Letter following receipt of medical certificate during suspension

It’s not uncommon for employees who are suspended from work pending a disciplinary hearing to get themselves medically certified as sick with anxiety, stress or depression. As the employee can’t now come to work because they’re apparently too sick, they don’t need to be suspended any more. So, use our letter following receipt of medical certificate during suspension to turn the paid suspension into sick leave.

Suspended or sick?

Picture this scenario. You suspend an employee on full pay because you’re investigating allegations of gross misconduct. The next thing you know, you receive a statement of fitness for work (fit note) medically certifying the employee as sick for a month with stress and depression. Sound familiar? If it does, that’s because this happens more often than you think. Sometimes this is a ruse by the employee to try and delay for as long as possible what may be an inevitable dismissal. Did you know that, if this happens, you don’t need to continue paying the employee at full pay rates for the suspension, provided always that you first notify the employee you are now proposing to treat their absence from work as sick leave and you explicitly lift the suspension? The purpose of the suspension was to remove the employee from the workplace, but if the employee cannot come to work anyway because they’re ill, then arguably they don’t need to be suspended anymore. Use our Letter Following Receipt of Medical Certificate During Suspension to notify your employee that you are now going to treat their absence from work as sickness absence, in which case only sick pay will be due, which in most cases can be SSP unless you have established a contractual sick pay scheme. This will not only help you financially but also it may even result in the employee making a quicker than expected recovery so that they are fit to attend a disciplinary hearing.