Work-related sick pay

We have been made aware of a historical discrepancy between the way in which sick pay entitlement for work-related sickness absence (injury at work) is calculated by the NHS payroll system, ESR and the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service handbook.

The NHS Staff Council have issued a joint statement which includes an overview of the changes that were made to ESR from 1 July 2023.  The key points for you to be aware of are:

• ESR will deduct any relevant periods of sickness from the previous 12 months when calculating any new episodes of sick pay entitlement for work-related sickness absence, in line with paragraph 14.7 of the NHS TCS handbook.
• The changes will apply to instances of work-related sickness absence that begin on or after 1 July 2023.
• Where an employee is part-way through a period of work-related sickness absence on 1 July 2023, no changes will be made to their existing sick pay entitlement for that period of absence.

If you have any questions, please contact your local HR Business Partner / representative.

 Published 6th July 2023