Paid Sick Leave

Business Report: Paid Sick Leave

Word Count Approx. 1400

Introduction

Paid sick leave is an entitlement for employees within any organisation, it is meant to be used for when an employee is sick or has family obligations, such as caring for sick loved ones. As in the article ‘Anger at plan to cut medic’s sick leave’ unlike annual leave sick leave cannot be accumulated and employees cannot obtain compensation for sick leave not taken (2004). Paid sick leave is necessary for employees as the entitlement gives them the option for when they cannot attend work due to an illness, sick leave also helps the organisation, as employees with sick leave are able to work reliably and efficiently, and by allowing a sick employee off for a single day can prevent the whole organisation from catching the sickness and reducing productivity. However sick leave schemes are open to abuse, it requires strong administration and planning from the organisation’s human resources department as well as the employer. Researching and planning a sick leave policy plan in which benefits both the employee and employer would help reduce the problem of sick leave abuse while keeping the entitlement available. This paper will discuss what sick leave is, why and how it is abused, why it is a problem for organisations and what type of plans can be used to minimise the abuse of sick leave within an organisation.

Discussion

Sick leave is when an employee or employer takes a leave of absence due to an illness or family obligations such as a relative being in need of care. Paid sick leave is apart of an employee’s worker’s compensation package to provide job stability and flexibility to attend to personal health issues and family responsibilities. This is of c...

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