Working elsewhere while claiming sick pay

Working elsewhere while claiming sick pay

A Court of Appeal case recently published has highlighted a problem which is more common than one would think, that being employees who are signed off sick but doing other work while getting sick pay.

Helpfully the decision can be summarised very briefly. The Appeal Court has ruled that employees partaking in such work while off sick will usually be gross misconduct. However, the Court reminded us that we cannot say this is automatically so, as to do this would be failing to consider any mitigating circumstances. However, subject to such considerations, it seems fairly safe to say that this is gross misconduct.

Once an employer has decided it occurred, they can conclude there is a case to say that this is gross misconduct and invite the employee to a disciplinary hearing. But before dismissing, they must think about any mitigating circumstances, remorse, length of service etc.

Provided the employer does this it should be on safe ground.

The full case, which considers additional matters too (for the insomniacs amongst you) can be read at the following link:

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2014/1626.html

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