Sick pay

[BYTEr]

Hi all,

More of a rant, I currently work for a bus company providing a park and ride for a large construction site and I'm basically an administrator in the office. The staff members (around 30 of us) get no sick pay apart from the statutory sick pay of £89.35 per week which is only applicable after 3 days. The drivers (number around 200) however get £180 per week starting from the first day of sickness plus SSP.

So not only do the drivers have a much better deal, I'm forced to put up with sick staff members who cough, sneeze and all sorts in the office because they can't afford to take a day off, which increases my chances of catching something forcing me to take time off unpaid, or for only £89.35 a week. A staff member recently was advised by doctors to take 3 months off work as she was having serious back surgery, instead she came back after just 2 weeks barely able to walk and in constant pain because she couldn't afford to take any more time off.

Just seems wrong, but I guess, if they offered a decent sick pay scheme people would take the **** but on the other hand, if I'm genuinely ill, what do I do? take time off unpaid which I can't afford to do or come into work and potentially infect everyone else in the office? Surely it's better I take time off but the company basically force me to come in, I get slightly angry with staff members who come into work who are constantly sneezing, coughing etc thinking how selfish they are, but then I can't really blame them.

In my previous job, because I was technically working in a food manufacturing environment I had to take days off if I was ill and it was paid, you just had numerous forms to fill in etc and I think you had to have 3 separate cases of absence in a 12 week period before they'd even start any sort of investigation.

What are people's opinions on this?

Thanks.

 

[BYTEr]

All the signs of a crap company. Sadly they are giving you what they must do by law. The only solution is to work for a better company.

Oh I agree, that's our entire contract, the bare legal minimum, whilst drivers have things like sick pay, pay increases in line with inflation, more holiday etc, I did actually comment to the HR manager how crap our contract was compared to drivers and his response was none of the staff members were in the union, therefore he did not choose to consult with us and therefore admitted to giving us nothing.

I am currently looking for another job.

 

[BYTEr]

And why should you expect the same deal as other staff members doing a more skilled job, they probably get a better deal in terms of salary as well, are you complaining about that too?

The drivers are not more 'skilled' than I, although I said I was an administrator (and therefore you perceiving this as some low skilled paper sorter), I deal with all the vetting and badging of all staff along with multiple other compliance work as part of the contract with EDF for the New Nuclear Build at Hinkley Point C, my salary is actually a few thousand higher than drivers.

The sole reason why the driver contracts are substantially better is because the drivers are 'valued' and were consulted about their contracts, where us staff aren't valued and were not consulted and therefore have been given the minimum legal amount, of course we should be valued, without the staff the company couldn't function and we'd be at risk of being shut down by the Office of Nuclear Regulations and if that happened construction at HPC would halt affecting thousands of workers, but to higher management it's only the drivers that are important, they also believe there's no chance of being shut down because they need us.

As far as I know none of the staff have signed the contract, but I still feel aggrieved that I have put up with sneezing, coughing and ill colleagues who are likely to pass it onto me.

 

[BYTEr]

Are you in a union? I'll bet the drivers are...

Yes, most are, none of the staff are and we don't want to be, I could get the staff to join and approach the union, but I can't be bothered now, I'm set on looking for a new job as this isn't the only issue.

 

[BYTEr]

It would terrify me working for a company that offers nothing for reasons like my appendix.

Exactly, what are you supposed to do if you genuinely have to be off work for a month for example, at present, I couldn't afford my mortgage etc if I didn't receive a months worth of pay.

I suppose you'd be forced to use credit cards, ask family etc, or there's always insurance for this stuff, or maybe SSP needs looking at?