What should an employee be paid during a phased return to work from sickness absence?

Where an employee works reduced hours as part of a phased return to work after long-term sickness absence, they will not usually have a contractual right to be paid for their normal hours.

The pay they will be entitled to during the phased return will depend on the terms of any contractual sick pay scheme or relevant policies. The employee may be entitled to contractual sick pay to cover the hours that they do not work during the phased return. Where there is no contractual entitlement, it is still open to the employer to agree with the employee that the phased return will be on full pay.

Where there is no agreement for full pay to continue, the employer will be able to reduce the employee's pay proportionately, to reflect the reduction in their working hours. The issue will be whether the employee is prepared to agree to the change to their hours of work and rate of pay, on a temporary basis. If they do, the employer should make a record of what has been agreed and ask the employee to confirm their agreement in writing, before they return to work.

Separately to any contractual entitlement, if they meet the eligibility requirements, the employee could be entitled to statutory sick pay (SSP). This will depend on their working pattern during the phased return, as SSP is not payable if the employee works any hours during a particular day. For example, an employee will be entitled to SSP if they reduce their days from five to two days a week, but not if they reduce their hours to only work mornings five days a week.