in writing and given to the employee within 2 months of commencing employment.
The terms and conditions relating to incapacity for work due to sickness or injury are part of this requirement – including any provision for sick pay.
However, the legislation does allow the employer to refer to a separate document in which these details are contained, provided this document is easily accessible to the employee.
Therefore, it would be acceptable for you to place a copy of the booklet containing information on company sick pay in a communal area. You should ensure however that in the statement of employment particulars given to the employee, you make clear that the rules relating to sick pay can be found in a booklet kept in the staff room (or relevant communal area).
Helen can be contacted at: hbadger@brownejacobson.com target *** HRZone highly recommends that any answers are taken as a starting point for guidance only. More ‘What’s the answer?’ items
