BanburyDan:
Interesting thread. It does appear that firms have got rid of sick pay over the past few years for new starters - the old boys usually get to keep it (plus more holiday and whatever other benefits they had). Trouble is, it means that someone who is “a bit off” with, say, a bit of flu, will come into work to avoid going without pay (lets face it in this day and age one day without pay can be a serious issue) and so infects half of the rest of the workforce - meaning that in the long run MORE time is lost due to illness than if they had just paid the original sickie to have the day at home.
A much fairer system would be companies pay sick pay (to keep as many people as possible healthy) and then when matie has had like 15 days off in a year or something they start investigating. The current system is basically a “guilty until proven innocent” situation.
BanburyDan:
Interesting thread. It does appear that firms have got rid of sick pay over the past few years for new starters - the old boys usually get to keep it (plus more holiday and whatever other benefits they had). Trouble is, it means that someone who is “a bit off” with, say, a bit of flu, will come into work to avoid going without pay (lets face it in this day and age one day without pay can be a serious issue) and so infects half of the rest of the workforce - meaning that in the long run MORE time is lost due to illness than if they had just paid the original sickie to have the day at home.
A much fairer system would be companies pay sick pay (to keep as many people as possible healthy) and then when matie has had like 15 days off in a year or something they start investigating. The current system is basically a “guilty until proven innocent” situation.
thats 3 weeks a year, or once every 3 weeks or so
Well 15 days was just a suggestion. I think in the old days when I was paid sick (totally different industry) you got a grilling after ten days sick and sent to a doctor.
switchlogic:
Prescriptions are also free in Wales. Although I’ve only had two in my adult life. And never had a sick note. As a tramper I always just considered it an unwritten rule that you can really have days off sick if out. I’ve had to plough food poisoning & flu. Colds are easy enough. I did find flu a bit hard to carry on once so HSF allowed me to park up at midday till morning! So I suppose I’ve had half a day off sick as a tramper!
I suppose it’s easy enough though as I do a lot of fridge work up and down motorways, it’d be a different story if I was unloading pallets by hand or such like.
Good on yer. But you’ve not driven with flu mate. If you get flu, rather than a really bad cold, you wouldn’t be able to stand up. Driving a truck would just not be possible…only had flu once (as diagnosed by doc). Couldn’t stand up for two weeks without the world spinning. Bit like lots of beer but without the fun…
BanburyDan:
Interesting thread. It does appear that firms have got rid of sick pay over the past few years for new starters - the old boys usually get to keep it (plus more holiday and whatever other benefits they had). Trouble is, it means that someone who is “a bit off” with, say, a bit of flu, will come into work to avoid going without pay (lets face it in this day and age one day without pay can be a serious issue) and so infects half of the rest of the workforce - meaning that in the long run MORE time is lost due to illness than if they had just paid the original sickie to have the day at home.
A much fairer system would be companies pay sick pay (to keep as many people as possible healthy) and then when matie has had like 15 days off in a year or something they start investigating. The current system is basically a “guilty until proven innocent” situation.
thats 3 weeks a year, or once every 3 weeks or so
When i worked for Ocado one of the lads there received a written warning for taking 3 separate days off sick (months apart) in a 12 month period.
switchlogic:
Prescriptions are also free in Wales. Although I’ve only had two in my adult life. And never had a sick note. As a tramper I always just considered it an unwritten rule that you can really have days off sick if out. I’ve had to plough food poisoning & flu. Colds are easy enough. I did find flu a bit hard to carry on once so HSF allowed me to park up at midday till morning! So I suppose I’ve had half a day off sick as a tramper!
I suppose it’s easy enough though as I do a lot of fridge work up and down motorways, it’d be a different story if I was unloading pallets by hand or such like.
Good on yer. But you’ve not driven with flu mate. If you get flu, rather than a really bad cold, you wouldn’t be able to stand up. Driving a truck would just not be possible…only had flu once (as diagnosed by doc). Couldn’t stand up for two weeks without the world spinning. Bit like lots of beer but without the fun…
Well there’s men and there’s men. Can’t drive with flu, piffle. I’ve driven with two broken arms and a broken neck. ONWARD…
switchlogic:
Prescriptions are also free in Wales. Although I’ve only had two in my adult life. And never had a sick note. As a tramper I always just considered it an unwritten rule that you can really have days off sick if out. I’ve had to plough food poisoning & flu. Colds are easy enough. I did find flu a bit hard to carry on once so HSF allowed me to park up at midday till morning! So I suppose I’ve had half a day off sick as a tramper!
I suppose it’s easy enough though as I do a lot of fridge work up and down motorways, it’d be a different story if I was unloading pallets by hand or such like.
Good on yer. But you’ve not driven with flu mate. If you get flu, rather than a really bad cold, you wouldn’t be able to stand up. Driving a truck would just not be possible…only had flu once (as diagnosed by doc). Couldn’t stand up for two weeks without the world spinning. Bit like lots of beer but without the fun…
Well there’s men and there’s men. Can’t drive with flu, piffle. I’ve driven with two broken arms and a broken neck. ONWARD…
Can’t match those breakages but a good few years ago I got up a stupid o’clock on a Sunday morning to set off to Munich with a delivery that had to be there Monday afternoon. Creeping around trying to get dressed in the dark but not wake my wife up I crashed my right foot into the bed leg and broke two toes. Had no one to cover the job for me so strapped them up and went to work, worked out quite well as the pain meant no chance of falling asleep at the wheel.
There’s a handful of companies left that pay salary or have proper full sick pay agreements, short sighted idiots can’t help themselves from taking the P and these last few remaining proper agreements will be withdrawn when contracts are rewritten and can hardly blame the companies involved, some of them will go sick if they break a finger nail or get a cold, useless as men.
Much like benefit scroungers, if you pay peole not to work then a certain type will do exactly that, i’ve worked most of my life for companies whos policy was no workee no payee equals absenteeism rare.
If you introduce a rule that says “investigate after 15 days sick”, then many people will take that to mean that they are entitled to take 15 days off - even if they are not sick. This is what happened in the Civil Service.
The new reality is that individuals have to take responsibility for themselves. The welfare state is there as a last resort but we should all make sure that losing a few days pay doesn’t mean financial meltdown. There are insurance schemes, but I think it’s better to control your own money and keep a reserve in tax free savings for a ‘rainy day’.
From some of the posts above it seems that there are still some who think NI is some kind of insurance. It is not. NI is just another tax which means that most of us will hand over around 30% of our wages to the government for them to spend on our behalf… I am sure that we all support moves to reduce payouts to scroungers - well this is just part of the general attack on benefits.
I am sure that we all support moves to reduce payouts to scroungers - well this is just part of the general attack on benefits.