Problem with my sick pay

Last year I was knocked off my bike on a mini roundabout and was off work for 12 weeks afterwards. I was examined by the insurance company’s medical expert and he says no more than 4 weeks off work was required – which I fundamentally disagree with as I was physically unable to do my job! My employer wants me to repay them 12 weeks of sick pay for the time I had off (that they paid me for), but if I can only claim 4 weeks’ pay then I am going to be out of pocket. What can I do?

Ben, by e-mail

Answer

It seems that your employment contract contains a clause for a subrogated claim. This allows your employer to recover sick pay paid to you from the compensation you receive from a third party. Your solicitor (assuming you have one, and if you don’t – I suggest you do) should send you to your own medical expert rather than rely only on the other side’s expert. The doctor you see should be specifically instructed to comment on the reasonableness of the time off.

If you explain the position to your employer I often find that they will accept what you actually recover for loss of earnings rather than the full amount of sick pay paid. This position frequently arises in cases where liability is split with each party accepting a share of the blame. An example is where there is 50/50 blame then employers will often accept 50% rather than the whole amount paid to a Claimant.